Just thinking out loud

One of my regular winter customers was wondering what a boat costs.  Not a big boat, just a boat to fish say the bridge, bay and Hawk Channel and the Reef on really good days.  You can pay just about anything you like for a boat.  For example this butt ugly POS will cost about $1500 to buy and about $4000 to fit up with most of that cost being a used or rebuild outboard.

I happen to know the guy that owns this POS boat and after explaining to him why is was a POS, I mentioned how it could become a not quite a POS boat that could be used for bridge and back country charters.  By losing the walk through windshield, adding a small center console and adding steps so it easy to mount the casting deck, this old POS that only drafts 14" with the motor properly trimmed out could make a tolerable bay boat.  It is too heavy for serious flats fishing, but can provide a reasonable facsimile of "serious" flats fishing without a ridiculously expensive rebuild.

The trick though is the motor.  It would be a sin to put a $10,000 motor on what is actually a $500 hull.  Since I have owned quite a few Johnson 90 to 140 H.P. V4s and can just rebuild one over night, losing the collectors item Mercury inline 4 Cylinder 115 H.P. in favor of a motor that tends to disintegrate less often, the Johnson V4, I/we could survive a motor meltdown without going postal.

The trailer, also a POS, appears to be salvageable which could allow some more picturesque back country safaris out of the Old Wooden Bridge Fish Camp for example, saving a ton of fuel bucks.

As the title says, this is just thinking out loud, but it could fill a niche that is currently open in Marathon.  What do y'all think?

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

A little bit of everything

During a graduate fishing class, this crew from Great Britain has been fishing the Keys as long as I have, we caught a little bit of everything.  Pictured are Cero Mackerel, a fidgety Yellowtail Snapper, Lane Snapper and I managed to miss a large Porgy plus a lot of others.  Today was supposed to be a Yellowtail trip but thanks to too pretty weather and a hungry Porpoise that kept stealing fish, it turned in to a mixed bag kind of day.

Pretty weather is one of those fishing jinxes you really don't mind all that much.  Flat calm seas and clear water make catching a bit more difficult.  In order to get the yellowtail dinner for the porpoise we had to go down to size #8 bait hooks.  That is a good bit smaller than the typical size #4 to #2 most use, but you gots to do what you gots to do sometimes.  After the porpoise started taking our fish on purpose we headed to deeper water for the good size lanes and nice but not pictured porgies.

We had several opportunities to be big fish heroes, but my crew had a problem with hook up interuptous.  This is one of those weird afflictions often associated with braided line and light terminal tackle.  The smaller hooks required to get the fish to bite require a light drag.  So while we could have had more fish, we still had a good day.

This gives me another chance to speak to the braid fans.  Braid is not a universal line.  It has its advantages but clear water reff fishing is not one of them.  A good 15# to 20# clear mono spinning outfit should be in any Keys angler's rod collection.  With fresh, clean, clear mono, most of the time you don't even need flourocarbon leader.  That makes life so much simpler, no leader just tie on a fresh hook of the proper size and add bait.  It don't get no simpler than that.

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

Porgies

This is a late post for a trip last Thursday.  Things have been a bit hectic with doctors appointments, weather and visiting friends in the hospital.  Thursday was a fishing 101 with a new customer that involved some basic tour stuff.  Fishing wasn't great since the wind and tide were opposite but we did manage a decent Mutton and a good mess of Porgies, which most of you know I enjoy eating.

The Porgies were on the Hawk Channel Rock piles which is about as easy a fishing trip as you can get.  Next to Yellowtail Snapper fishing, the rock piles and patches are about the most popular quick fishing trip for the locals that want something other than winter Spanish Mackerel.  Since some of the rock piles are less than two miles south of the islands, with a North or Northeast wind you can slip out and catch quality fish without getting beat up by big seas.  Strong winds out of the East can change that pretty quick, but with the short run you can change plans without having too many exciting boating tales.

Unfortunately, the powers at be closed grouper season down here and the rockpiles and patches can be loaded up with legal and close to legal grouper after cold fronts.  Between the Grouper, Porgies, various Snapper, occasional Hogfish and larger number of other species that can show up, the bite can impress most folks who are not used to fast and furious catching.  Many charters have a rockpile number or two for trip savers when other things don't work out as planned.

Porgies, Hogfish and Grouper are the most common trip saver species in my opinion.  These fish are more territorial than most so they will bite on just about any current and wind condition.  Since they are territorial, you can also forget the chum and have less than perfect bait and still catch fish.  For the northern guys that are used to chum pots that you set near the bottom, that technique can work exceptionally well though I would save that until grouper season reopens.

