REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Ahhh Key West

Ahhhh Key West pink shrimp... The best

As I sit here I can hear A guy crooning out CSN ( Thats Crosby Stills and Nash for you young folk) "southern Cross" from an old sailing schooner departing from the marina. That song seems to set the tone and atmosphere for the marina district here in Key West.
The romance of the old sea port ( the bight) here in Key West does not change much. As the day begins, The boat loads of tourist load up to go explore the reefs, the charter boats rumble out with excited fishermen hoping to catch some fish. The days tend to be a bit warm if you are staying land side, giving you all the more reason to go out on the water. Evenings here are the best. as the sun begins to sink to the west, the sail boats and old schooners that carried all the people to snorkeling adventures, change gears and now load up with guests to head out for an afternoon sunset cruise. The temps on the dock moderate making it comfortable to sit out on the dock. Behind each boat here at A And B marina guests and crews gather for an afternoon adult beverage and cook the days catch or grill some roast beast. We all gather to play Corn hole on the dock. ( Note to self, " we have to come up with another name for this game while here in Key West). Music seems to come from all directions and in all forms. Most of it seems to be island themed. If you have never been, there is no way to describe how relaxing it can be.
There is seldom any reason for me to leave the dock. Besides, as Chris Turner once said ( Nothing good happens Past the White top after 10 pm. The while rope he refers to is the rope at the base of the dock designed to keep non boat owners off the dock. As long as you stay on the dock and don't go past that rope, you will be fine. But after 10 pm if you venture past that rope, Its like Alice falling down that rabbit hole. BUT, then again. no great story ever started with I sat on the dock and had a bottle of water.

My last report was leaving the Bahamas. Since then, we traveled to Ft Lauderdale and did a few repairs at Brown Marine up the New River, did a few days at home and brought the boat to Key West. I had some hard drive issues with my Mac Mini so I have lapsed a bit on my posts.

Since being here in Key West, We have fished a little. We spent a few days off shore trying in vain to find a bill fish. We did score some nice Mahi. One day Matt and I ventured up into the gulf on our little boat to catch a few Yellowtail snapper. We did not go far as it was just Matt and I and the mate from a different boat. I wanted to sample what was out there before I took the big boat into the gulf. We blistered the giant Yellow tails. We had the tails chummed up behind the boat. the problem was when you hooked one of the bigger yellow tails, they would peel a little line off the reel and big Jew fish were coming up to 50 feet off the bottom to swallow our fish.
Now one would think that we are a pretty professional crew.... A professional crew would ensure that we had everything we needed to fish on board the Blue Too ( our small boat). We were sitting there catching big Yellow tails and having a blast, when three Cobia swam up to the boat. I mean like right up to it. I slipped a live bait over the side and hooked the bigger Cobia right away. It was a long fight and a bit of fun. I handed off the rod to Matt and let him finish the battle while I got the Gaff. WRONG!!!. We had no Gaff. All we had was a big hoop net that we use for catching lobster. We should have taken video of me trying to get that big cobias head to stay in the net while I tried to lift it onto the boat. I am sure i looked like an idiot. After 4 attempts and a lot of laughing and salt water in my face, I landed the fish. Next time we make sure there is a gaff on the boat.
Lobster season is fast approaching us. From what matt and I have seen, it should be a good season. I dove one ledge that runs about 50 yards. It is holding around 1000 lobsters. I posted a video of the ledge on Facebook and it has had 6000 veiws. Click the link to see the video https://www.facebook.com/ed.thompson.754/videos/10204900130718187/?l=8445431447329391600

The Key West Blue Marlin tournament is happening right now. We oppted out of fishing it this year. And from the results of the first day of fishing I am glad we did not enter. Out of 32 boats, there were only a handful of Mahi weighed in and only one sailfish with no Marlin released. Hopefully they have better luck today.

Looks like this afternoon we will head back out and do some more lobster season scouting.