Ray

If you're going to go fishing, you shouldn't go to "Little Fish Creek."  So today, we went to "Whale Harbor."  I wasn't actually expecting to catch whales, but I had been visualizing catching a tarpon.  I tied on a new leader in case the old one had weakened.  Made sure the camera was ready, and took off in the dinghy for Whale Harbor.  (The guy at the launching ramp yesterday, told me he was a "Master Angler"--whatever that means, and that I should follow his sage advice and I would certainly catch a tarpon.)  I couldn't sleep last night visualizing catching a tarpon.

When we got to Whale Harbor, I saw something large jumping out by the bridge.  Tried fishing by the bridge.  Nothing.  Up by the mangroves.  Nothing.  We went around an island through a little cut, and fished on the other side of the island.

Nothing.  Then back to the main channel of Whale Harbor.  Finally a bite.  Because of all my visualizing, I couldn't imagine it would be anything but a tarpon.  Sure enough, it was indeed a tarpon.  It might not have been quite full grown, but here it is.

I released it.  I thought about having it mounted, but being the sportsman that I am, I thought I'd let another "Master Angler" have his fun with it.

We kept fishing for a while, and saw another large splash from something jumping.  Finally we caught a glimpse of it.  Sting Rays were jumping out of the water and then doing belly flops when they landed.  Most of them had a 4 to 5 foot wing span.  Here's a photo of one just in front of the dinghy.

 

Some were jumping within 20' of our dinghy.  Don't know what we would have done if one had landed in the dinghy.  Pam kept track of how many we saw.............12.

Whale Harbor is about 5 miles down the Keys from our marina.  Took almost an hour one way.  On the way back, we were nearly run down by this "cute" boat.

The thermometer on our boat reads 82 degrees.
More sNOw and cold temps up NOrth.  Sure hate to miss that.