By Capt. Chris Johnson
The cooler November weather brings a massive influx of baitfish to the Marathon waters, ballyhoo most notably, and with them come our wintertime pelagic species.
The reef is the place to be. Thanks to the slightly cooler-than-normal water temps all summer, we expect large numbers of ballyhoo on the reef edge and up on the patches in 20 to 30 feet of water.
With the ballyhoo, come the predators, primarily sailfish plus king and cero mackerel.
We also find a fair number of dolphin (mahi) in the shallows spraying the ballyhoo. This means the predator fish are pushing the ballyhoo out of the water and up in the air. The key is to look for frigate birds diving down to the water surface to take advantage of the sprays of ballyhoo.
Among all this activity you will also find good numbers of midsize mutton snappers and large mangrove snappers. They’re eating the ballyhoo that the other fish have missed.
Obviously, your bait of choice here is ballyhoo. Pitch a live ballyhoo directly at the sailfish and dolphin you can see. Or, anchor up on a patch reef and target the mackerel and snappers by fishing a ballyhoo on a jighead near the bottom.
On the same patches, you can expect to see increased grouper activity, primarily reds and blacks.
If, for some reason, there’s not much action on the patches, move out to the reef line in 40 to 60 feet for consistent yellowtail snapper fishing. You’ll find muttons and groupers here as well.
Use the usual amount of chum and assortment of baits for the yellowtails and expect the fish to average 14 to 16 inches. For the muttons and groupers, we like to fish a pinfish or live ballyhoo on a jighead on the bottom. In super-clear water, choose your lighter tackle, but break out the heavier stuff when the water is dirty.
You’ll also encounter large cero and king mackerel here, and they love a free-lined live ballyhoo drifted out in your chum slick. We will often fish one ballyhoo on a light wire rig for the mackerel plus one free-lined ballyhoo with 40-pound fluoro for the sailfish, dolphin or blackfin tuna that occasionally show up while you’re yellowtailing.
The wreck activity also picks up this time of year, with plenty of muttons, kingfish, cobia and the pelagics such as sails, dolphin and tuna. While live ballyhoo and pinfish are their preference, pinfish will do in a pinch.
We also begin to see activity in Florida Bay during November. It’s mostly mangroves, but also the start of the Spanish mackerel run, which typically becomes consistent by Thanksgiving.
Any sort of wreck or natural bottom spot eight to ten miles out should provide plenty of action. Small pilchards, chunks of pinfish or shrimp fished on a jighead will do well for most of your catching.
If the mackerel are thick, switch over to short #4 wire leaders to prevent bite offs. Then, load up the smoker!
There’s great shark fishing fun as the blacktips, spinners and bulls arrive to mingle with the resident lemons to create action-packed, light-tackle fishing in shallow water. Outstanding for anglers of all ages and abilities.
The SeaSquared crew wishes you a very Happy Thanksgiving, and we hope to see you on one of our boats during this holiday season!
Capt. Chris Johnson specializes in offshore, reef/wreck, gulf/bay, saifish, shark, tarpon and lobster fishing with SeaSquared Charters
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