Feast or Famine

I am always amazed just how imbalanced fishing bookings can be.  After a June that ranks up there with productively "normal", things have gotten back to the slower than "normal" side of things.  Part of that is because I have set aside a couple of weeks for fill in captaining. For whatever reason I thought the real charter boats would have been booked more solidly.  Then they did book but for the week after producing a bit of a conflict in scheduling.  So I have a guide customer that I will have to fit in around the charter boat schedule.  Everyone seems to like the the same back half of the weekend and not the front half.  I figured with the 4th being on a Friday that it would be the other way around.  So now I have days open that I could have booked and am overloaded after the holiday.  Typical weirdness.

After the Mutton struggle I ran into one of the crews that have been slaying the Mutton only they have been running pretty far to the West or pretty far to the East.  So I am not the only one that the ripping current off of the Seven Mile Bridge impacted.

More weirdness is the sudden surge of slammer dolphin.  We had a drought early in the month and now they have turned on, likely due to the same ripping current that has the reef bite on the iffy side.  One thing you learn quick in the Keys is that the currents are just about impossible to predict.  While I would have loved to put my guys on more Mutton last week, running 50 miles round trip per day to do it wasn't a serious option.   Now that the current appears to be returning to "normal", all the spots I hit should be fired up like they should have been.

On the equipment side of things I finally broke down and got a new GPS that I can actually read instead of brailing my way through.  That wasn't all that painful since I got a killer deal on an Ebay Auction for a change.  I also broke down and bought a vehicle and during the insurance and registration process was reminded why I didn't have a vehicle.  The tag agency has grown even more anal and it took three trips to make them happy and a couple of hour wait for the state computers to start working and then for those computers to realize that I didn't have a tag because they had previously said I wasn't trustworthy enough to hold my tag and not drive a vehicle that I didn't own.  I do believe though that the computer has finally given up on trying to get me to register a boat that I owned 30 years ago and gave away.  That is a good thing since the insurance, tag and registration cost about twice as much as I paid for the vehicle.

Yes, that is right sports fans, my new to me vehicle is a 1999 Taurus Wagon that cost a whopping $375 including delivery.  It drives, has a working A/C, lots of tread on the tires, no serious dings in the sheet metal and a kayak friendly luggage rack.  . It does have just enough project potential, in case I get bored, to make it interesting.  If it completely dies tomorrow I can almost get the purchase price back from any salvage yard.  The warm and friendly government required fees are of course a complete waste.  I think it will cover about three hours of bureaucratic butt sitting while the hive computers are down.

I also noted that the County Tag agency has gotten their 1 1/4 thick bullet proof glass yet.  Perhaps that is why registration fees are ridiculously high.

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