Day after T-day: Fla Keys Kayaking

[Ozmo]

Hey Everybody,

Well the day after Thanksgiving one of the guys in our kayak fishing club hit Rattlesnake Key in North Key Largo. The target was bonefish...

But before hitting the keys we were at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World for the 5 hour sale. Came away with 2 new fly rods (house brand "white river classic", 4 pc 5wt & 8wt, half price), shimano sahara reel, and some other stuff. Insane crowds but since our purchases were mainly in the fly shop our line wasn't too bad.

Back to the keys...

We paddled for 5 or 6 hours and it was absolutely beautiful. Lots of nice pools, coves, holes and cover. Unfortunately not a ton of bones. Paddled over a small school of little guys and we did find some small, but active, muds. A couple of hits but no takes. As usual in the keys, cuda saved the day. They're just about everywhere so if in danger of getting skunked, you can usually find a willing cuda to participate. And they're always entertaining in a kayak, especially when they're close to you and they decide to jump!

So, here's a pic of my fishing partner for the day, chef mike, with a nice cuda. Also of note, Mike's nice, shiny, new OK Prowler...

[SamRiley]

Thanks for the report Ozmo. Boy is it good to know that we northerners will have your reports to get us through the Winter.

Keep on posting :)

[ruge13]

Can we say Jealous?:)

[Ozmo]

Thanks guys,

I will do my best to get out as often as possible and post reports!

[SamRiley]

and pictures.... lots and lots of pictures :)

[PeteV]

Hi Ozmo. I use to fish down in Islamorada when I was in college (many years ago)...and I remember when World Wide Sportsman was a small shop. Did you guys fish the Bay side or the Ocean Side. We didn't know the area very well and would have tough times on the bay side...wow does that place get shallow. So we had better luck staying in water on the ocean side. All we caught were barracudas but boy were they fun...years later we stumbled onto Flamingo & we had a lot better luck in that area. I'm jealous your down there and wish I could move there.... The late night drug runs were pretty scary though ...Do the drug runs still happen at night.... we had to be very careful not to stumble onto a night time hand-off, were a speed boat would pull into a quiet area (those guys meant business) ...& so we were always worried about night time fishing (boy was that a long time ago)

[Ozmo]

Pictures, will do. I'll try to keep you guys in tropical pictures over the winter! ;->

Pete, we were on the ocean side just north of pennekamp park. Haven't hit flamingo yet but a lot of the guys in my fly fishing club canoe back there. It's another thing on my to do list.

Don't know about the drug runs, I'm pretty sure they still go on but they're a little more discreet. Still, the flats at MM 74 are still referred to as "bales beach" and the term "square grouper" is still in use!