Grassy Key Florida 6/8 – 6/16.

After a brief two day stay in Jacksonville Florida, my wife Chelsey and I headed south for the Keys.  We stayed in a beachside condo on the Island of Grassy Key; just north of the city of Marathon.  Upon our arrival, we discovered that our kayak rentals were already waiting for us at the door step.  Things were going just as planned.
For the next week we lived like tropical cast aways leaving the condo only to resupply on beer and groceries and explore the flats in search of Barracuda and Tarpon. After some online research and the advice of experienced individuals including but not limited to Ross from Hogy Baits, I was confident in my plan of attack.  Having never been to this part of the country before however, I was embarking on an adventure of which I could only imagine.
It didn’t take me long to figure out how to trick the Barracuda which prowled the flats in groups of a dozen or more.  By tying up our kayaks to the numerous mooring buoys located through the inshore waters, we could stalk the flats on foot. 4 inch jointed floating shallow diving Rapalas proved too enticing for the Cudas to resist.  I caught them up to about 36” with little trouble.
Sporadically but consistently, pods of large tarpon up to about 5’ would come calmly working their way through the area hitting the surface for gulps of air.  They reminded me of dolphins as groups of up to 6 individuals would come past us hitting the surface one at a time.  At times they would come close enough that we both were able to have a very good look at one another.  They were calm and confident and would not spook if we remained calm as well.  It was an emotional dilemma deciding whether to continue catching and releasing feisty Cudas, or pursue a chance at the real heavy weight champs of the flats; Tarpon.  After a couple days of Cuda action, I made my decision to get serious in my efforts to land a Tarpon.
I picked up some live crabs as bait spent the next couple days hunting these elusive fish.  To keep a short story short, I never hooked up with a Tarpon, but did discover that Bonnet Head Sharks also take a liking to crabs.  I wound up catching two medium sized Bonnetheads and lost larger ones as I was not using steel leaders in pursuit of Tarpon.
All in all, I had LOTS of fun in Florida.  It is completely different from the icy waters of the Pacific in every way. No wet suits, no GWS, and gin clear water. While I enjoyed every minute of it, I was glad to get back home to Santa Cruz.         

Sick!

Those little sharks are bad ass.

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I was waiting to read this. Looks like you had fun!

cool "exotic" fish pics. The sharks are so cute!

Nice barge they rented ya!

Now, lets go troll up a thresher........

I dont know, those cuda teeth look nasty.. Not GWS nasty but...

Aye Carumba, Cabeza de martillo!!!

Dude that's a pretty cool trip!

I was waiting to read this. Looks like you had fun!

cool "exotic" fish pics. The sharks are so cute!

Nice barge they rented ya!

Now, lets go troll up a thresher........

Yeah that boat was SLOW!  Very stable though.  I could stand up in it which was helpful site whils fishing.

Im all ready to go get our threshers!!! Speaking of which...

Dude that's a pretty cool trip!

Congrats on the Tshark Pat.  That was BAD ASS!!!

I dont know, those cuda teeth look nasty.. Not GWS nasty but...

My hands were pretty beat up after a week of thoes guys.  They get really angry when you try to "fish Grip" em.

Sick!

Those little sharks are bad ass.

They were lots of fun.  I wish I could have landed the bigger ones.

Aye Carumba, Cabeza de martillo!!!

Cabeza de capo'... I think?

what a cool trip, those flats are beautiful, thanks for sharing, cameron