For the guys north of latitude 30: Warmer that where you are. Sunnier than where you are. Better fishing conditions that where you are :)
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
While I do have some fishing reports, I have something better! Biscuits!!
I have been playing with making the ultimate biscuits ever made. The biscuits to end all biscuits. Biscuits so light, fluffy and buttery they float off the plate unless you weight them down with homemade sausage gravy! It think I did it!
I didn't fish today so I spent time on my second best skill. Sex. As you age you begin to wonder how long you can perform. I found out today that nearly endless stamina is available if you eat your veggies.
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
Now that Daylight Saving Time (DST) has taken effect the clock in my truck will be correct again. The clock on my computer is correct. The clock on the newer GPS units will be correct. But my biological clock will be running slow for a while.
For you guys with normal jobs that is no big deal. Fishing center consoles with no head this may be problematic. The troops are on a very tight schedule and are not subject to move on command.
Fishing wise, I have never caught a fish wearing a watch. So should the delayed troop movement be eminent, do not be surprised if you hear a very rational explanation of why timing the tidal currents is extremely critical for the next few days. I may even resort to graphs and charts for a truly detailed class on Keys tidal currents until a visit to the Tajma Potty is finally required.
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
Working on the water in the Florida Keys has many moments. Many of those moments involve rental boat operators. One of the funniest happened recently. A rental boat operator calls in for help on the VHF radio. He complained that his boat was full of water and that alarms were sounding. While the rental boat company tried to calm the operator and talk him through the situation, there was no calming the rental boat operator.
The rental boat company sends a chase boat to help the operator. As the chase boat arrives, the captain sees the bright orange PFD clad boaters frantically bailing water. They had been bailing for nearly an hour and were making no headway. As the chase boat nears the stranded boat, the frantic boaters were screaming to get off their sinking vessel to board the chase boat. The frantic boaters were screaming, the engine alarm on the boat was blaring and the chase boat operator yelling at the top of his lungs for everyone to shut up and stay put where they were. The chase boat driver then tells the renters to stop trying to bailout the live well and put the kill switch in to stop the damned alarm.
Now if you are a boater right now you will be chuckling. If you aren’t chuckling here is a little explanation. The kill switch is a safety switch that will kill the boat motor should the boater fall out of the boat. It works well if the boat operator remembers to clip the kill switch lanyard to his life vest. If the kill switch is not plugged in the boat won’t start and loud alarms sound when the key is turned on, hopefully reminding the boaters that the kill switch is not plugged in. Still not chuckling?
The particular boat that was rented has a below deck live well. Most of the live well is below the water line, so if the boat is in the water, water freely flows into the live well. The boaters looked in the live well, saw water and thought the boat was sinking. If you didn’t start chuckling during the second paragraph, I highly recommend you hire a guide before venturing out on your own in any boat.
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
Yesterday was a slow day fishing. We had a west wind which is generally not a good wind. We caught a few dolphin, but the bottom bite was not happening. The crew was a bunch of guys from England that where a riot. As they goofed on each other and me I started thinking of other slow trips I have had.
Off of Jacksonville, Florida I had one of the slowest trips ever. We had been trolling for 5 hours without a single bite. I looked at a new guy on the boat and told him check one of the baits. When he got the lure in I said, “No wonder we aren’t catching anything, the bait’s on backwards!” I then take the perfectly rigged lure and rig it backwards. As the new guy put the lure out we hook a good size dolphin.
A few months later I hear that the new guy got into a big argument with another crew during a big fishing tournament. He was telling them they didn’t know how to rig baits. I busted a gut laughing.
Slow bites and kids are a bad thing. They get discouraged pretty quick if they aren’t catching fish. On one trip I had two boys about nine years old. They started getting on my nerves so I told them the best way to get the fish to bite is to take a nap. They didn’t believe me of course, but I got them to go into the cabin. They popped back out about two minutes later saying that I was goofing them. I convinced them that they had to actually doze off for the trick to work.
A couple of hours later we got into a school of fish and I woke them up. They had a ball fighting the fish and as soon as the bite quit, they ran back into the cabin to get another bite going. Those two are a joy to fish with.
Some customers get on my nerves too. They get excited just like kids and get in my way while I am loading the boat. When they do that I tell them they need to get the emergency bait. The emergency bait is Dion’s fried chicken from the store across the street from the marina. The chicken has to be hot and fresh for it to work. Since Dion’s never has chicken out until eight o’clock, the customers are out of my way.
