Reef Raider Adventures: Exercise in Patience

Man what can I tell you? I pick the crappiest week weather wise to spend in the Florida Keys. Still, a week in the keys with crappy weather is better than a week anywhere else in the world that I can think of.

We went down on Monday and stayed in a great little house on plantation Key in Islamorada, it had a canal in the back with a great little place to dock the boat. I thought I’d get to fish every day and sometimes twice a day but I did not actually get out for the first time until Friday.

The Mutton bite is on in the Keys around the full moon in June, and I was having fantasies of hooking up on some of them large snapper. Mother Nature had her own ideas however and the full moon came and went before I got a chance to get at’em.

High winds, thunderstorms, and heavy rains were the order until Friday, I’d wake up just before sunrise, look out the window, and the neighbor’s American flag would be stiff as he one left by our astronauts on the moon. So I’d go back to sleep a little bitter and hope I could get out in the afternoon, only to be rudely greeted by electrical discharges and thunder claps galore.

So along came Friday; FINALLY! I woke up just as the sun was coming up and I looked out the window to see a Flag that was finally free of the Viagra it was taking all week. I woke my kids up, got ready in short order and headed out. I was pretty sure the Mutton bite would not be so hot by now, but I was hoping on a little Yellowtail action to cure my fishing blues.

Oh yeah that reminds, you guys that know me know that I find all kinds of cool stuff on the internet, well I found a place in the lower keys (mile marker 22.5 actually) that swears they make the most catchingest Pinfish traps around. Well my friend Mike (Off Limits Charters) says those things suck, but I told him I had read up on it and that these traps really work. So on Thursday (likely the crappiest day) I decided to take a 70 mile drive to mile marker 22.5 to buy the trap.

Crazy you say? Yeah, crazy like a fox, I baited the trap and put it out late Thursday afternoon. I rigged it with a coconut for a buoy with a ring screwed into it and 300lb test. I placed it out of the way on some grass flats and hoped for the best. I went through all the trouble because everyone keeps telling me that there are bait pirates out there, and that if I tied a regular buoy to it that someone would come investigating and steal my bait and maybe even my trap.

So I headed out to check my trap and it had about 16 to 18 Pinfish in it, (those little critters are hard to count inside the bait well), so I thought hey not bad my little trap works pretty well. Now I did not want to take the trap on the boat with me for a day of fishing, so I left it where it was with a minimal amount of chum left from the night before. When I made it back at the end of the day, I had 5 Pinfish leftover and decided I would go leave them in the trap overnight. Guess what I found in my trap? About 40 new Pinfish had entered the trap to feed on the little chum that was left over.

Anyway, back to the fishing and boating. So I picked up my pinfish and headed out for a Yellowtail spot Mike was kind enough to give me the numbers for. I anchored once then re-anchored again before I was satisfied. I put the Chum in the water and hoped to soon boat some tails.

Turns out the tails bite was off, but a school on peanut Dolphin did come into our Chum slick, and my kids had a good ole time catching those. Only two of them were above 20” so the rest of them went back in the water.

I decided to move to another spot, another set of numbers for a wreck called the Duane that Mike gave me the numbers for. Lots of schoolie Dolphin there too; but I was tired of catching those. We tried one more spot Mike gave me in 300 ft. but the kids were getting bored and I was getting frustrated so I told them lets head in and go snorkeling.

We went back to the house we are staying there (right after I checked my awesome pin fish trap) and picked up my wife my youngest daughter and my Wife’s cousin Omar his wife Jina, and their boys Dylan and Devan.

We went to a protected reef called Hens and Chickens that my friend Jorge gave me the numbers for and it was beautiful there. The kids had a great time snorkeling, they saw tons of chubs, yellowtail, Barracuda, triggerfish, and a host of other smaller reef fish.

Enjoy the pictures, and I’ll be back on with another story as soon as it takes place.

Till Then…

P.S. I forgot to tell you about the jig with a 1/0 hook I got stuck in my middle finger when my son dropped the rod while I was taking his Dolphin of the line. It went in well passed the barb, and I was forced to yank it out OUCH!

Albert Jr. at the helm