The movie below pretty much sums up our day out on the water. Nice to get the kayaks back out in the water after a few weeks sitting on the dock. We made the best of a windy day in the Keys and it had a great ending!
Kayak Fishing Boot Key from Chris Schaul on Vimeo.
My parents had never been to Key West, so we took the day on Wednesday to drive down and spend a few hours seeing some sights between mile marker 53 and mile marker 0. First stop was a driving detour on Big Pine Key and No Name Key to see some of the key deer. While it wasn’t the best time of day, as they seem to be out roaming around more in the early evening, we did get to see 3-4 near the road.
Pulled into Key West around noon and parked on a side street with a walk of about 8-10 blocks down Duval Street to the waterfront near Mallory Square. Quite a difference in the atmosphere of Duval Street during the afternoon hours during the low season compared to previous visits which have all been after dark. We stopped along the way at a few boutique hotels and B&Bs, then enjoyed a decent lunch out near the waterfront and took a different path back to the car which was quiet and scenic.
Stopped into one of the old churches
For fellow Big Lebowski movie fans! Duval Street has t-shirts about almost everything
Front porch at the Cypress House, a favorite place of Cindy’s brothers
Wild chicken population is doing well in KW
A mis-timed photo on my part
Arrived back at our place in Marathon around 5 and said our farewells as my parents drove back Cape Coral. They really enjoyed their time here and glad the weather cooperated nicely to be able to show them a number of the activities to enjoy in the Keys. Sounds like they’ll be back again soon!
Another calm day on the ocean, so we decided to load up the snorkeling gear on the boat and drive over to Sombrero Reef. It’s a protected reef area where no fishing or spearing is allowed. Water clarity wasn’t great and there were a number of jellyfish to avoid, but were able to see quite a few fish. Spent a couple hours parked at the reef, then headed a bit west to a nearby fishing spot to try our hand at yellow tailing again. Didn’t find the good quality fish like Sunday, but still managed to catch 6 keepers.
Rockin a new hat courtesy of my wife for an anniversary present
Our daily visitors include iguanas
View from the boat to the lighthouse at Sombrero Reef
Sombrero Snorkeling from Chris Schaul on Vimeo.
Called it an early day to get back to the house and get cleaned up for a dinner at a nearby restaurant called LazyDays. It’s the second location of a place I had gone in Islamorada on my bachelor party back in 2006. Once again the food was great along with a perfect sunset view from our table. They cooked up a huge platter of our yellowtail cooked three different ways and still eating it for lunch today!
Glassy sunset view from our table at Lazy Days restaurant
A fantastic dinner, great company and spectacular view
Cooked up some seafood dip for the boat today. Plan on heading out to looe key or sombrero reef for some snorkeling and then some reef fishing.
Step 1, combine some celery, hearts of palm, onions, spicy mustard, salt, pepper, Emerils fish rub, mayo and cream cheese
Step 2, cook some fish and lobster
Step 3, add the chopped seafood into the bowl and stir. Refrigerate for a couple hours and enjoy with crackers and a cold one, preferably on a boat!
Woke up to some very calm conditions for our anniversary. It’s been a fantastic 6 years for Cindy and I and looking forward to many more!
Once everyone woke up, we loaded up the boat, filled up with fuel then headed out for some reef fishing about 3-4 miles away to take advantage of the calm sea which has been rare so far.
Ended up being a great day. My dad learned how to fish for yellowtail, which is quite different from normal bottom fishing. Seas stayed calm all day and we caught a bunch of fish. Ended with 9 yellowtails, 1 hefty mangrove snapper, 1 cero mackerel and a couple bonito. Drove back to the house only using about 5 gallons of gas 🙂
Cleaned up the fish, soaked in the pool, showered up and sat down for a tasty seafood feast consisting of lobster bites, grouper bites and snapper fillets with sides of beans&rice and sautéed squash. Mom isn’t into seafood, so we cooked up some chicken fingers in the fryer prior to the seafood.
Tag teamed the fish cleaning with a frosty beverage
Looks like the calm weather is gonna stay around for a few days..
Wrapped up our 2 weeks with the Swains yesterday, but hard to believe 2 weeks can go by that fast! We had a great time and really enjoyed having them down with us. It’s a great time each year here with them and look forward to many more annual trips to the Keys with our families.
