FISH TALES | Capt. Don Deputy
Sailfish are the talk of the town
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Posted - Friday, October 30, 2009 09:44 AM EDT
Monday is the harvest moon. The temperatures have been dropping a bit lately and fishing for sailfish has been the talk of the town, when we’re not talking about Halloween.
Capt. Brandon Jimenez guided a spooky group aboard the Fin Razor last weekend to a nice offshore trip. The crew of the Fin Razor went 1-for-2 on sails, fishing at Conch Reef.
They also caught dolphin on the edge of the reef with their live ballyhoo, and even caught some keeper mutton snapper and yellowtails on the deep rods slow-trolled near the bottom.
Another recent trip aboard with Capt. Brandon yielded some good-sized king mackerel out in 140 feet of water, and farther still in 400- to 600-foot depths they did some deep-dropping and caught rose porgies, snowy groupers, vermillion and yelloweye snappers.
At and around the Conch Reef area the current has been running relatively strong toward the north and east and the color of the water has been a very deep blue. Capt. Martin Formento on the Beaver charter boat out of Key Largo had four bites from sailfish on Monday.
Weak fronts
Windy weather has been a fact of life lately. As I write this the wind is whipping at about 30 knots and will not be conducive for much accurate reporting. We’ve had some weak cold fronts so far this fall, but to really see sailfish push through our area and the action heat up to a strong and vibrant level, I think we need one more doozey of a front with a lasting chill that makes you think of Thanksgiving, hot chili, and long sleeves — which is all right around the corner for us.
A few larger dolphin, some up to 40 pounds, are still cruising down against the current anywhere from the reef on out to 450 feet of water this fall, and the blackfins are actively stalking the “hills” just off Key Largo and are cooperating early in the mornings.
As much as I hate to admit it, the slow season is in fact here. It’s time to paint the bottom and wax the hull and a good time to fix any of those things you’ve been putting off all year long with the boat.
The Islamorada Sailfish Tournament will be kicking off in about a month and it’s always good to have that stuff done before that so as to be a “contender,” as the late great Marlon Brando used to say.
Stiff breezes from the east and northeast during the fall of the year will put things in motion and get the migrations moving soon, not to worry.
Look for bonefish to be absolutely huge this month, and if the current and conditions are right at the reef, you can probably still get your limit of yellowtails on the anchor with the proper flow of chum and some nice fresh bait to simulate it on a nice calm day.
