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Marathon, Florida Keys
Capt. Bob Brown
February 11, 2008
Marathon - Saltwater Fishing Report
Sailfish, Tuna & Dolphin
Some great winter time fishing action has been going on here in the middle keys with some good numbers of sailfish being caught on local charter boats. This week many boats had catches of 5-10 fish for one day which is what we are more accustomed to than the slower fishing we had been experiencing in January. The bite lately has been from Marker 20 off of Key Colony Beach up east to the red can off of Lower Matecumbe Key. The Sailfish action has been in the 110-180 ft range with some of the best days seeing fish in the 130-150 depth range. The action has been supplimented with some good numbers of Blackfin Tuna, Dolphin and a few Wahoo. The Blackfin have been eating pilchards or live ballyhoo and the Dolphin have been under frigate birds and mostly pushing flying fish around. Ballyhoo would work best for them since they look so much like flying fish in the water, but any live bait will do if you can locate the big Dolphin under the birds. Some of the Mahi's caught this week were up to 40lb. But most fish were in the 15-25lb class. This action should continue to be good as long as the gulfstream hangs in fairly close and the winds stay out of the east or southeast.
Other action offshore has seen some sporadic swordfish catches with a few trips coming home empty handed but a few being rewarded with nice fish. This can be tricky fishing, all depending on what the gulfstream is doing at the time of your trip out there. Last week the stream got into a north-south current direction which is not normally the case off the keys. This was making the drift areas for swords a bit odd from where the charter boats have figured out where the fish like to be causing some of the slow days. Once the stream gets back to the normal more E-NE current, then the bite should be back on. \
If you would like more info on fishing in the middle Florida Keys, check out our web site. Good luck in all your fishing adventures!
Capt Bob Brown, Jr.
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