When it gets to around noon, I tell them it is time for the emergency bait. I take a bite of a piece of chicken and drop a small piece in the water. Then I take another piece and put it on a hook. Mangrove snapper love chicken so I almost always catch a snapper. That gets the crew fishing with chicken while I enjoy a nice lunch.
Yesterday with the bite dead slow, I switched to trolling on a color change from bottom fishing. The crew started getting a little rowdy so I told them the only way to get a bite going was to get the guide a beer. About half way into the beer, we hook up a dolphin.
Things like this inspired me to write a couple of articles, The Zen of Fishing and How to Catch More Fish: The Banana Myth and its Impact. Fishing is fishing. The main thing is to have fun and catch a few fish. So if you have a slow day, think about some of these tricks.
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
I have been doing the fishing 101 thing for nearly eight years now out of Marathon. In that time I have gotten pretty good at making do with whatever is at hand to catch fish. While I have a pretty good checklist, sometimes the crews bring so much stuff that I don't get everything. Today, about 12 miles off the beach I noticed that we didn't have a gaff.
About ten minutes later we hook up a thirty pound dolphin. While my angler Troy fights the fish I am trying to figure out just how the heck am I going to get the fish in the boat. I make a tail rope for the fish just in case I can get the fish to play nice.
The fish of course doesn't want to play nice. So I start thinking I am going to have to lip the fish. Normally, I have a pair of pretty heavy gloves in my bag, but since the boat was so overloaded with gear, I left my tackle bag at the dock.
Grabbing a hand towel, I lip my first thirty pound dolphin. This is not a technique I recommend. While it worked, it was not exactly fun. Anyhow, here is a photo of my first bass handled dolphin.
Back at the dock, a buddy uses his Bocagrip to weight the fish. Twenty-nine pounds at the dock. I mention that the Bocagrip could have come in handy. My angler Troy, says, "Oh! I have one of those on the boat."
Oh well, Troy has now ordered a mount for his personal best dolphin which was fifty-seven inches long. Troy seems to have enjoyed fishing the Florida Keys even without a gaff.
Tight lines,
Capt. Dallas
South Florida’s stock of iguanas has grown rapidly over the last decade. These tropical lizards were introduced to South Florida as pets. The iguanas escaped or released from captivity have managed to propagate with amazing effectiveness. There are several varieties a feral iguana, but the green iguana is most common and the tastiest.
Some areas of Florida have sufficient stocks of iguanas to allow avid sportsmen the opportunity to bag a new species. The iguanas called “pollo del arbor” by local Hispanic groups, or chicken of the tree in English, do have a remarkable similarity in flavor to poultry.
With the newness of iguana recreational harvesting, the Florida Wildlife Commission has yet to set bag limits and methods of legally taking the reptilian delicacy. While hunting methods have been approved by a few municipalities fishing methods of harvest are recommended for highly populated areas.
Iguanas are by and large vegetarian in nature and have exceptional color vision. The most effective color patterns for iguanas are bright red to hot pink. Hibiscus flowers are popular as natural bait. Tomato wedges and red bell pepper slices are also popular.
Fly fishermen are having good success with Mylar rose petal patterns with red buckskin streamers also being productive. When fly-fishing for iguana in dense brush a tippet over 15 pounds is recommended. Dry flies are most effect.
Iguana trapping is employed legally in many areas of South Florida. Live traps are recommend and have to be checked once in a 24 hour period. Snares and metal leg traps are legal but not recommended to avoid catching neighborhood cats and raccoons. Traps should only be set during daylight hours when the iguanas feed.
Concerns by various animal rights groups have led to strict standards for dispatching your catch in some counties. Freezing as a method of euthanasia is generally accepted as humane. In the field, a large cooler of heavily brined ice is sufficient. Be sure to have a solid locking mechanism for the cooler lid.
Iguana meat is considered a delicacy with meat prices as high $15.00 per pound. With iguanas being feral game in South Florida, sale of iguana meat is lawful. Once you have had a taste of fresh fried iguana it is doubtful that you will wish to sell any surplus meat. Iguana freeze well and keeps for up to six months.
Iguana sport fishing is great fun way to reduce iguana over-population in urban or rural areas. If you would like more information on iguanas please visit the University of Florida’s website http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in528. Photo by Thomas Wright, University of Florida.
