Sailfish Holiday!
Capt. Bob Brown
November 26, 2009
Marathon - Saltwater Fishing Report
I want to wish all readers a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you are spending it with loved ones. Here in the middle Keys we are thankful for the awesome Sailfish action that has been going on for the past couple weeks. Sails have been showing up showering ballyhoo on the reef edge all along the Sombrero Light to Looe Key light area. Also, there have been pods of sails ambushing anglers slow trolling live baitfish in 120-180ft of water. Double headers have been common and ballyhoo or pilchards have been the hot bait as of late. Some nice Wahoo have been showing up in the same areas as well. One boat had 7 wahoo the other day in the 170-200ft depth area and all the fish were 30-40lb! That is a nice surprise when sailfishing. Some large Mahi-Mahi have been coming up onto the reef edge as well and have been caught in as shallow as 30-40ft as they chase schools of baitfish into shallow water from the deep edge of the reef. The outgoing tide off the bridges seems to be the best areas to find the Sails and Dolphin showering baitfish as the tides move them out a bit deeper.
On the offshore scene, there has been excellent Blackfin Tuna fishing out near the Marathon humps and Swordfish have been cooperating with anglers making the run for them with one 502lb fish hitting the dock here in Marathon this week. That is one jumbo Swordfish! With numerous tales of other large fish out there spitting the hook at the boat and some in the 400lb class also being taken in to the dock, the size of fish seems to be increasing as of late. Deep dropping squids on the edge of the wall are producing the bites as the boats drift with the gulfstream current. Some guys have it down to a science now and are regularly getting bites when they make the run offshore.
The reef bite has been excellent as well lately. Yellowtail snapper have been chomping and some nice black grouper have been showing up on the reef edge also in 60-80ft of water. Some big Mangrove and Mutton Snapper have been coming in from the patch reefs in shallow waters along with some Cero Mackerel and a few Kings but I expect the Macherel bite to get better as waters cool in the next few weeks.
Cobia have been showing up on the gulfside wrecks, and this next big cold front we are having should improve the Cobia and Mackerel migration in the gulf side of the middle Keys. Snapper have been good on bayside wrecks, and sharks and jacks have been numerous around the banks north of the 7 mile bridge and out to the content keys. Spanish Mackerel should heat up on the bay side of Marathon in the next week or two and nothing is faster action than a hot mackerel bite. All in all, the action has been excellent in all the Keys for a variety of species. So come on down and get in on the bite!!
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