Florida Keys Fishing Trip

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January 26, Wednesday

Fishing Day meant an early “get-up”. I made the lunches and Bob went to purchase the bait, squid and shrimp, and Rob was already cleaning up the boat. All aboard and off we went on a beautiful calm sunny morning. Floyd was my fishing tutor and Bob worked with Rob. The rods were big and at first a little awkward. The first stop was to “catch more bait” and that we did. Every time the line went into the water another fish bit! Cutting and baiting the hook, from my perspective, was a dirty job, but getting the fish off the hook was even more of a challenge. My first catch was a 22” grouper! Unfortunately the fish and game people insist on 24” or more. So we released it and continued our process. Once it was decided we had enough “bait” we moved on to real fishing. In the deeper ocean water we dropped anchor and baited out hooks with live bait. Before long the fish were biting. We “specialized” in grunts, so named because they actually grunt, some yellow tail, and grouper. It was all catch and release but a fascinating day and a new experience for me.
Back at the pier, it was clean up time again. Fishing is a smelly, messy business and I was looking forward to a shower. We dined at a recommended restaurant, the Rusty Anchor. We had conch stew, shrimp and even some grouper. The good new was didn’t have to clean the fish.
Back at the campground, we started to organize out camping gear for the trip tomorrow to the Dry Tortugas. Bob climbed up to the attic (storage bin on the roof) to get our sleeping bags, tent, etc. We decided to be frugal in the amount of food we take.

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