So far I haven't done as much Florida Bay fishing this year as normal.   Due to timing and weather most of my trips have been to the Seven Mile Bridge which has been very productive, but I do like mixing things up.  Offshore and near offshore has been closed to me so far with the smaller boats but there has been some fantastic fishing for Sailfish, Dolphin, Tuna and Cobia for those that have made it out.  Near offshore success is highly dependent on live bait, normally Pilchards and/or Balleyhoo.  Pilchards keep well at most docks so if you are serious about sailfish you should plan on spending some time bait fishing which is a lot more productive with a good size cast net which I can show you how to cast pretty easily.  If your accommodations don't have a bait keep, a large garbage can drilled with plenty of holes for water flow can hold a good number of Pilchards depending on the water quality at your rental unit.  The soft net type bait keeps also work but the sharks have been known to chew holes in what can be a bit pricy investment.  Now that things have calmed down for me I will look into setting up a few bait keeps, hopefully before the Pilchards disappear. 

 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

Seven Mile Marina - Fleet Status

The show must go on as they say.  Captain Bobby Brown Jr. and the Sundance are currently picking up charters at Burdine's Fuel Dock on 15th Street until some other arrangements can be made.  Captain Jeff Knapp and the Beckoning will be moving to Burdine's on the first of the month and has been doing very well at the bridge on the Mangroves as well as his main target Tarpon.  The young guns, Silent Hunter with B. J. Meyers, Bucko Platt and Nathan Perry among others are still in tournament mode as best I can tell and should be picking up at various locations until more permanent arrangements are made.  I haven't heard anything definite on the other boats .

Update: Bucko just said he will be fishing out of Captain Hook's for a while.

There is a benefit scheduled for January 30th for the employees and captains that lost their boats at Kirk of the Keys  posted on the Marina Facebook page.  Help if you can because this is a tough time of the year to be jobless.

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

Back at it.

Due to family and friend issues I had to take a trip off the rock.  It was good seeing the Fam even though the reason sucked.  That is done for now so I am back at it Fishing in the Florida Keys. 

Today was a fishing 101 with new customer from Jersey.  Due to the early winds the morning was not very exciting but the afternoon bite on the Hawks Channel rock piles saved the day.  Six or eight nice fat Porgies made it into the fish box to join a legal Mutton Snapper and a Yellow Jack.

A large portion of the day was dedicated to cast net instruction and a tour of Sister's Creek, so while the catch may not sound that impressive, the actual action while fishing was pretty fast as usual.  Released were about the same number of grouper, which are closed thanks to the warm and fuzzies that map reading challenged.  As most of you know the Florida Keys grouper fishery is in fine shape since we don't have a lot of strictly commercial grouper fishermen in the area.  Gear regulations are all that should be required for the "Sports and Recreational" fishing industry that typically gets screwed by the commercial fishing industry and the South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission.  If you get a chance, show your local politician just how much you care. 

As a side note, I am sad to report that Burdines no longer has breakfast biscuits but Kelly is still making coffee and that Salties Grille and the Seven Mile Marina are no more.  The Marina Chiki Tiki caught fire due to an electrical short and burned to the ground.  Two charter boats were lost and the fleet, probably  the best in Marathon, has had to move to new homes. 

On a brighter note, the VA medical folks think that they can do a roto-rooter like laser procedure on my leg plus some other body work.  Until then I now have happy pill permission after only 4 months of testing to verify that I might be in a touch of pain.

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 Brian and Mike Bridge Fishing Show

Last year I managed to get Brian and Mike to try the Yellowjack and they were easily converted.  Today we made a leisurely bridge tide trip and even with the uncertainty that tends to follow POLAR VORTEX temperature anomalies, managed to do pretty well.

 Also on the menu were respectable Seven Mile Bridge Mangrove Snapper.  They only bit for about a hour on the first of the incoming tide likely due to the colder bay water temperature.  The shark that had been pestering the hell out of me took the day off so we got most of the fish that Brian and Mike didn't Palm Beach release for a variety of reasons.  All of the keeper fish were caught on live shrimp for some reason not liking the strip baits today.  I am sure we would have done better with live Pilchards or the candy size pinfish, but the live shrimp worked out fine with the schedule.

I have one more trip scheduled with Mike on Sunday then it looks like I am going to have to head north for a few days.


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