Bananas are considered bad luck on a fishing boat by many captains. There is a basis for this belief. It may be a myth, but it can influence your catch.
The bad luck theory of bananas is derived from the misfortune of stevedores unloading banana boats from Central America. The cargo most often contained biting spiders that not only were painful, but occasionally deadly. Stevedores considered it bad luck to be assigned to unloading a banana boat. This is the truth behind the myth.
The effect that this superstition has on anglers is real. As you know from reading the first installment in this fishing clinic, Karma is very important. The thought of bad luck causes an imbalance in the captain and/or crew’s Ying and Yang. The imbalance results in a poor catch. Bananas are bad luck only for those who believe they are bad luck. However, one superstitious crewmember can affect the entire boat’s Karma.
Many boats product fine catches with bananas onboard. Typically these boats are yellow and have names like Chiquita. By over playing the banana myth, Karma on these boats is maintained even with superstitious crewmembers onboard.
The belief that the smell or oil in bananas causes the bad luck is totally false. This theory has been proven incorrect. Captains have used banana skins for lures and caught fish on them.
The impact that the banana myth has had on fishermen highlights the important lesson in The Zen Of Fishing. Maintaining proper balance while fishing requires an uncluttered mind. Superstition clutters the mind, creating imbalance. Clear your mental slate before fishing.
Counter to the bad luck superstition, good luck thoughts can also create imbalance. A favorite lure can often become a good luck charm. Losing that lure creates bad luck. An angler knowing the Zen of fishing will avoid good or bad luck superstitions.
Too many thoughts make being one with the fish more difficult. Remember the primitive brain is the key to harmony. Simplify your thoughts to simplify oneness.
In this respect fishing is much like golf. If you look off the tee towards the out of bounds markers, the chance of hitting the ball out of bounds increases. A good golfer knows to focus on the target, address the ball, clear your mind and hit the ball. Never over think while you are fishing or playing golf.
If you are having difficulty obtaining oneness due to a cluttered mind, remember that a cold beer can provide temporary balance. Do not over use beer! The goal is becoming in touch your inner fish without artificial means.
Now that we have examined the impact of superstition on Zen of fishing, we will turn our attention to the art of fishing. The simple elegance of merging art and Zen is one of the finest lessons any fisherman can experience.
Part one
While there may be an art and even science to fishing Karma is the most important element.
Great fishermen get shutout at times and rookies sometimes catch the biggest fish. All the science and art of fishing cannot over come luck. Get your luck back by adjusting your personal Zen.
Fish are not the sharpest tacks in the box. They have little more than a brain stem that takes them through life. Breading, feeding and survival for fish is all based on primitive instincts. While some fish may learn basic things, that behavior is due to primitive conditioned behavior. Just like Pavlov’s dog. To increase your odds, use your primitive brain. Be one with the fish. Use art and science to prepare for fishing, but use Zen when fishing.
Ying and Yang: Proper balance is important. If Ying out weighs Yang the fish sense the imbalance. Most fishermen have noticed that fish tend to bite after they opened a fresh beer. At the moment you open the beer, your focus has changed placing balance in your thoughts. The thought of that ice cold refreshing elixir wipes your mental slant clean of impurity. This oneness with your inner self is triggers universal harmony. You are one with your inner fish.
The same is true with other basic instincts. Open a sandwich, doze off or even take a leak, fish will feel the oneness with basic nature. Think of the purity of thought at these times and train yourself to become one. While drinking plenty of beer and frequent urination go hand in hand to produce a fine catch. Strive for the satisfaction of catching without the use of alcoholic trickery.
This is not to say that you should not have beer. Just limit your consumption to improve your ability maintain balance. Depending on your drinking prowess, less than a twelve pack per person is recommended for a day’s fishing. Over that and you may lose your oneness, that critical balance.
Remember these key points:
Purely their primitive brain drives fish feeding activity. While they are always in schools, they take the short bus. Fish should never outsmart you, or at least you should never admit to it.
True balance comes from the primitive brain. Here is where all life shares commonality. Find your primitive self and you will find fish.
Basic instinctive activity on your part produces temporary oneness. The use of alcohol to obtain oneness may lead to the loss of balance. It is best to train your mind to obtain oneness.
A good training aid is Kung Fu re-runs. Just as Kane had to find his inner oneness, so do you Grasshopper. The goal is to snatch dinner from the sea, not a pebble from the hand. Branding your forearms is optional.
