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Marathon, Florida Keys
Capt. Bob Brown
January 6, 2006
Marathon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Dolphin & Sails
The Sailfish have been biting very well the past couple of weeks, but the recent warm weather brought in the nice surprise of lots of Dolphin (Mahi-Mahi). While live bait fishing for Sailfish this past week, we have run into quite a few nice schools of Dolphin, mostly of the schoolie variety of 4-10lb. There have been a few nicer sized Dolphin out there as well with some 25-30lb fish hitting the docks here in Marathon. A few days some boats ventured further offshore and found near summer conditions with nice weedlines and Dolphin plentiful along with some nice wahoo.
The Sailfish have been biting when you locate them. The big body of green, crummy looking water that has been moving around on the Atlantic side since hurricane Wilma has caused the location of the bite to move around lately. One day it is red hot off of 'G' Marker off of Big Pine Key, the next day the green water is there and the fish aren't. They decided to bite off of Key Colony Beach where a nice color change developed with blue water up against the crappy green in about 180ft. The next day it is green out to 400ft off Key Colony and the bite is off Sombrero Reef on the nice color change.... There is no rhyme or reason to where the dirty water shows up from day to day, but the bite is usually happening somewhere along the middle keys. Our long time customers from Ft Lauderdale, Reed McClusky and Mike Robbins had Reed's son Ben along on a recent trip and caught 5 ot of 7 Sails that we had hooked up along with some nice Dolphin and Kings. That included Ben's first ever Sailfish...now he knows what all the hype is about!!
Yellowtail consistant
The reef fishing for Yellowtail snapper has been very consistant with good catches being reported from all over the Keys. Partly due to the dirty water conditions of the reef I'm sure as the leader shy fish have trouble seeing the leader in murky water. This allows you to use heavier leader and get more of them in the boat. Some nice Mutton Snapper have been bagged lately also with a few nice Black grouper mixed in. King Mackerel have also been hot on the reef edge and around deeper wrecks adding to the fun on reef trips lately. We had a 45lb King Mackerel the other day along with quite a few nice 10-15lb fish.
Good luck in all your fishing adventures!
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