Kayaking And Fishing In Islamorada

Since I know all of you are dying to see more vacation pictures....here's a few more, from day two (the one full day spent) in Islamorada.

It started with an 8:30 wake up call for some ocean kayaking.  We kayaked around some flats for about 3 hours.  We didn't see a ton of fish, but saw a lot of wildlife otherwise.  The only casualty was K.C.'s legs (which got sunburned despite sunblock), but it didn't damper the activity.

We just chilled here for a bit, enjoying the shade of some mangroves

Later we did some pier fishing.  Our resort had it's own fishing pier so that was pretty convenient.  Nothing crazy to catch...but it was an easy way to kill the downtime between lunch & dinner.  Spinning rod rental was included in the resort fee, so we both used them (and shrimp) to get into some fish.  

Donkeyfish on!

K.C. was a pro at catching what we were calling "donkeyfish," while I was sight casting to pickerel-sized barracuda.  Some sharks and rays hung out too (although we didn't even try to catch those).  I eventually ditched the spinning rod (because those toothy buggers broke too many lines and stole too many hooks) to a fly rod that I brought along to catch the last 'cuda of the day.  I'm no saltwater fly fisherman, but it felt nice to see it take the fly. 

Nice grip n' grin doofus

For the nightcap we headed over to Robbie's for a nighttime booze & fish cruise aboard the "Capt. Michael."  The boat was to leave at 7:30 PM and return after Midnight.  I'm usually not one for deep sea fishing, but K.C. was all about it...and the bargain of it being only $40 per person...so if my wife wants to go fishing, I'm not going to fight her!  

The Capt. Michael awaits...

...but first a quick dinner at The Hungry Tarpon

Fish sandwich

Glad my wife picked out this little adventure as we had a blast.  Captain Tony and his crew made everything easy and enjoyable, couldn't have asked for a better time.

The ride out

Sun going down

A crappy picture of K.C. with a fish.  My point & shoot was not on the best action setting

A better picture taken with K.C.'s DSLR

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that K.C. totally schooled me deep sea fishing.  She probably caught two to my one the whole night.  She's without a doubt the reason we had a solid pile of fish at the end of the night...

Bound for the fryer