This is but the first in a series of online fishing clinics. Next we will explore, Bananas and Karma: The Truth behind the Myth.
Sorry I have neglected the blog. Not much going on, just fixing boats. So maybe a little funny story.
Several years ago I had the privilege of working with a young Canadian man. John John had just return to the US after searching for gold in the Peruvian jungles for five years. This was in 2002 after the market crash. JJ’s nest egg was cracked in the falling market so he had to go back to work.
JJ was a nice guy with a bit of an offbeat personality. He mentioned that he was a lot more laid back than he once was due to a variety of jungle medications that he had used in Peru. Jeff, a good friend of mine, and I enjoyed JJ’s tales of the jungle.
Jeff and I were having a cold one afternoon when JJ sat down and started talking. JJ was concerned about premature hair loss. While he was rambling on about losing his hair, Jeff and I just kept drinking. We kind of enjoyed the fact that JJ was taking over the conversation giving us a bit of a break.
Then JJ mentioned that a Peruvian Shaman he had met in the jungles told him there was a cure for baldness. Per the Shaman, if you take the urine of a child under 6 months of age and sprinkle it on your head, hair loss stops. The only bad thing JJ said was you have to keep doing it all the time.
I had been fishing that day and brought a nice Sea Trout for dinner. For some reason, I told JJ that there was something in Sea Trout slime that stopped hair loss. Jeff, not missing a thing, mentioned that he had heard that as well.
I went into great detail of how the fresh skins had to be placed on the hair over night. That the use of a shower cap to hold the skins in place was required. And while I wasn’t positive, washing your hair prior to application and not after was recommended.
Jeff agreed adding that combing the wet hair away from the balding area before application improved performance. It was the scalp after all that needed the treatment.
JJ was very thankful for our invaluable advice and inquired as were to obtain the fish skins. I mentioned that he was in luck, though a rare catch in the Keys, I had caught one that morning. I dug out the skins and JJ went off to his house.
Jeff and I sat there nursing a beer not saying anything. After ordering another round, Jeff asked if I thought JJ would do it. I said I was sure he would and we left it at that.
The next morning, JJ caught up to us and said that the fish skin treatments seemed to be working. I told JJ that it was a little early, but I did think there might be a little improvement. This went on for several days. Each day JJ was more convinced there was new hair.
After five days, JJ caught up to us and was beaming! He was positive we had discovered a new hair loss prevention formula. He speculated for hours over which ingredient in the fish slime might be the active one. He felt that there was a potential business there and that he may be able to obtain venture capital for the start-up investment. JJ wanted to isolate the active ingredient because after five days the skins were really starting to stink.
Another friend of ours happened upon the conversation. He looked at JJ and told him we were just playing a trick on him. As JJ defended his research on fish slim hair re-growth to our other friend, Jeff finally lost it and with beer blasting from nose started laughing.
It was over. JJ finally trashed the smelly fish skins his hopes dashed. Like I said, I rarely play practical jokes. That is probably a good thing. It was nice to know that at least one Peruvian Shaman has a humorous side too.
It’s getting real close to Christmas and a few ladies out there haven’t wrapped up their shopping. Most men I know haven’t started yet. So for the ladies, it’s easy to please your fishing hubby, give him a Bass Pro Shops gift card.
Guys, pleasing the little lady might be more of a challenge. If you are thinking about a new vacuum or the Victoria’s Secrets catalog, my couch is only comfortable for about two days. Then you are on your own. But Bass Pro Shops may be your ticket out of the doghouse too.
Tip one, Sunglasses: A little BPS gift card so she can get proper eye wear for that tropical vacation she’s always wanted. You not only make her happy, you get to forget about shoveling snow and all the other honey do’s in the jar, and do a little serious fishing in the Keys.
Tip two Shoes
What woman doesn’t want new shoes, and boat shoes are perfect for that Sailfish trip you are taking her on in the fabulous Florida Keys because scraping ice of the windshield every morning is starting to chap your butt.
Tip three Luggage:
With sharp looking new wheeled luggage, she can keep up with you while you are running to the ticket counter to get your boarding passes to get on the plane that is taking you away from the slush that used to be snow and to the once in a lifetime fishing vacation/second honeymoon that will save your marriage and your sanity! In the Florida Keys of course.
Tight lines and a Merry Christmas to all,
Ho Ho Ho
Capt. Dallas
