Rats, a Blurry Picture

This crew had a fun half day on the Lady Catherine even if we did have to hide from the wind on the bay side.  Those are Mutton Snapper they are holding.   The bay side banks and the bridge hard to figure out sometimes.  Still, you almost always catch fish.  Today instead of Hogfish and Porgies it was legal Muttons and respectable Mangrove Snapper.  they also played with a number of sharks and a large Jack Crevalle.   Jack Crevalle aren't much on the table but since the ladies had never tangled with one they had a bit of fun.

Now I get a couple of days off to rest my bones then hopefully we will get a few fair weather trips for a change.

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

Still Breezy

Have been neglecting my photograph duties.  I have been fishing, mainly half days because of the winds which limit the catching to a tide most of the time.  If you can find some clean water the Seven Mile Bridge has been pretty productive.  Decent mangroves, a few Hogfish, porgies, yellow jacks and of course sharks.  The bay water temperatures have warmed up enough that Spanish Mackeral are getting hard to find, but there are some nice Sea Trout and Ceros to take up the slack.  I haven't been doing any reef or ocean side stuff because of the winds and timing of my trips.  There is a calm day or two every week but I haven't hooked up with an offshore group on those days.

In general, fishing reports are getting a bit more normal.  There was a short stretch there when it seemed everyone sucked.  In fact I haven't heard so many poor reports on the radio in some time.  that changed when the bait situation got a bit more normal.  I have been seeing more mullet in the canals and actually getting the cast net wet on balleyhoo for a change.  Pilchards are easier to find but they still can be a PITA at times.

There have been reports of Wahoo from some of the bigger boats that are getting offshore along with decent size schoolie dolphin and tuna, mainly skippies.  I don't have a problem with skippies myself and I doubt most would if they gave them a fair taste test.  Bleeding the bigger ones definitely helps out on the flavor.  The slammer dolphin will likely start moving through the end of this month to the middle of the next if they stay true to form.  I generally have to run pretty far to get into the big ones early in the season but if the Gulf Stream pushes in close that will save some fuel money.

Most of the tarpon guides are getting booked pretty regular and are catching fish but it doesn't look like the migration is in full swing just yet.  That is normally more an April start thing but with the warmer water temperatures could be any time now.

I have another half day tomorrow which will probably be a combination shark and mixed bag.  Some of the mixed bag on the shark trips are Mutton Snapper that are legal 16 to 20 inches.  Not huge fish by any means but tasty.  It also looks like this may be the year of the Porgie since they have been showing up just about everywhere.

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

Black Fin Tuna on the Darts

I have a couple posts waiting on photographic evidence.  The guys I took out in the depths of my cold final got weather to visit the Marathon Hump on Thursday.  I gave them a couple of purple and black darts with the very complicated instructions of just pull them.  They end up with about 20 black fin and a skippy, but managed to lose the darts to a shark or two.  So I reloaded them today.

In any case the report is that a bit larger black fin have finally moved in.  They estimated these to be about 5 pounds average with a few pushing ten pounds.  That is a long way from 30 plus pounders but compared to the dinks I have been catching a major improvement.

I still haven't heard any good sailfish reports and the cobia are becoming a bit scarce compared to last month.  The Gulf Stream pushed in close this week and the pilchards are thick so that might change.  March can be a bit difficult with some fishing heading out while others head in, but tarpon seem to be acting normal even if the mullet are not.

I have heard a few encouraging dolphin reports but they required a good bit of fuel since most where past the wall.  The winds should be shifting more to the south east this month which should bring them in closer.

Trip wise it has been weird as usual.  We started off with a bang but that petered out so my book is open until the end of the month.  Other than sucking on that last deep bay trip though fishing has been pretty fair if you go with the flow.

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

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