Just Back From Florida Keys - What A Place!

[Bob F]

Just got back from our holiday in Florida.

 

Spent a week in Orlando scaring myself sh@tless on the roller coasters. Where will these rides end? One of the rides in Bush Gardens has the worlds tallest verical drop on 200ft. They hold you at the top of the drop for about 5 secs, just long enough for you to get a good look at the fall and wet your pants, and then drop you 200ft. Holy mackerel!!!

 

Stocked up on all sorts of Stormies, shads and vaious worms at BassPro. I could've spent a couple of days walking round there. They have virtually everything you could think of relating to boating and fishing, although I wasn't able to find any of the replacement landing nets that some of you were after (sorry ). And they didn't stock the Storm Sandeels. They seemed a bit p****d off when I told them they were hot stuff in the UK, and they knew nothing about them.

 

Mike, also was not able to find your Barkfree device. Went to various outlets but nobody had it in stock.

 

Anyway, I survived a week of the kids and the wife laughing at my less than macho performance on the rollercoasters (I'm scared of my own height), and then drove down to the Keys.

 

What a fishing mekka this is!!

 

Not a sailing boat in sight. It was shear sport fishing motorboat heaven. It was quite common to see boats with 3 (yes 3) 150HP outboards on the back. I guess fuel was not a problem in the States until prices went up.

 

Didn't do a lot of fishing except from the small private pier where we were staying, where I had a lot of fun with little Rob catching some sort of colourful bream-like fish, and tempting the odd jack-barracuda to take small baited lures.

 

Watched the huge Tarpon and Nurse Sharks being fed at the restaurant in Islamorada (pronounced Ila-Mor-ada [means purple Island in spanish]).

 

 

Hired a boat for half a day (a 20ft walk-around with Bimini top and 150HP Yamaha) to do some snorkelling at a reef about 3 miles offshore called "hens and chickens (apparently after a ship that sunk there). This was fantastic, if a bit scarey when you see largish shoals of big barracuda swimming around and expecting something to eat. All sorts of beautiful fish to see. Right at the end of the session I came across two huge Permit playing around in a gulley. My heart skipped a few beats when I saw the size of their mouths. The old survival instincts kicked in for a few seconds (can it eat me? can I eat it? Can I shag it? The latter two were definitely not an option).

 

The week ended with the highlight of the whole trip. Came back to our beach hut on the last day and found a large female Manatee and her cub playing around by the pier. We had heard that they like to drink fresh water, so we placed a fresh water hose in the water and the big female immediately started sucking on the end of it. We were able to get into the water and play with them for around 45mins before the mother got fed up and moved off. A fabulous experience. At one point Karen was bottle feeding the pup with a bottle of fresh water. They have wonderful temperaments. The mother was not bothered in the slightest about us playing with her pup. What other wild animals would allow you to do this? At an estimated weight of 600lb she could have done some serious damage if she had wanted.

 

I will post some photos later.

 

Also purchased the Eagle SeaChamp 2000C DF combo unit for

[Coddy]

I take it Bob that you showed all your goods to the customs then?

 

Coddy

[Swainiac]

Nice one Bob!........Have just packed the travel Bass rod for spinning/freelining, the 9wt travel fly rod for early morning flicks in the surf, assorted hooks, bits and bobs, and a spare telescopic rod...just in case!

 

Will stock up on lures, fluerocarbon/braid, hooks and other "shiny" gadgets the yanks know we love!!! Am looking forward to three weeks uninterupted fishing, and hopefully, sun without the hurricanes this year! (Managed two last year.....greedy I know!).

 

Have a great three weeks while I'm away lads....tight lines, I'm off to bag me a 'poon!!

 

Rich

[Bob F]

Coddy, of course.

 

Have fun Rich. Saw a lot of guys with fly rods fishing from boats and shore. Gotta give that a try next time. I recon those baby 'cudas would've easily have taken a fly. If you snokel around the piers on the bay side you will see plenty of them hiding in the shade. Some of them look a good size too. The babies are brownish and look like jack Pike. As they mature they go silver. Terrific fun on really light tackle.

 

BF

[Maverick Martin]

Hi Bob

 

Glad to hear you had a good time, it

[Bob F]

How does Rich manage it????

 

3 weeks of solid fishing...what does his better half do whilst he's off fishing???...

 

BF

[Paul D]

Rich,

 

Have a great catching holiday in Florida

 

[Swainiac]

Hurricane katrina hits Ft. Lauderdale!!! Shes a cat 1 hurricane, so less powerfull than the two I had last year, wind speeds of around 74mph. Course is set to cross the state, and exit land across to the Gulf, leaving land in the Naples area......a little down from me. Weather will be a bit pants for a few days, while the system clears, then hopefully sun,sun,sun!!

 

As far as three weeks fishing goes......shes worse than me out there!!! Her mum and dad arrive shortly after us, for a month generally, and we all fish together. Hopefully, this weather system will have the same effect as last years, it seems to push bigger fish into the calm of the inland water behind clearwater beach, Tarpon around 60-100lb mark were rolling frequently last yr....manage to hook one! Great sport from an oversized herring! Will have a go for stingers after nightfall on the Gulf beach too......had the gen from Gordon, re tactics. Looking forward to freshly caught sea trout, bar be qued......can't beat it!

 

Appologies in advance for forthcoming meeting please, tight lines, stay safe all.

 

Rich

[Bob F]

Keep your head down, Rich.

 

Good luck, mate!

 

BF