Tropical Thanksgiving

Months ago, I booked a trip with Randy Morrow, of Lower Keys Kayak Fishing, to try n check tarpon off my bucket list. Sadly, the weather cancelled my trip. This was the 2nd time I have visited Key West. For an island, there are astoundingly few places to fish from shore. The first time I was there, I fished off a small beach near the fort, catching a couple good size needle fish and a small barracuda. This time around, I spent an hour or so casting everything in my box near a marina. Had a 2' shark follow a small swimbait on my 2nd cast, but that was it. It was very windy, and was hard to cast very far. It was really frustrating seeing tons of 20-50# tarpon swimming around docks where no fishing was allowed. Many of them are treated like pets, by the locals, and fed by hand tho.

Anyway, Randy seemed like a great guide, with excellent communication and fair prices, who specializes in flats fishing. If I ever make it to the keys again, I'll definitely be contacting him.

Got on our cruise boat, no fishing opportunities to be had on the unimpressive private island in the Bahamas.

I booked a 4 hr panga trip with Ocho Rios Fishing Fun Adventure, in Jamaica, run by Capt. Anthony. Again, communication was impeccable, he worked with my cruise ship schedule, and picked me up right on time. He and his crew could not have been more friendly, helpful or professional.

The boat was in good shape, but two of the four rods paired with giant classic Penn Senator reels, looked like they were from the 70's, but fully functional and up to the task. The two outriggers were rough tree branches, and the release clips were two small blocks of wood, bound with strips of rubber, but worked flawlessly. We set out from the banks of a small crystal clear river, and the crew expertly navigated the surf and shallow sandbar where the river met the sea.

We started trolling almost immediately, two rods with small feathers, and two with large feathers tipped with dead ballyhoo. 10 mins in, fish on, a small blackfin tuna, which didn't put up much fight on the heavy tackle, but great to get the skunk off so quick. About a half hour later, I hooked into a 30#ish wahoo, only the second of my life, and twice as big as the 1st. A lil while later, got another sm tuna, lost another, and as my trip was reaching it's end, a rod got triple whacked by a good size kingfish, that stole the ballyhoo, but missed the hook. The crew worked hard, regularly changing colors of feathers and locations. Always scanning for birds and bait. I doubt we ever got more than 2 miles from shore, would be a great place to kayak fish.

I snorkeled in Grand Cayman and Cozumel, but was unable to fish at either place. So, if you're ever going to the Keys or Jamaica, I highly recommend looking up the mentioned guides, they will not disappoint. Overall, was a great thanksgiving week in the tropics.