Porgies

This is a late post for a trip last Thursday.  Things have been a bit hectic with doctors appointments, weather and visiting friends in the hospital.  Thursday was a fishing 101 with a new customer that involved some basic tour stuff.  Fishing wasn't great since the wind and tide were opposite but we did manage a decent Mutton and a good mess of Porgies, which most of you know I enjoy eating.

The Porgies were on the Hawk Channel Rock piles which is about as easy a fishing trip as you can get.  Next to Yellowtail Snapper fishing, the rock piles and patches are about the most popular quick fishing trip for the locals that want something other than winter Spanish Mackerel.  Since some of the rock piles are less than two miles south of the islands, with a North or Northeast wind you can slip out and catch quality fish without getting beat up by big seas.  Strong winds out of the East can change that pretty quick, but with the short run you can change plans without having too many exciting boating tales.

Unfortunately, the powers at be closed grouper season down here and the rockpiles and patches can be loaded up with legal and close to legal grouper after cold fronts.  Between the Grouper, Porgies, various Snapper, occasional Hogfish and larger number of other species that can show up, the bite can impress most folks who are not used to fast and furious catching.  Many charters have a rockpile number or two for trip savers when other things don't work out as planned.

Porgies, Hogfish and Grouper are the most common trip saver species in my opinion.  These fish are more territorial than most so they will bite on just about any current and wind condition.  Since they are territorial, you can also forget the chum and have less than perfect bait and still catch fish.  For the northern guys that are used to chum pots that you set near the bottom, that technique can work exceptionally well though I would save that until grouper season reopens.

So far I haven't done as much Florida Bay fishing this year as normal.   Due to timing and weather most of my trips have been to the Seven Mile Bridge which has been very productive, but I do like mixing things up.  Offshore and near offshore has been closed to me so far with the smaller boats but there has been some fantastic fishing for Sailfish, Dolphin, Tuna and Cobia for those that have made it out.  Near offshore success is highly dependent on live bait, normally Pilchards and/or Balleyhoo.  Pilchards keep well at most docks so if you are serious about sailfish you should plan on spending some time bait fishing which is a lot more productive with a good size cast net which I can show you how to cast pretty easily.  If your accommodations don't have a bait keep, a large garbage can drilled with plenty of holes for water flow can hold a good number of Pilchards depending on the water quality at your rental unit.  The soft net type bait keeps also work but the sharks have been known to chew holes in what can be a bit pricy investment.  Now that things have calmed down for me I will look into setting up a few bait keeps, hopefully before the Pilchards disappear. 

 Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

Tight lines,

Capt. Dallas

Seven Mile Marina - Fleet Status

The show must go on as they say.  Captain Bobby Brown Jr. and the Sundance are currently picking up charters at Burdine's Fuel Dock on 15th Street until some other arrangements can be made.  Captain Jeff Knapp and the Beckoning will be moving to Burdine's on the first of the month and has been doing very well at the bridge on the Mangroves as well as his main target Tarpon.  The young guns, Silent Hunter with B. J. Meyers, Bucko Platt and Nathan Perry among others are still in tournament mode as best I can tell and should be picking up at various locations until more permanent arrangements are made.  I haven't heard anything definite on the other boats .

Update: Bucko just said he will be fishing out of Captain Hook's for a while.

There is a benefit scheduled for January 30th for the employees and captains that lost their boats at Kirk of the Keys  posted on the Marina Facebook page.  Help if you can because this is a tough time of the year to be jobless.

Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

Tight lines,

Capt. Dallas

Back at it.

Due to family and friend issues I had to take a trip off the rock.  It was good seeing the Fam even though the reason sucked.  That is done for now so I am back at it Fishing in the Florida Keys. 

Today was a fishing 101 with new customer from Jersey.  Due to the early winds the morning was not very exciting but the afternoon bite on the Hawks Channel rock piles saved the day.  Six or eight nice fat Porgies made it into the fish box to join a legal Mutton Snapper and a Yellow Jack.

