Gulf Wrecks - Fish Stacked up but bite slow

We rolled the dice yesterday and tried a Gulf Wreck trip in search of Cobia.  Other than this respectable Sheephead and a few respectable Mangroves (about 3 pounds) we were overload with Blue runners to the point of not having much of a chance at anything else.

Normally, live baiting a few Blue Runners on the wrecks will stimulate something big, a Shark, King Mackerel, Goliath, Barracuda, something, to at least take a look.  Nope.  Pinfish helped avoid the Blue Runner onslaught and produced the Mangroves.  If a shrimp made it to the wreck which was stacked up with fish on the bottom finder you have a chance at a Sheephead.  When hit a few wrecks but Porpoise aka bottle nose dolphin were about every where making fishing a bit tough.

So I rolled the dice with a chance of being a hero, nice Cobia, or a goat, nada, and got nada to write home about with dirty water covering most of the Bay.

There was a streak of clean water close that seemed to be the only productive Spanish Area for guys looking for mackerel.  My crew had done plenty of that so Kings and Cobia were the target species for a little better drag challenges.  Today is another day so we will se how that works out.


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

More fishing 101

Nice couple today.  Same basic stuff same reliable fish.  They ended up with a respectable box of Porgies, Hogfish, Mangrove and Mutton Snapper.  No takers on the drift fishing with blue runners and the balleyhoo didn't play, but both learned how to throw a cast net anyway.

My standard line is that when the bait are thick in the chum slice fishing is going to get kicked up a notch.  They didn't show so it was slow, but productive anyway.


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

Our First Real Cold Front

(305) 304-8656 until things change

I was supposed to be fishing today but my crew didn't call me and I didn't call them.  My excuse is that it was cold outside, less than 60 F this morning.  We have had  a few cool fronts so far but I think this is the first cold front.

Possibly because of the lack of a real cold front fishing has been pretty boring.  I haven't seen many sailfish in the water or free jumping which is most likely due to not as much bait pushing over the reef as usual.  If you want fish you want to find the bait.

The day before yesterday I fished out of Islamarada and it was slower than normal.  We hit some blackfin tuna though they were small and a few Little Tunny, but not much sign of action offshore in that area at least in the morning.  Patch fishing was closer to normal with the porgies and hogfish that will bite for you on any slow bite day.  Balleyhoo did show up while we were patch fishing but not very thickly.

It takes a good bait push to make things real lively this time of year so perhaps this front is just the ticket.

I was on a fun trip on the Lady Catherine and was waiting for some photos from the customers prior to posting.  No clue when those will arrive so as a spoiler the highlight fish were nice Hogfish with a few little tunny and mackerel of the troll.  Probably due to the water temperatures the fish are still on top of the reef near the break from 72 F ocean and 67 F inshore water temperatures.  I have seen a good n umber of the normal offshore charter boats changing to inshore stuff earlier probably because the bite has been so inconsistent.

On the phone side of things I am still trying to get my old number back.  If I do I do, if not not, but I haven't given up yet.  The guy that has the number isn't completely against the idea it is just AT&T doesn't make it easy.  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