Well, sorry that I wasn’t able to give the blow by blow updates that I had promised. We stayed so busy that at the end of the day there wasn’t much thought about typing updates. Saturday morning we left home at 6:30 and started the big adventure heading south with Her Money. When we finally got there at 1:30 my hands were so sore due to white knuckling the steering wheel. I guess with my older age and having a new boat hooked to the truck I just was a nervous wreck. Anyway, we got checked in and decided to launch the boat Sunday Morning. We were lucky enough to have a friend that we knew very well that is a captain on a charter boat in Marathon. Oddly enough I had called him the Thursday before we left and he told us that he was in north Florida visiting home but would be heading back to Marathon on Friday and for me to call him when we got into town. Sunday morning we got the boat into the water and checked into the slip at the marina and called our friend JD. I mainly want to find out from him what tackle we needed and what was biting, and maybe some GPS numbers to area reefs that would give us somewhere to start. JD told us that he was off all week and would be willing to go out with us. Monday morning JD called me and put back the trip due to the weather and rain in the area. It set us back 2 hours but blew out quickly. We got out and fished for about a half a day limiting out with snappers and grunts. On the way back in we stopped at one spot that JD said always held 3-4 lobsters. He and I got snorkeled a little while looking for some with no avail. When we got in I started cleaning the boat and time I was done he had all of the fish cleaned. We didn’t get any pictures before they were cleaned. Tuesday the seas were 2-3 feet and we targeted yellow tail. We had good luck but fed sharks with about half our catch. I did tie into one shark that I fought for 20 minutes on a shark pole. I never got to see him because he had his way anytime he wanted. JD told me we could tighten the drag down all the way because the line would hold him. Little did we know he would straighten the hook out. JD said he was a really big shark. (like any fish the gets away) On the way in we stopped at a reef and snorkeled some where I speared a yellow jack the weighted 12 lbs. Wednesday we went out and tried a little grouper fishing in 200’ of water. We caught 3 sharks and 3 snappers nothing much to brag about bout I had the most fun that day because of the unknown and breaking off all the bigger rigged poles. Thursday we all hit the streets in Key West and took the bride on a helicopter ride because she had never been on a helicopter.
Sounds like a good time
Great pictures, Bossman!
Treefarmer