The weather had been a tad bit windy on Thursday and Friday so we stayed on the bayside and lobstered both days. Explored some new ground a bit further out in the gulf and paid off with nice larger lobsters. Also had good luck finding red groupers hanging out around some of the bigger ledges and holes. Put the pole spear to work a few times along with the scuba regulator and were able to get a few groupers to join us for dinner.
On the search for white spots in tough conditions being windy and overcast.
The run and gun method of lobstering: find a white spot, put on a mask, then dunk over the side to check it out
Lobster with strange markings, almost albino-like
A nice cooler full of lobsters and 2 red groupers
A crowd favorite were the fried grouper bites
Michael and I woke up early on Saturday to get out for his 2012 Keys fishing trip for a couple hours. Paid off nicely with some good action of a snook, jack, ladyfish all caught by Michael. I couldn’t seem to connect with fish on the topwater lure, guess I need some more practice over the next few weeks.
We said our goodbyes around noon, then found out that my parents were on their way down from Cape Coral. They plan on spending a few days with us and looks like the weather will cooperate nicely for their first trip to Marathon. Cindy and I had a few hours to burn before they arrived, so we loaded up the boat with a few rods, chum and cold beverages and drove out to the patch reefs for some yellowtails. No luck at the first spot, so we moved on to another spot which we marked a few years ago. Ended up boating 3 nice yellowtails and took em over to Burdines for a nice dinner with my parents.
Cindy gettin the hang of yellow tailing on the reef
Keep in mind that sitting outside for dinner around sunset with light winds is a bad idea in the Keys, a lil’ animal called a no-see-em can really cause an unpleasant experience at a dinner table.
Due to real gusty winds, we took our beach cruisers down to the old 7 mile bridge on Tuesday and rode the 2 mile crossing over to Pigeon Key. The key was a camp setup in the early 1900s during the railway construction. An interesting tour guide showed us some of the original buildings, photos and history. Quite an amazing feat of engineering and determination to build the railway extension from homestead to Key West.
The windy weather finally moved on after a couple days, so we were able to get back out on the boat on Wednesday. Ventured out to the reef line in search of yellowtail, but the day started out quite slow. Moved around to a couple spots with limited success other than a 23″ grouper which Cindy caught, but 1″ short of the minimum size regulation..
Made a final stop in a bit shallower on the reef and started chumming again and the action finally turned on for us. Ended the day keeping a nice mutton snapper and 4 yellowtails. Also caught a bunch of other species such as kingfish, spanish mackerel and bonito.
Nice mutton caught on a bottom rod with a live ballyhoo
Headed back to the house around 5 to get cleaned up and enjoyed a spectacular fresh fish dinner with salad and grits. Filleted the fish on the half shell which works out great when grilling it. Basically just means leaving the skin on, then grilling it skin-side down minimizing any loss of meat in the grill grates.
Snapper dinner for a few days
Fish awaiting their cleaning by two chefs
The weather was real nice this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so the entire group loaded up both days and headed out to the bayside. Weather is strange down here, wind blows in the evenings and mornings then lays down in the afternoons which is opposite of weather pattern we were used to in north Florida.
Thursday we found 19, Friday was 20 and Saturday we boated 17 with some real nice ones! Also was able to cast net some pilchards in the beginning of the day which we used to catch some decent mangrove snappers. A great way to end the month of September!
Michael on the reg loading up the bag with bugs on a new spot
Vicki diving down to join the action
Hera trying on her mask to watch the activity below, maybe we’ll be pulling her behind the boat next year
Watching from above on a glassy afternoon
A day’s bounty
Wind forecast was way off on Sunday, so our plans to hit the reef for bottom fishing and snorkeling at Sombrero would have to wait. Decided to run the bayside shoreline and make a few stops to catch some fish. Ended the day early around 4pm to get back and cleaned up to head out for our first dinner at a Keys restaurant. Drove down to a place near Key West called Hogfish Bar and Grill. We each had Hogfish sandwiches, which were fantastic!
Looks like the wind is gonna prohibit boating the next couple days, so may kayak or go on bike rides to some of the other keys.
Chris, Cindy, Charlie and Cecily’s Adventure Blog 