View some of the pics taken during my May Marathon fishing charters to see what anglers have been catching! Click the images to view full size & be sure to read the report beneath the fish pics!
Fishing the Bridges: It’s Tarpon Time
This is still a great time to target Tarpon at the bridges in and around Marathon. Whether you’re fishing Long Key bridge, Vaca cut, 7 mile Bridge, or Bahia Honda bridge it should be an exciting time. Still fishing them the conventional way you shouldn’t have problems hooking up and watching the silver king run and dance all around the boat. These can be some of the best hours fishing of your lifetime. Fishing either early in the morning or in the evening as the sun sets you’re sure to hook up with a monster.
Fishing the Reef: Grouper Season is Here!
May 1 is the opening of grouper season, baby! They’re just coming off their spawn and this is the best time to target them. You can catch them on the reef out to deep water using large live bait and heavy tackle. Groupers usually by-catch while fishing for yellowtail snapper on the reef. The yellowtail fishing during this time is usually spectacular. With larger than average size fish you can fill a cooler pretty quickly.
Fishing the Wrecks: The Bigger the Better
Still a great time of the year to target permit as they are still spawning in the deep water. We’ve been catching big amberjacks and jack crevelle and mutton snapper while fishing the wrecks. Oh, and don’t forget the big grouper. They will hang around the deep wrecks as well. So if you’re looking for a fish that will test what you’ve got , go ahead and put a bait down there and fish our Marathon wrecks.
Fishing the Offshore: Dolphin & Tuna Galore
It’s still pretty much the beginning of dolphin season here in the Florida Keys. Not as far out as usual, you can get into the dolphin and get into the numbers of dolphin that you would typically expect for this time of year. There’s still plenty of tuna to be caught offshore. If you want to troll, live bait, or jig for them, you can get them.
Fishing the Gulf: More Sharks Than You Can Count
The Gulf this year still produces great numbers of fish with a vast variety of species. With mangrove snapper, grouper, cobia, sharks, and a vast variety of species it can be a very busy day. One particular day that stands out this month was with a group of guys who wanted to catch as many sharks as they could. By 3:30 PM we had released 50 sharks. We estimated a hooked 70 sharks.
Sometimes you never know what you’re going to get. One of the fish we caught that we didn’t expect was African pompano. Closely related to permit, they’re also a beautiful and fun fish to catch.
