 |
Marathon, Florida Keys
Capt. Bob Brown
November 15, 2006
Marathon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Macks & Sails
Thanksgiving is the unofficial start of the Sailfish season here in the Keys. We do catch them all year long but the winter is the peak time to see numbers of sailfish in the local waters. November is usually the start of several great months of Sailfishing as the migrating fish move in and take up residence for the winter. You can catch sails just about anywhere off of the edge of the reef in the Keys but certain areas tend to hold more fish at times. One key to finding and catching Sailfish in the middle keys is the reef structure. Areas that have a fairly sharp dropoff from 30-100ft deep can be a good area to target sails as the fish will move from the deeper water where they are cruisinig along the edge up to the shallower depths to feed. This happens best in areas that hold lots of sardines or ballyhoo and are fairly shallow. Tides and winds will push the schools of baitfish out to a little deeper water where the Sails will move up to the surface to feed on them. At times the Sailfish will push the schools of baitfish all the way up into 15-20ft of water where they are easily spotted by anglers. Casting a live bait to the feeding fish is a sure way to get hooked up on an Atlantic sailfish. Matching the bait to the feed is the key. If you know the Sails are feeding on Ballyhoo, it is a good bet they will eat a live one on the end of your line if they are eating them in the first place. Tossing another species (blue runner or pilchard)out there may work but not as good. Same way with sardines when they are eating them. They usually want something similar to a sardine if not sardines themselves. They can be hard to find in some areas of the keys and a bit of a challenge to get in a cast net. Try Pilchards as a good relplacement bait when Sailfish are feeding on sardines. Other areas to target sails with success is around deep wrecks. They tend to hold up in the area of a wreck if there is a good supply of smaller fish to eat. If you are marking large schools of small fish on your fish finder around a wreck, there is a good chance there is a sailfish or two in the area. After a half hour or so of working a wreck area without a bite, you might want to move on as they tend to bite right away if they are there. Keep a good supply of live bait on hand this winter as we are expecting the sailfishing to be fantastic. There are already some good catches of Sailfish being reported in the Marathon area.
The other big winter time fun fish is the Mackerel. We catch Kings, Cero, and Spanish here in the keys in the winter months and the action can be fast and furious. King Mackerel get the largest and bite up and down the reef edge and in the gulf around the wreck areas. Chumming can be the key to some great Mackerel action and it wont take long for the fish to make thier presence known. Be sure to have your reels greased up good for the fast scream the mackerel make when the first hit the bait. Don't forget the wire leader as the mack attack is on for the next few months. Look for some big Kings to start hitting the docks around Christmas time as well.
For more info on fishing in Martahon and the middle keys areas, check out our web site. Good luck in all your fishing adventures!
Capt Bob Brown, Jr
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
