Fishing the marsh – looking for reds. Dragonfly photo. Be sure to have kill switch harnessed to you.
Get in and go
By TJ Douglas
If you want to get in a skiff and go, Dragonfly’s Marsh Hen Skiff is one to consider. A while back, I got to borrow one and fished it hard every day for ten days, including getting soaked one afternoon. My haunts were the ones I knew well from my walk-in experiences or hitching a ride for a trade-out for advertising. My fishery, excluding my surf fishing haunts, were numerous canals with fresh water, brackish water, salt marshes, and saltwater on incoming tides of South Florida. I caught largemouth bass, snook, crevalle jack, redfish, small tarpon (10- to 35-pounds), and a few exotics, including a 40-pound Asian carp. I fished exclusively alone – didn’t have to heed another angler’s preferences for time to leave or come home. My days started at dawn, late morning, and night for dock snook and tarpon, which was the most fun but left me a little “off” the following day.
The best thing about the Marsh Hen is its weight—200 pounds soaking wet. Mine ran with a 9.9 HP and got up on the plane in seconds. Just a rinse at day’s end, and you’re done. No fussing around for hours.
I carried a small cooler with ice, water, and Snickers bars, two fly rods (Sage Bass rod with 330 grams SA fly line and 8-weight switch), and two reels: one Everglades Tibor, a 10-weight with RIO’s outbound, and a spare spool with a 10-weight clear intermediate.
Marsh Hen 15′ Flats Boat
And sometimes you like to fish alone without any hassles. So do we and that’s why we know you need fishing space, dry storage and agile boat performance in extremely shallow water.
Marsh Hen Micro Skiff – It’s Simple, Stable and Stealthy with Smooth Handling. This 15′ Flats Boat out-performs all others in her class with a hull design that maximizes angler’s comfort without decreasing fishability.
An incredibly versatile skiff, the Marsh Hen travels easily in your hunt for fish on the flats, canals, lakes, and marshes.
Nightfall on the lake – looking for largemouth bass. Dragonfly photo.
Boat, Motor & Trailer Packages Starting at $13,000
50″ BEAM – 15′ LENGTH | FUEL 6 GALLONS | 200 LBS
Dragonfly Boatworks LLC
3435 Aviation Blvd.
Vero Beach, FL 32960
P: 772.567.8835
F: 772.567.8836
Email: dragonflyboats@bellsouth.net
Mark, left, and friend Jimbo at the Palm Beach Boat Show 2014. Clement photo.
About the owner Mark Castlow
On, in, and around water sums up a great big chunk of Mark Castlow’s life. He’s a Florida native whose inherent affinity for the blue was only intensified by where he grew up…Miami and the Florida Keys.
As a teen, Mark learned how to “ride” the water surfing up and down the coast. He became so enamored of the sport and its thrills that he ended up starting his own surf shop and creating a line of surfboards (Atlantis). Surfing propelled him to travel the country and elsewhere investigating almost every body of water and wave condition you can think of.
Mark’s work and innovations in the fiberglass industry put him in demand to successfully make, repair, create or improvise all sorts of solutions to all sorts of problems. From there he entered the boat business. Years spent building and selling inshore craft put Mark’s finger on the pulse of what it takes to make and market shallow water skiffs.
He became so knowledgeable about what people wanted from their boats, their sport, their lifestyle that Mark’s next step was to start a business producing two-day, shallow water fishing expositions throughout the southeastern United States. How much more information could one person have about the people, the sport, the market, the craft, the demand and the challenges of shallow water boating? If knowledge is key, and it is, Mark proudly presents Dragonfly Boatworks LLC.
Brooke Thomas knows how to catch, hold, photo op, and release a largemouth bass. A Brooke Thomas photo.
