Tuesday turned out to be another great day on the water. Couldn’t have asked for better weather with glassy conditions for most of the day, which made finding lobster spots much easier as you could see them from the boat in the clear water. Even with a bit later start around noon, we were able to find 16 legal lobsters, which is almost another limit for three of us. Also, Steve got his first chance to use the regulator on a nice spot to pull out 4 keepers.

The current started picking up in the afternoon, which can tire you quickly when snorkeling, so we decided to try some fishing instead. Current at the 7 mile bridge was much too strong for fishing, so we continued on back towards the house to try a couple spots. No luck other than some small stuff at the first spot near Boot Key. Moved on to a new spot about a mile from the house, which was some coral heads in about 20 ft of water. Anchored up and dropped in a chum bag. Started off catching small stuff again, but as the sun began to set we got into some bigger fish and more action. Kept 2 yellowtails and a spanish mackerel. Caught an almost legal 23″ black grouper on an inshore rod with 10lb line, what a battle!

Light tackle fishing a mile from the house at sunset

Headed back to the house in slick glass conditions and a beautiful sunset to enjoy another tasty seafood dinner. Got to bed early, as conditions were to be good on Wednesday for offshore fishing..

Keys house has been infested with these edible bugs

Mike sent me the part # and instructions for replacing the prop hub and I likely would call a repair man on Monday morning to get us fixed up. I spent some time on Sunday night reading about spun hubs and recalling some of the prop maintenance I had completed on our Key West boat a few years back. That knowledge, a handy repair dock onsite and some tools we had brought down in the truck gave me the confidence to undertake this repair myself. Picked up the parts needed at West Marine first thing on Monday morning and went to work for replacing the hub.

About 10am I had completed the test drive (with the electric trolling motor onboard, just in case :). We were back in action and ready for a great day on the water and thankfully the weather had cleared up and forecast showed light winds all day.

First stop was back over by 7 mile bridge, this time being extra careful to not contact any floating objects. Cindy had seen some nice stone crabs at a spot last week and thought we might check if they were still home as this was opening day for stone crab season. Found the spot and anchored up to try my luck at stone crab extraction from holes. Struck out trying the tickle stick even while using the regulator with air. Rethought about other devices onboard for crab extraction and decided on some long-nose pliers. Most experienced crab hunters will grab them barehanded, but I wasn’t yet at that level to take my chances of getting pinched by a large claw. Pliers were the right tool and I was able to drag him out of the hole by locking the pliers onto his large claw which was about to be removed. Netted him once out of the hole and brought him up to the boat for further processing. I had watched a few youtube videos in previous days on proper handling and claw removal, so was able to capture his largest claw with relative ease. (you can learn just about anything via youtube videos). A great start to the day with a hefty claw on opening day!

A tasty treat from the ocean, keep in mind the size of my humongous hands

Proceeded onto a series of GPS spots in search of lobsters, where we spent the rest of the beautiful day exploring and loading up a nice haul of 16 lobsters and 2 red groupers. Steve got right back into the groove, pulling up a legal one on the first spot and his first dive down! Cindy also had a first today, using the regulator and lobster bag to dive down on an anchored spot and pull about 4 legals. With 3 people on the tank we ran out of air quite soon, so most of the day would be without the regulator and require the hold-your-breath snorkeling method. Some day we’ll splurge and buy the Brownies third lung or some variation so we can have unlimited air on the regulator.

Clear water, blue skies and light current makes for great lobstering

Steve back in action in the Keys

Steve’s first day of lobstering was a success!

Ended the day with a glassy sunset cruise back to the house, what a complete 180 from our experience on Sunday! Weather is supposed to be just as nice all week..

Couple of lobsters about to be prepped for dinner

The wind continued to blow Saturday and Sunday, up to about 30 mph out of the Northeast which would be considered the first cold front of the year and confirmation that the season is changing to fall. Cindy and I took the day on Saturday to clean up the house and stock with fresh supplies for our last 2 weeks in the Keys. Rode our bikes the entire day, which ended up being quite a workout peddling back a couple miles against that strong gale.

Cindy’s brother Steve arrived on Saturday night and plans on hanging out with us the entire week, which is great timing cause the winds are supposed to ease up for the entire week. We pushed our luck on Sunday by trying to get out on the boat a day earlier while the winds were still howling. The forecast showed a minor drop in the wind speed for the day, so we headed out towards 7 mile bridge to see if we could escape the worst of the gusts.

Started off not being able to find any live bait for cast netting, then decided to drive down around a couple small keys to try to find calmer waters. On the way I ran over one of the lobster trap buoys, but thought I had seen it just soon enough to put the engine in neutral. Verified no damage was caused visually on the lower unit, then continued on our way. Only problem was that we had no thrust over about 2,000 rpm. With the wind and outgoing tide we weren’t gonna be able to make it back home on our own power… Appeared that we had “spun a hub”, which is what occurs when u hit something and a rubber/plastic piece fails on purpose to let the prop spin freely to prevent damaging the drive shaft or propeller itself.

We were close enough to some shallower water and drifting towards it, then threw out the anchor and we proceeded to snorkel around for a bit. Might as well get some fun out of the trip for a little while. Actually almost caught a couple lobsters I came across in the some small holes, but they were too quick and wily.

Got on the radio about an hour later and contacted Sea Tow with our info and location for a tow back to the house. About an hour later, captain Jay showed up and threw a line to tow us back home. Along the way the wind really started cranking and the rain showers started to move through the area. It was a wet, windy and bumpy ride back home, but it makes you really appreciate the calm and sunny days ahead.

First part of the tow was sunny with moderate winds..

Luckily for us we had signed up for a sea tow membership a couple weeks back, otherwise the towing bill would have been almost $700! While Mike and Vicki were here, we had an electrical issue with the engine’s ground wire while abut 10 miles out in the gulf side. Didn’t need to call Sea Tow since Mike was able to call his dealer’s service department and get some tips on things to try which worked. But that was a close call and convinced me to renew the sea tow membership, which paid off this past weekend when needing a tow. Interesting how life events occur, if we had not incurred the electrical issue, then we likely wouldn’t have renewed sea tow and now be out quite a bit of money for our tow this past weekend.

We all made it back safe to the dock, which is the most important thing during each trip out on the ocean.

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