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Marathon, Florida Keys
Capt. Bob Brown
November 17, 2005
Marathon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Reef Bite Right!
The edge of the reef has seen some great action lately for Yellowtail Snapper and Grouper mostly along the 50-90ft range. Yellowtail have been biting excellent with most boats catching thier limits in short amounts of time on morning trips. Get the chum flowing and fish with fresh live or cut shrimp, silversides, live small pilchards, or glass minnows. Make sure you use light leader usually about 15-17lb flouro for best results.
Sailfish have also been hanging around the deep reef edge and have been moving up on the reefs in the early to late afternoon to feed on schools of Ballyhoo that have been out there on the shallower reefs near Delta Shoal, Marker 20 and near Duck Key. Watch for the ballyhoo "showers" as we call them as it actually looks like rain on the water the way they all jump and once and get pushed in one direction by the large preditor that is underneath them. If you see the shower of baitfish, run into that area and if you have a boat with a tower (a big plus when chasing sails pushing bait), look for the dark shape of a fish over the white sandy patches as the fish will be moving over sand at times as it heads back out toward deeper water after chasing the baitfish up into as shallow as 15-20ft of water. Best bait to have available at the time would be live Ballyhoo since that is what they are chasing, however live Pilchards, Blue Runners, Sardines, or Speedos will also work. Best is to find the path of the fish and cast a bait 15-20ft in front of the fish, not right on top of them as that tends to spook them. Sailfish action should only be getting better the next few weeks as more and more fish find their way to the area where they like to hang out over the winter months.
Bay Bits
Florida bay waters have been gradually clearing up since Wilma and some good catches of Snapper and Grouper have been coming in from the bayside spots in the past week. Clearest waters have been around the banks northwest of Marathon near E Bahia Honda Key. Look for the cool fronts in the coming weeks to help heat up the action in Florida bay. If you would like more info on fishing in the Marathon and middle Keys area, please check out our web site.
Good luck in all your fishing adventures!
Capt. Bob Brown, Jr.
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