Planning to be there a week in early April. I have fished there before in July with limited success.
Any #'s you would like to share??
Given good weather definitely gonna chum for yellowtails. How far out for sails? Dolphin running?
Advice on gulf side? have not fished there before
thanks
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Oh yeah, will be bringing A to Z, 22’ Sea Hunt Triton
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On the gulf side out of marathon, it’s super shallow. You will be 15 miles offshore and still in 8-10 feet of water. You need numbers on that side to do real fishing. It’s mostly grass on that side, then you will see some big white spots about the size of a bedroom open up in the grass. In many of those spots will be 2-3 holes the size of a bucket. And, you may see a red grouper and a few lobster there. Lobster season doesn’t come in until July\August though. Also, we fished a few wrecks on the gulf side and caught mangroves, yellowtail snapper, yellow jacks, (saw a few goliaths), but you really have to know where those are. It’s pretty “run and gun” on that side. You are probably better off staying on the atlantic side, scanning the reefs and then setting up a chum slick. If you get out on some good reef (ton of it out there) and set out a chum slick, you will have some sort of action on light tackle with live shrimp.
Just to piggy back off of skinnee, out of marathon there are two ledge systems, one on the edge of hawks channel which will roll from appx 15 to 20-30ft and then the main ledge which drops from 50 to 100+. The shallower ledge system you can roll a snorkler in the water and drift to find patches that have more life. Set up a slick on your marks and you will catch spanish, ceros, snapper and possibly a king. Bump out to the deep ledge for your yellowtail, bigger kings and grouper. If its a really nice day you can run out to the humps (marathon, 409, Islamorada) for tuna, dolphin, wahoo etc.
Live bait is king down there. Either spend your time finding it or pay a kings ransom for it(Other than live shrimp, think we paid about .89 cents a dozen last time we were down there). You can chum up ballyhoo on the grass flats and if you can throw a 12-14’ cast net you can fill your livewell quickly. You can also catch them one at a time with a bream-buster rig (toothpick cork, splitshot, and tiny gold aberdeen hook) using small pieces of cut shrimp for bait. Your individual caught ballys will live much longer than cast-netted ballys. For a live ballyhoo rig, make a 6’ leader of 30-40lb fluoro (fluoro makes a difference down there and I would not go any higher than 40lb test, don’t go over 15 lb fluoro for yellowtail)and either crimp or snell a circle-hook or 6/0 dink-bait hook. Attach a piece of copper wireto the eye of the hook. The bill of a ballyhoo is on the lower jaw. Leave the bill attached to the ballyhoo, bring hook from the inside of the mouth, just past the base of the bill down and out under the chin and then wrap the copper wire from the eye of the hook, around the hook shank and bill back towards the mouth. You can bump troll like this up and down the main ledge for sails/tuna/dolphin kings etc or anchor up and toss a live ballyhoo as far back in your chum slick as you can get it.
Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.
Thanks guys,
The gulf side is mainly a backup plan for windy days, sounds like we might be better off to fish the bridge and cuts on those days.
We caught some decent yellowtails last time, but no muttons or mangroves. Thinking I need to run north or south as right off Marathon gets fished pretty heavy, im thinking north.
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You could run off the Atlantic side to about 60’(no more than 4-5 miles offshore)and tear the yellowtail snapper up. Carry at least 5 blocks of chum with you and set up a chumline, use light line and a small hook to keep your bait drifting back at the same rate as the chum, and load up on the flags. Get a maps unique and there are several spots marked with live bottom.
“Never argue with an idiot…he will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.”
quote:You can still do well right off of Marathon. It's probably just more of a matter of your expectations. Your cooler just isn't going to look the same as a day of bottom fishing in Charleston. People that live in the keys will tell you that fishing doesn't get any better. That's because they have never been out of the keys.
Originally posted by A2ZThanks guys,
The gulf side is mainly a backup plan for windy days, sounds like we might be better off to fish the bridge and cuts on those days.
We caught some decent yellowtails last time, but no muttons or mangroves. Thinking I need to run north or south as right off Marathon gets fished pretty heavy, im thinking north.
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