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Marathon, Florida Keys
Capt. Bob Brown
February 20, 2005
Marathon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Dolphin Showing Up!
Yesterday the big event in the middle Keys was the Capt. Leon Shell memorial Sailfish tournament. The Sailfish were not cooperating too well, but the Dolphin (Mahi-Mahi) were. Capt Jason Long and the "Best Bet" team took home top honors in the Sailfish division, but the big talk at the tournament banquet was all the Dolphin around. We continuously ran into schools of nice Dolphin yesterday along with some large Blackfin Tuna. Only 8 Sailfish were caught and released in the tournament on 25 boats but the tournament was a great success as the main focus of the tournament is to benefit Hospice. Most all the boats we talked to said they caught good numbers of Dolphin and all this activity was right off the reef edge in about 130-250ft of water. The seas were a bit rough so not many boats went further offshore yesterday, but this past week we had a few calm days and some boats went out from 20 to 40 miles offshore and found some big schools of smaller Dolphin and some large slammers as well. Looks like Dolphin season is busting loose early! That is a good thing for us here in the middle keys. Now all we need is some more calmer weather so we can get offshore to the best bites. Meanwhile don't count out the inshore areas. Nice big King Mackerel have been hanging out on the patch reefs off the 7 mile bridge and some large Kings have also been in Hawk's channel. Yellowtail Snapper action has been excellent on the patch reefs and deep reef edge as well. Some bigh Mangrove snapper have been hitting the docks as well this week from the ocean side reefs and from the 7 mile bridge area as well. Tarpon season is just around the corner also, and some good reports of Tarpon being caught on calm nights have been coming in. Good luck in all your fishing adventures!
Capt. Bob Brown, Jr.
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