Islamorada Weekend

An Islamorada weekend isn't what I expected when my wife decided to come with me to pickup some Koi food in Dania, Fl., but that's exactly where we wound up this past weekend.

Karen had never seen Key West, or any of the Florida keys for that matter, so she made some last minute Motel reservations in Islamorada for the weekend. The place was canine friendly and because it is "off season" right now, the price was right.

Most of Saturday was spent driving however after checking in at the motel, I still managed to flip a gold spoon a few dozen times underneath the "Snake River" bridge at some resident tarpon.

The first cast picked up a "lizard fish" that had a serious mouthful of teeth. It wasn't very big but did put up a respectable fight on my light line.

The tarpon weren't hitting so we went back to the motel, dumped our bags and drove down to Key West to show my wife what she was missing.

I took some pics of the scenery and the seven mile bridge just for the hell of it and have some of the random below.

When we got back to Islamorada, we decided to rent a boat for Sunday to see what we could catch.

Unfortunately, it was off season and not much was happening except for yellow tail snapper and some other bottom fish.

The first place we booked reneged on the boat the next morning because the batteries were supposedly being charged, so we went down the road and picked up another 22' boat for the day.

The owner gave me some quick directions on navigating out from Upper Matecumbe Key into the Atlantic and explained the rules and regulations that prevail in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

We picked up some bait, a block of chum and lots of water and headed out to see what we could see.

The water was beautiful and the seas were moderate. Without a GPS that I'm used to using in my flats boat, I had a heck of a time navigating through the protected areas. 30" round yellow buoys mark the Special Use Research Only areas and you really have to be familiar with the area in order to comply with the regs.

We finally tied up to a mooring buoy several miles out past a reef tower and started fishing on a reef that I believe was Alligator Reef.

The water was 80 feet deep and Karen and I were using very light tackle. I didn't plan on bottom fishing in the Atlantic or I would have brought along heavier tackle.

So, we wound up using 12# light to medium action spinning rods with 30# fluorocarbon leaders and 5/0 hooks.

The chum bag started doing it's job after about 20 minutes or so and fish started coming up from the bottom.

Karen and I both had hits as soon as our baits hit the bottom. Almost every time we dropped our baits we started catching "sweetlips" grunt, Porkfish, and Yellow tail snapper.

We quickly realized that we were under powered for the fish that were hitting.

I learned this the hard way after about the fourth drop, when I hooked onto a very big fish that snapped one of my graphite carbon rods.

I raised the fish several feet off the bottom until the fish decided it didn't want to become dinner and headed back to the bottom. I wasn't quick enough releasing the drag that was cranked down all the way and the rod snapped halfway up from the but.

The next problem we encountered was that I had neglected to bring along enough leader material and hooks.

The fish kept breaking off on the coral if we didn't reel in immediately after hitting the bottom with our baits.

Despite the fact that we were not adequately prepared for this type fishing, we managed to catch several nice sized yellow tail snapper and several other types of bottom fish.

We stayed out for several hours until I was medium well done and Elmo was crossing his legs wanting to hit the grass for a good pee.

The seas started getting rough, so we decided to head in to the marina.

All in all we had an enjoyable day on the water, even though I was unprepared for this type fishing.

I had planned on fishing the river that evening for the resident tarpon that were always there, but after a full day on the Atlantic, I decided to call it a day.

Next time we spend a weekend in Islamorada, I'll come ready for bear!

Hope you enjoy the pics and until next time, Tight Lines!