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Marathon, Florida Keys
Capt. Bob Brown
February 19, 2002
Marathon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Reef Report - Fish are Biting!
The reef fishing has been excellent lately with a variety of species showing up in the 40-90ft. range. Large Yellowtail Snappers have been biting good in several locations from Duck Key to Big Pine Key. Nice sized King Mackerel have been around in good numbers along with some Cero and Spanish Mackerel. Some large Black Grouper have been hanging around the reef edge and we have caught some up to 25lb. recently. Some large Mutton Snappers have been caught lately also off of the wrecks and reef edge.
Sailfishing has been HOT!!!
A few Sailfish have been showing up on the reef muching on the Kite baits in 50-90ft, but most of the action lately has been deeper. Sailfishing has been excellent in the past couple weeks with the hottest area being around Tennessee light in 140-240ft. of water. Wednesday, our anglers of Mark Bildsten, Bill Luft, and Steve Keller of Columbus, OH. caught 5 out of 7 Sail hookups and missed several more as the action was hot that day. Several boats caught as many as 25 Sails the day before when they found the schools of Sardines that groups of Sailfish have been "balling" up and feeding on. Lots of birds have been giving away the locations of these happenings and the action can be fast and furious! Look for the bite to start swinging further south off of Sombrero Light and west toward Big Pine and American Shoal in the next few weeks.
Return of the Goliath Grouper!
The largest of all the Grouper species, the Goliath Grouper, (formerly known as the Jewfish...and still is really) has been making a comeback in recent years here in the Keys and most wrecks are now sporting some resident Goliaths up to 400lb.+. On a recent trip on the "Sundance", we stopped at a small wreck to catch some bait in about 25ft of water and found to be some large preditors there eating our baitfish before we could land them to put in the live well. Turned out in the next hour or so we hooked a large Bull Shark about 250lb., a large spinner Shark about 150lb. and 2 large Goliath Groupers up to 200lb. Not a bad baitfish stop!! If you'd like to know more about fishing in the Marathon and middle Keys area, check out our website. Good luck in all of your fishing adventures!
Capt. Bob brown, Jr.
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