My Trip to the Keys: Photos, Videos, Parallels to GSPP

Drove down to the keys this weekend. The day started at Robbies Dock in Islamorada. The water their is unbelievable! The temps started out at a chilly 71 degrees, but quickly warmed to 83.

We took a party boat charter for a couple hours, just to get in some fishing in the Keys. We killed the yellowtail snapper and got to see a HUGE barracuda circling the boat. I couldnt get him to feed :(

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After that, we went back to the dock for a while. There we saw all the Tarpon that the dock is famous for.

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These Tarpon just hang out under the dock. I had seen videos before, but I always thought they were moderate sized tarpon. These things were 100lbs+!

Here is a short vid of me feeding one. I was too scared to let it take my arm, but it did get my hand, and cut me up a little.

THIS IS THE VIDEO http://youtu.be/cjiDDi-iXnQ

Apperntly, the reason the tarpon hang around is because back in the day, Robbie saw a big tarpon struggling on a sandbar. He went to rescue it and found that the whole side of his mouth was ripped off. He brought it to the doc and had a guy sew its mouth back up.

He then force fed it back to health. Then, the poon just hung around the dock. Soon, other tarpon joined in and now the place has tons of tarpon waiting to be fed.

This made me think about GSPP. We used to feed Sam back to health. Now, other pelicans join in. It seems that animals see other animals doing something, and then try it out. Pretty interesting stuff.

On the Pelican issue, it could be worst.

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There were hundreds of them down there! This little guy attacked me and chased me down the dock. He was relentless.

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There was a guy down there with a 10 foot pole. His only job was to beat the pelicans off of people. No lie! The pelicans would see you trying to feed the tarpon and come knock you down trying to get the fish out of your hand and bucket. I thought it was funny.

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Thanks for the report, great stuff. I bet Sam wouldn’t like all that competition!

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I would love a trip to the Keys, so color me green with envy! LOL, seriously I would like to go if for nothing more than the fabled sunsets. Wetting a hook would be a bonus. :)

Awesome report Bubba! Seriously going to have to make a trip someday soon.

I'd get kicked out of there for attempting to handline... :poke1: