Its 'Tailing Time

Yellowtail Snapper bite all year long but in the summer you have more calm days to get out there plus most folks have vacations in the summer.  Most of the time, catching more than enough "tails for dinner is a piece of cake, but they can make you look bad and like doing it.  So basic refresher course tips are in order.

Clear line/fluorocarbon -  when visibility may be over 100 feet you get the opportunity to see the fish that aren't biting.  Clear line tends to spook fish less and while fluorocarbon isn't required it can make a difference on clear, calm days.  Avoid braid and colored lines unless you are trying to make a sales pitch.

Smaller hooks and baits can make a big difference and help combat the Filefish.  For some reason people like to protect things that drive other people nuts.  Scrolled Filefish are one of those things.  They aren't endangered, but since small ones look good in aquariums, the FWC has size limits for aquarium collectors.  Filefish over 20" are common on the reef and officer friendly might think that they are illegal to keep he/she is confusing hook and line fishing with collecting tropicals.  So if you keep filefish, which are pretty tasty if you like trigger fish, the guys in polyester may or may not cite you for illegally keeping oversized tropicals.  Yes, this is one of the main reasons I tend to be politically outspoken, because the brain dead have become part of the system.  Extremely nice and caring folks without a clue irritate the hell out of old farts like me when they can write citations without using common sense.

Oats -  There is a lot of confusion about chumming with oats.  Dry oatmeal floats more and sinks slower so the fish tend to get closer to the surface.  Wet oats since faster and create a little cloud of oat milk that people like to hide their hooks in.  In the summer on a calm day with clear water I want the fish near the top and close to the boat so I use dry oats.  That way you can bail fish without them taking you into the coral.  Wet oats make a spectacular mess in the boat which some people like.

Cheap or not Cheap -  legal to 15 inch 'Tails are easy to catch so you require less chum, so you can probably catch your limit with two blocks in a half day using a medium mesh chum bag.  Hero 'Tails or flags, are fish over 20 inches and are typically found in deeper water requiring more chum in a landing net size mesh chum bag.   You will probably burn a case of chum at around $7.50 times 6 = $45 for about 6 hours of fishing time.  A 15 inch 'tail makes a good filet and is pretty tasty, just not very impressive at the cleaning table.  If you want impressive, it will cost more and require more attention to details like fluorocarbon, steady line release, various hook, jig and bait combinations, and something that is more difficult to find, patience.

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

Pretty nice Yellowtail

Imagine that, the camera worked and the lens wasn't completely covered with crude.  Anywho, that is a 25" Yellowtail with is pretty nice.  I haven't seen many over 20 inches for a while so this is a good sign.

It was caught on a reef 101 after we hit a few other spots.  Plenty of Mangroves and Yellowtail every where, but there are so many barely legals you have to work a bit to find the bigger ones.

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 Cheap Yellowtail Rods

Today was the first time I got to play with the cheap Yellowtail rods.  We managed to find a decent current and came close to limiting out on 'tails.  In fact we had very few throw backs with a good number of 15 inch fish.  Not stellar by any means but fairly respectable.

The cheap rods did their jobs with no hitches which isn't bad for dirt cheap gear.  The clients were a bit impressed with them and noticed that they didn't need any fancy flourocarbon leader since the cheap reels are spooled with fresh Berkley clear 15 pound test line.  No fuss, no muss, just catch fish.

The boat in the background by the way was part of the two boat guide package today.  That boat seemed to focus more on the grunts and porgies which they like but they did get a few 'tails and one of the 'tails got one of their not so cheap rods.  They sat the rod on the deck for just a moment longer than it should have.

This trip I also was able to catch a net full of Ballyhoo for a change.  It has been a while since I got a cast net wet so that is a good thing.  We only converted one of the Ballyhoo into a Cero Mackerel though.  I am not sure why the Ceros are so finicky this year, but they 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

Yellowtail Snapper

Yep, that is a Yellowtail Snapper.  We had a family fun day, some fishing, some snorkeling on the Lady Catherine yesterday.  Slow bite but some nice sized Triggerfish and Yellowtails. The crew didn't have much fishing experience so we didn't slay the fish, but they did have fun and learned how to maybe slay them next time out.

The current is very unpredictable, but if you happen to catch a decent current, the fish are biting.  However, the bite may not last very long so take advantage of it while it lasts.

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

Basic Stuff

I have been planning on reorganizing the blog for about 5 years now.  It'll wait.  I do want to add a few things I recommend in emails to customers.

Gear:  I recommend a 20 pound class spinning outfit with clear mono if possible for most general fishing.  That should have a line capacity of ~200 yards.  15 to 25 pound is fine if that is what you have.

For trolling, bottom, shark etc. I recommend 30 to 60 pound conventional outfits with line capacity greater than 300 yards.  I also recommend clear mono because of the versatility.  

leader material.  30# and 80# monel wire for toothy critters and 15# to 60# mono and/or flouro for not so toothy critters.  

Hooks:  you need a fairly large assortment of sizes from 10 for bait to 7/0 for offshore.  10,4,2,2/0,4/0 and 7/0 are pretty basic in J hooks.  For circles, 7/0 and 11/0 thin wire cover most situations.  Sabiki rigs size 8 or 10 can be useful, but most often single hook bait rigs.

Note that doesn't mention weights.  I use mainly smaller egg sinkers, 1/4 oz to 1 oz on something called a knocker rig.  All that is an egg sinker on the line with a hook sized for the bait.  The eye of the hook needs to be large enough that the egg sinker doesn't slide down the shank.  The lead can slide on the line so that you can let a fish run without feeling the weight very much and once you get the hang of it you can let the bait slide a ways from the lead just like there is a leader.  Note also that clear mono works best with this rig and means less work re-rigging.  If you like making catching more like work, by all means use something more complicated.

Without the weight you have a freeline rig.  That's sports fans, you tie a hook on you line and fish.  This also is much easier with clear mono on your spool.  If you are a braid fan just add a leader about as long as the depth you are fishing.  That sounds like work to me so I use clear mono.

On occasion you may need a little more than just a hook for freelining.  Small pinch weights or very small jig head can come in handy.  On other occasions you might need a short length of thin wire, that would be the 30# or 40# monel which is a type of stainless steel.  For that you need to know a haywire twist and either an Albright, Dog Knot or you can add small barrel swivel.  By small I mean size 10, which is about the smallest I can see to get the line through.  If my eyes were better I would go smaller.  The reason for small is when freelining you want to control the sink rate as you let the line run freely with the current.  Get it?  Run freely with the current aka freelining.  This is so you bait drifts and sinks about the same rate as that expensive chum you have in a landing net size chum bag drifts.  

The landing net chum bag is mainly for deeper water, over 40 foot deep.  If you want to catch fish cheap you can fish shallower and use a smaller mesh bag.  If you want to fish real cheap, stick with the knocker rig and just fish some sexy bottom.

There is a lot of great bottom in the Keys.  One of my main lessons is showing folks how to use their bottom finder so they can tell bottom from sexy bottom.  Sexy bottom has more profiles, that would be ups and downs with more blur, that would be fish and sea fans and hopefully lots of fish suspended off the bottom blur.  If you know your bottom machine real well, you can tell to a point what kind of fish you are marking provided you know a bit about the habits of Keys fish.  

On the rock piles, that would be piles of rock typically in Hawks Channel, in 20 to 20 foot you can have a variety of very high quality eating fish, Snapper, Lanes, Mangrove, Mutton, Yellowtail; Hogfish; Porgies, several flavors; Grouper, Black, Gag and Red mainly; Toro or big Eye snapper which aren't bad; Triggerfish; Grunts if you are into panfish, but don't expect to impress many at the dock with your catch plus the occasional Mackerel, Cero, Spanish or King; Cobia; Permit; Pompano and likely a half dozen more.  Other than that the rockpiles are pretty boring.

On the patches, that would be patches of coral just inside the reef proper in 20 to 30 foot of water, you have the same critters plus a few more like Schoolmaster Snapper to replace the Lanes and pelagic fish that tend to get lost fairly often in the summer.  

On the reef proper, that would be in the 40 to 100 foot range, you pretty much have one stop shopping if you have plenty of chum, a decent current and some patience.  This seems to be my favorite older guy fishing spot.  You don't have to burn much gas and only have to pull the anchor once while you catch plenty for dinner and have a shot at anything up to and including sailfish.  

All of these start with finding that sexy bottom, knowing your current, having fresh and a variety of bait, along with very basic terminal tackle.  As far as bait, fresh is best and live is fresher.  That means you are ahead of the game with a working live well, a cast net and some starter live bait like pinfish, pilchards, shrimp or any number small bait including crabs.  

Catching bait would be my second main lesson.  Sabiki rigs are great for some things but it is hard to beat a single size 10 long shank hook and a pinch weight with a tiny bit of bait.  Squid tentacles make great bait and believe it or not that bag of fake blood worms you never found a use for also work quite well.  I had a bag of those blood worms last me about two years, that is how small you need to cut the bait.  If you remove the pinch weight and add a very small float, you have a balleyhoo rig.  You use that to catch the ballyhoo until they get stupid enough to throw a cast net over.  Stupid ballyhoo are close to the boat and on the surface so you can reach them and when they spook the jump up into the net instead of diving under the net.  

If you go out without bait thinking you will catch plenty, you will probably learn about Murphy's law.  So to avoid Murphy, take some frozen or fresh balleyhoo, shrimp and in a pinch, squid to make sure you are fishing.  

I have my issues with squid other than pinfish bait.  It seems anytime I break out the squid the trash fish come running.  That is probably just me, but I recommend very judicious use of the Calamari.  If you are targeting Yellowtail Snapper and have the big bucks, Silversides aka Spearing are a fantastic bait.  If you are cheap like me, thin bait strips made from balleyhoo or other white bait make a great Silverside imitation.  

In mainly calm weather, rolled oats make a great chum enhancer.  The oats sink more slowly bringing the fish closer to the surface and your boat.  The object of chumming is to bring fish to the boat and out of the bottom where the bigger ones tend to break you off.  The oats are mainly for the Yellowtail which sometimes forget to read my posts.  On an average Yellowtail day they come up pretty quick and you limit out in a couple of hours.  For some folks average means never seeing a 'tail, which is likely due to not finding sexy bottom, not having a decent current, not having fresh bait and/or fishing with too much weight or that wonderful braided line.  

Now I am going to put this post under fishing basics and knocker rig so more people can find it.

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