MARATHON, Florida Keys — With the opening of the lobster season Marathon has been very busy. A lot of people mixing it up with diving and fishing, this is what the Keys is all about. I haven’t been diving for lobsters yet, but I will soon because the season is starting to wind down and with this pause in business I will have the time to get a few bugs for dinner. I have noticed a few people not following the rules of safety and this is one of the reasons why people are dying while lobstering. When divers get to far away from their boat they become a statistic, which can be avoided by staying closer to the boat, or have someone on the boat keeping up with the diver.
The offshore bite was hit or miss at the beginning of the week with mainly small catches of decent size dolphin. As the week progressed the dolphin bite got red hot with some schoolie action and larger dolphin being caught in abundance. Most of the big dolphin have been averaging 20 pounds with some up to 40 pounds. The tuna bite has been consistently good with some really big ones in the 20-35 pound class. Most of the dolphin action has been from the 600-foot line out to the 650’s, which is 12-17 miles from shore.
Deep dropping has been hit or miss, but really the current has kept me from dropping. When the current exceeds 3 kts I will try it, but usually it is too fast and you have to venture in closer to try and get out of the main current. The optimal current for deep dropping is from 1-2 kts; you still need some current to cover the ground. Sword fishing was a little slow lately, but last week there was some great catches and some great stories of the one that got away. The daytime sword fishing has been where the best bite is. The nighttime bite was slow and plenty of sharks to keep things interesting.
The nighttime snapper bite slowed down recently due to the full moon, but as the moon gets smaller the bite should increase. I have been averaging 2-5 pound mangroves and really small yellowtails. During the daytime the yellowtails have been great and decent fish from 1-3 pounds. I have been doing much better on the reef further to the west, somewhere around the Bahia Honda area. I haven’t heard about the mutton bite around town, but I have been tearing up the amberjacks, kingfish, and got an African pompano. Wreck fishing has been hot, but the sharks have been eating their share. I don’t see things changing much out on the wrecks, except for maybe some muttons catches to rise a bit.
PS: Greg, Chris, and Robert, you guys rock I had such a great time fishing with you guys, can’t wait to get those photos and hope to see you guys real soon.
