March 2010 -
Yellowtail

The cool weather fronts we have had recently have the Yellowtail Snapper and Grouper avoiding the cooler waters of Florida Bay, and making their way out to the Atlantic Ocean side patch reefs where the fishing has been fantastic! Large Mangrove Snapper have dominated some areas along with Cero Mackerel and King Mackerel.

Groupers of all varieties have been prominent as well with many "would be" keeper sized fish released due to the present closed season on them. We have also seen evidence of Amberjacks, Cobia, Mutton Snapper, Sharks, Barracuda, and some other surprise fish like Blackfin Tuna hanging around the deeper wrecks and deeper reef areas over 100ft of water.

Sailfish have been around the 100-250ft depth range along with lots of large King Mackerel up to 40lb. The area off of Delta Shoal near Sombrero light was particularly hot this week for big King Mackerel with a few sails and Mahi-Mahi mixed in as well on the south wind days. Cool fronts are ruling the fishing landscape right now with a front coming in about every 4th day as we have had the winds going around the clock the past few weeks about as fast as the hours on the clock!

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Offshore fishing has been good for Blackfin Tuna at the west hump and there have been some scattered Dolphin (Mahi) around debris on the way out and back from the humps. Some nice Wahoo have been taken way offshore by some adventurous anglers but recent breezy conditions have kept most boats nearer to shore.

Florida Bay has been up and down lately since the big cold snap in January that dropped the water temps down 30 degrees and pushed lots of the bay inhabitants out onto the Atlantic side to avoid the cooler waters. Recent trips to the bayside by charters out of the 7 Mile Marina here in Marathon have produced some decent Mangrove Snapper and lots of Spanish Mackerel to go with some Bluefish and some Jacks and other less desireable critters.

    Starting with the offshore fishery where most anglers are taking advantage of with the calm seas, we have found that dolphin have been changing the locations of the big numbers from day to day.  There has not been one steady depth for the fish to be in the past week.  One day they were found at 22 miles from the reef and the next, not a fish to be found in the area.   Some days, 12 to 16 miles were all one had to travel to find plenty of fish.

Plenty of Sailfish are still here off of Marathon also. Yesterday we fished with the Wilkins family from the Atlanta area and 15yr old Alex caught a nice sailfish, her first! We broke the line unfortunately on two others on a half day trip. We also saw a total of about 20 sailfish chasing baitfish and free jumping around the area. And we chased birds for a couple hours as they were dipping all over the area on Ballyhoo that the sailfish were spooking up to the top and were balled up into tight schools. Some Sailfish were also caught by live baiting Pilchards and Blue Runners the past few days near Sombrero Light in 70-130ft of water.

Today the dirty water moved in however and slowed the bite on Sails a bit, but all week was hot up until today and some boats still caught Sails today even in the dirty water. That could change overnight, so the bite should continue to be excellent for the next couple months or more.

If you see dipping frigate birds on the reef and are targeting sails, you need to have some a few live Ballyhoo in the livewell to pitch to them so you can match the bait to what the fish are feeding on. Best way to bag a few "Hoo" is to anchor on the shallow reef coral patches, and chum heavily. If you can throw a cast net, you can round up a few dozen in fairly short order. If cast nets are not your thing, you can catch ballyhoo on hook and line using a small "hair hook" with a small piece of bait that looks like the chum.

Other than the Mackerel on the reef, there have been good numbers of Yellowtail Snapper biting all up and down the line. Largest fish have been in the 55-85ft depths. Smaller "patch tails" have been biting extrememly well in shallower waters and some nice grouper have been coming in also. Some big Mutton Snapper have also been coming in from the reef and from deep wrecks on the Atlantic side of Marthon.

Other baits will work for sailfish when you are fishing the deeper waters. Pilchards, Blue runners, Goggle eyes, Threadfin Herring and good to name a few of my faves. Slow trolling the live baits are the ticket or fishing the baits off of Kites are the preferred way to get the sailfish to find your baits. Some nice surprises have been awaiting anglers lately also as some good numbers of Wahoo have been showing up in the Sailfish target area of 100-200ft. King Mackerel are also starting to make their presence felt along the reef edge with most of the Kings lately in the "school" size of fish of 5-10lb. They can be great fun on light tackle! 

Just the other day a 504lb Sword was brought into the dock on a private boat out of Key Colony Beach! Several other stories of large fish that were lost at the boat have been coming in as well. So it looks like we have more than just the 50-150lbers out there!  This action should continue when conditions enable capts to get out to the Sword zone.

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Reef and Wreck fishing has been excellent for Yellowtail snapper on the patch reefs. Cero and Spanish Mackerel are heating up as well in Hawk's channel and on the shallow reef. Some large Black Grouper are starting to show up on the deep reef as well. Some medium to large Amberjacks have been hanging on the deep wrecks along with a Mutton Snapper or two.

The Cobia bite has also been productive out on the outer gulf wrecks for boats willing to make the 20+ mile run out to the outer wrecks. Some of the spots out 30+ miles have just been phenomenal. Some Cobia up to 45lb have been coming in to the local docks from out in that area.

Big Barracudas have been covering the shallow wrecks, and some major Bull sharks have been showing up at the highly chummed Yellowtail spots on the deep reef edge. Some large Cobia are starting to show up here and there, especially on the gulf wrecks. Goliath grouper are dominating some areas of the bayside especially around inshore wrecks from 10-20 miles from town.

Fishing should continue to be excellent here in the middle Keys. If you would like more info on fishing here in Marathon, check out our web site. Good luck in all your fishing adventures!

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If you would like more info on fishing in the Marathon and middle Keys area, check out our web site at www.sundancesportfishing.com. 

Good luck in all your fishing adventures!