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Marathon, Florida Keys
Capt. Bob Brown
January 13, 2003
Marathon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Dolphin Encounter (of the Bottle Nose kind!)
Just another day of wreck fishing the other day off of Marathon, or so it seemed....
Kim and Charlie Flint from NY were out with us and catching some nice sized Amberjacks on one of our favorite wreck locations, when out of the blue a very friendly bottlenose Dolphin shows up near the boat and procedes to put on a show with some acrobatic leaps, flips, parascope style standups, and some good close to the boat smiles as it swiftly surfed down the 3 ft waves. It is not uncommon to see the great cousins of "Flipper" roaming the open ocean, but this Flipper imitator was uncommonly friendly and alone out in the wilderness. Usually Dolphins are traveling in groups or at least pairs. They will surf the wake of the bow of the boat and all, but this one was just plain showing off!
Meanwhile, Charlie is reeling in a 30+ LB. Amberjack from about 210ft. of water. After a quick photo, the AJ was to be released. Normally after bringing up fish from that depth, they have problems getting back down from the surface due to the pressure change inflating their air sack. We usually use techniques to get the fish to go back down, but the initial try on this AJ failed and the fish returned to the surface on it's side wallowing as it tried to gain enough strength for a push toward the depths. To our amazement, the Dolphin then came up underneath the Amberjack sort of on it's back, and gently grabbed the Jack by the tail and pulled him under the water a few feet. I initially thought "Oh, my God, he's going to EAT the Jack!!!" But he didn't try to eat it at all. He was very gentle in the way he grabbed the fish. Well, it didn't work as the AJ floated back to the top after the Dolphin let go. So the Dolphin came around again, this time grabbing the Aj in the mid section. Very gently again, he took the AJ down and kept going down until the fish could make it on it's own. A minute or so later the Dolphin was back along side the boat jumping and flipping, seemingly saying: "That was fun! Let's do it again!" Possibly this was a Dolphin that was once trained by military to be used in rescue situations and was released. Or it could have been in captivity sometime, who knows?? One thing I am certain of, this Dolphin was HELPING that Amberjack go back down to where he was safe. Amazing!!! May we all have a Dolphin at some time in our lives when we need them most! Anyway, not your usual day of wreck fishing off of Marathon, Florida Keys!!
Good luck in all of your fishing adventures!
Capt. Bob Brown, Jr.
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