Reef Raider Adventures: Miles To Go Before I Fish

I'm back Reef Raider fans and have I got a story for you.

The Hammocks At Marathon

I reserved two days at my time share in Marathon for fathers day weekend, great little place just this side of the 7 mile bridge on the Gulf side. I invited two good friends to go along with me, the first is a guy you've heard me talk about before if you read this blog, Mike Murias of Migdalia's Awards ( http://www.migawards.com/ ) and more importantly (to me) the captain of Off Limits charters, ( http://www.offlimitscharters.com/ ). Like I told you many times before, the guy straight up knows his stuff like no one else I know.

The second guy is a life long friend, Alexis Cazañas, Principal of Coral Gables Adult Education Center. He's not a charter captain, but has logged enough hours on the ocean with a rod in his hands to be one.

With two straight up fishing machines on board I could not help but feel confident about our chances, and in Marathon which is a hot bed of fishing action, it all added up to a recipe for a full cooler, and we did not disappoint.

Mike and Alex arrived early, a little after 7:00 AM, I was already in the water waiting for them, we unloaded the few things they brought with them and headed out to catch some bait. I didn't find any really great spots for my awesome pin fish traps so I only put one out that I left overnight, we picked that up and it only had 10 or so small pins and a couple of crabs. A charter captain at the dock where I was staying told me there was a nice spot to bang up the Pins on the other side of the 7 mile bridge so we took off for that to see if we could improve on our live bait.

I had run around a little the night before when I got to Marathon in the early evening so I suggested that we top off the gas tank just to be safe (that would turn out to be a prudent move on my part as you'll find out). We put out another trap and anchored up to catch some pins, we worked them hard for about 45 min and we finally felt we had enough so off we went.

Mike has a great little ledge in about 95 feet of water that is loaded with Tails and other predators, and where I caught a 30lb black grouper with him the Summer before last, so that was our target. The only negative was that the spot was about 13 miles South West of where we started so it would be a little bit of a run but that a small price to pay for a hot spot.

40 minutes later we were there, but Mike had said more that once already on the way that he did no like the color of the water, “GREEN WATER” he kept saying, “THIS SUCKS”. On top of that there was little to no current, and a charter boat camped right on the spot we were aiming for to boot. We cruised around pondering what to do for about 20 min. Alex and I put it on Mike to decide what to do; he said he had a spot a little further South, and said we needed to run and find some Blue Water and some current if we planned on making a day of it. He did not exactly tell me how far it was or I might have objected, my boat after all only has a 30 gallon tank.

We get to the spot Mike had picked out and wouldn't you know it, BLUE WATER, and a 3.5 knot current, a little stiff on the current, but workable. Mike pulled out a Deep water high speed jig so I followed suit and tied one on myself. We both dropped down and on the first drift Back there goes my Rod. O! O! Bonito says Mike... SUM BEAC! How could he know that? Sure enough, a few minutes later the ugly sister in the Tuna family gets a Gaff in the tide to be used as bait later. We pull up the lines ran back the the near ¾ mile that the hard current had taken us and set up to do it again.

Yellow Tail Bait

We dropped jigs again, and Boom, I'm on again with my nice little Laser Eye jig. “Bonito again” I said “nah” said Mike but probably a Reef Donkey (Amber Jack). SHEEESH! Not exactly though, it was a decent size Almaco Jack, so we put that one in the Cooler for Benny (Mike's buddy who likes Almaco) and the Skunk was off the boat.

Almaco

We picked up and made another pass at the wreck and Alex had rigged a long leader with a pin fish on it and he let it down on the front end of the wreck. As we approached the tail end of the wreck... Bang! His rod rips out and he's got a fish on, all sign point to something nice. “COLOR BABY I got Color here” he starts bragging, and sure enough, he brings in this nice 12 to 14 pound Mutton.

Color Baby! Str8 up H Town Mutton Killa

We worked that wreck for a while and managed another couple Donkeys and had a few lines cut off. We lost a couple jigs and then also the bigger lead we had for that depth so fishing the wreck was quickly becoming a lesser option. In the distance we could see three boats with close proximity to each other and we decided to head over and investigate. As we got a little closer, Mike recognized that they were Commercial Tailers, and he was a little excited as the prospect.

We circled and Mike said the Sounder looked hot, he figured out the drift and told Alex to drop the anchor. The Chum bag went in and we started to pound the tails right away; Smaller ones really but with plenty of size to get in the cooler. We recognized that the big ball of Tails was feeding hard behind the commercial guys, but we managed to get some over to us. Mike dropped some bait down while Alex and I hit the tails and he picked up a nice Yellow Jack, and a little later this nice size Mango Snapper.

I took a break to look on the Chart Plotter, and the closest spot I had marked near us was EYEGLASS just out side Key West. WHAT??? EYEGLASS! Holly crap just 11 miles from Key West, you do the math; we started out at Mile Marker 48 in Marathon and were now just 11 from Key West. I got to admit I was a little freaked out, we were under a Half tank of gas used and we were now 37 miles away from where we started.

There was also a tight line of summer squals just to our west and I told Mike we should probably go. He told me not to sweat it which made me feel a little better but I still felt starting the run back was our best option, and Mike agreed so the 37 mile trek back to port was on; I couldn't help but to have one eye on the fuel gage as we traveled, and I made mention of it once or twice. Mike told me that when the needle says empty you should still have 5 gallons or so in the tank; a little mental math, some calculations as to how much fuel we were burning and I felt better, but not exactly confident. Well that is why I have Boat US unlimited towing, if we do run out so be it, call it in and get hauled in by some help is the worst that could happen.

On the run back we went over the spot we started out for earlier in the day and so a break in our run back to see if we could manage to entice some tails was the order. There was now a little current but the water was still Green. A few minutes later we were catching tails, none of significant scale, most went back in the atlantic, but we did put a few in the cooler. I put a Pin down but nothing seemed interested in it. Mike rigged up a Side Winder plug and boated a couple of nice Kings. By now the evening was approaching, and we called it a day, still with a 13 mile run and the needle about half way between the ¼ tank mark and the Empty line.

We made it on what I would have sworn were fumes, but when I filled the tank Sunday morning I pumped exactly 25 gallons, so we still had another 5 Gallons to get us home. I had never pushed my little boat like that, but I'm glad I did because now I know it's range. Actually pretty damn efficient, Mike estimates that all in all we traveled around 100 miles, and we never cut the engine off except while anchored up for the tails. So figure we were getting around 4 miles to the Gallon, which is pretty damn good, especially with the cost of fuel now a days. Mike was pretty impressed with my little boat as most people tend to be, and I was once again gratified that my boat performed to the call of duty.

Enjoy the picture, and as always if you have a few seconds, visit some of my sponsors, they pay me pennies if you click on their link and take a look at their stuff, and I'll get a check from them when I break the $100 dollar mark, I've accumulated almost $40, so maybe by this time next year I'll get a check from Goggle. Thanks again for reading my blog, and please feel free to post your impressions down there in the comments section.

Till next time...