A large portion of the day was dedicated to cast net instruction and a tour of Sister's Creek, so while the catch may not sound that impressive, the actual action while fishing was pretty fast as usual.  Released were about the same number of grouper, which are closed thanks to the warm and fuzzies that map reading challenged.  As most of you know the Florida Keys grouper fishery is in fine shape since we don't have a lot of strictly commercial grouper fishermen in the area.  Gear regulations are all that should be required for the "Sports and Recreational" fishing industry that typically gets screwed by the commercial fishing industry and the South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission.  If you get a chance, show your local politician just how much you care. 

As a side note, I am sad to report that Burdines no longer has breakfast biscuits but Kelly is still making coffee and that Salties Grille and the Seven Mile Marina are no more.  The Marina Chiki Tiki caught fire due to an electrical short and burned to the ground.  Two charter boats were lost and the fleet, probably  the best in Marathon, has had to move to new homes. 

On a brighter note, the VA medical folks think that they can do a roto-rooter like laser procedure on my leg plus some other body work.  Until then I now have happy pill permission after only 4 months of testing to verify that I might be in a touch of pain.

Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

Tight lines,

Capt. Dallas 

The Brian and Mike Bridge Fishing Show

Last year I managed to get Brian and Mike to try the Yellowjack and they were easily converted.  Today we made a leisurely bridge tide trip and even with the uncertainty that tends to follow POLAR VORTEX temperature anomalies, managed to do pretty well.

 Also on the menu were respectable Seven Mile Bridge Mangrove Snapper.  They only bit for about a hour on the first of the incoming tide likely due to the colder bay water temperature.  The shark that had been pestering the hell out of me took the day off so we got most of the fish that Brian and Mike didn't Palm Beach release for a variety of reasons.  All of the keeper fish were caught on live shrimp for some reason not liking the strip baits today.  I am sure we would have done better with live Pilchards or the candy size pinfish, but the live shrimp worked out fine with the schedule.

I have one more trip scheduled with Mike on Sunday then it looks like I am going to have to head north for a few days.


Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

Tight lines,

Capt. Dallas

Mangroves, Yellowjacks and Sharks

With the crew I have had for the past few days the Seven Mile Bridge was the main venue.  While fishable, the ocean side and Hawk Channel rock piles where just too sporty for everyone to enjoy and the Bay Side Spanish Mackerel bite didn't blow that much wind up their skirts.

At the bridge the biggest problem or main attraction depending on your point of view, was the large number of sharks that helped themselves to our more impressive dinner fish.  So there wasn't much to do other than rig up for shark to at least keep them busy long enough to get a few fish in the box.  Luckily, the sharks made for excellent entertainment and we did actually chase one so that one of our crew could brag about catching his first bull Shark, in the 200 to 300 pound range.  The sharks were not shy about coming close to the boat for photo ops if that is on your bucket list. 

With all of the lobster and stone crab traps at the bridge, getting a shark to the leader can be pretty challenging.  We went up to 40 pound tackle to reduce break offs which is a bit of over kill for the smaller guys but about right for the 200 pound and over  sharks that were pretty plentiful.

Sharking is not everyone cup of tea so those guys might want to think about heavier than normal gear if they want to get whole fish for the box.  Twenty pound spinning gear got most of the Mangroves to the boat but only about half of the yellowjacks which are not to shabby in the fighting department. Other box fishing included a good number of Porgies, legal Yellowtail Snapper, Cero Mackerel and a few legal Hogfish. 

Current is a limiting factor at the bridge with the last couple hours of out going and the first couple hours of the in coming being the most productive the past few days.  The fish are there all the time, but water clarity and the ever present bay grass/Gumbo increases the effort required as well as having to vary your weight and techniques with the current which can be ripping through at about 3 knots on parts of the tide.

Bookings are starting to pick up for me and most everyone else so it looks to be a good start to the season.  The weather also seems to be more predictable with two or three really good days, one or two so so days and a serious drinking or tourista day per week.  So try to plan your trip around the weather and you should have a great time with hot Spanish fishing on the marginal days and reef or offshore on the better days.

Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

Tight lines,

Capt. Dallas