Marathon and Islamorada in the Florida Keys make the claim they are the apex of sportfishing on earth. After ten years of annual 1-2 week trips there, ....... well I think I have to agree. This is a place so loaded with fish, and great condidtions that it's amazing if you don't catch trememdous fish there.

Here is a little photo post with just some of the fish we caught in a week. I spent quite a lot of time diving at the reefs for. However I spent many full days fishing and several partial days fishing when the tides were right.

I primarily target inshore sharks and use my own light to medium weight spinning gear. Each one hooked requires a fight that is in the area of an hour or more to get to the boat. From there we unhook them and release them. I do keep one or two in the 30-40" range as they are so good to eat. One day I caught 9 sharks and a sawfish, I also lost three when the hooks straightened out. I fixed that the next time out with a bit bigger hooks and never lost another one. One 170lb (est) Blacktip (7ft)came out of the water 8 times, once was within 10 feet of the boat!


I also caught Cobia, grouper, tarpon(80 and one just about 100lbs) Jacks, Mackeral, bull sharks, Lemon sharks, Dusky sharks, Hammerhead sharks, Blacktip shark and spinner sharks ( the ultimate jumping sportfish) Probably more species but that is what comes to mind.

Cobia and Jack cravale are argueably the most powerful fish for their size I have ever had on my line. A 20lb Cobia will rip drag endlessly and dive for many minutes even with medium weigh gear. With my light 12lb spinning rod they are a battle for 15-25 minutes of constant drag screaming runs each time they get within 20 feet of the boat they rip loose 40 yards of drag.

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Gotta love Circle hooks, every single fish hooked was exactly the same, it's like driving an Automatic Transmission. Just let him take the bait and hang on, perfect hookups every time, and never in the mouth were they can bite the leader while fighting!
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