Dolphin & Sails
The Sailfish have been biting very
well the past couple of weeks, but the
recent warm weather brought in the nice
surprise of lots of Dolphin (Mahi-Mahi).
While live bait fishing for Sailfish
this past week, we have run into quite a
few nice schools of Dolphin, mostly of
the schoolie variety of 4-10lb. There
have been a few nicer sized Dolphin out
there as well with some 25-30lb fish
hitting the docks here in Marathon. A
few days some boats ventured further
offshore and found near summer
conditions with nice weedlines and
Dolphin plentiful along with some nice
wahoo. The Sailfish have been biting
when you locate them. The big body of
green, crummy looking water that has
been moving around on the Atlantic side
since hurricane Wilma has caused the
location of the bite to move around
lately. One day it is red hot off of 'G'
Marker off of Big Pine Key, the next day
the green water is there and the fish
aren't. They decided to bite off of Key
Colony Beach where a nice color change
developed with blue water up against the
crappy green in about 180ft. The next
day it is green out to 400ft off Key
Colony and the bite is off Sombrero Reef
on the nice color change.... There is no
rhyme or reason to where the dirty water
shows up from day to day, but the bite
is usually happening somewhere along the
middle keys. Our long time customers
from Ft Lauderdale, Reed McClusky and
Mike Robbins had Reed's son Ben along on
a recent trip and caught 5 ot of 7 Sails
that we had hooked up along with some
nice Dolphin and Kings. That included
Ben's first ever Sailfish...now he knows
what all the hype is about!!
Yellowtail consistent
The reef fishing for Yellowtail
snapper has been very consistent with
good catches being reported from all
over the Keys. Partly due to the dirty
water conditions of the reef I'm sure as
the leader shy fish have trouble seeing
the leader in murky water. This allows
you to use heavier leader and get more
of them in the boat. Some nice Mutton
Snapper have been bagged lately also
with a few nice Black grouper mixed in.
King Mackerel have also been hot on the
reef edge and around deeper wrecks
adding to the fun on reef trips lately.
We had a 45lb King Mackerel the other
day along with quite a few nice 10-15lb
fish.
Good luck in all your fishing
adventures!