The trip is two fold: Part 1 consisted of A, B and me heading to the Dry Tortugas for some serious deep sea fishing. Part 2 consisted of C joining us for a weekend of fun in the sun and some good times in Key West.
And now for Part 1...
A, B & I headed out early in the morning for our flight to Ft. Lauderdale. From there we grabbed the rental car and trekked to the Keys. I choose to fly Southwest anytime possible and flying into Ft. Lauderdale has been easy in my experience. The airport is simple and getting the rental car is a breeze. So after a mild detour, thanks to my taking the "Express Lane" (towards Miami) when I should have gone the other way (around Miami), we headed down Highway 1.
On B's recommendation, our first stop on our road trip was
Robbie's of Islamorada to feed the tarpon.
The marina offers a host of activities, gift shopping, and a restaurant but the big draw is the Tarpon Feeding! For $1, you can enter the dock and see ALL of the tarpon swimming around and for $3 you can buy a bucket of bait fish. That $3 bucket was TOO much fun. One of the employees showed us how to feed the fish...lay on the farthest dock, stretch out your arm as far as possible down towards the water, and wait for the fish to jump up. It's kinda scary but tarpon are like big minnows and have no teeth. After the first one, I was hooked! It's a kick to see those big things jump up and take the fish from you.Here are a couple of tips for a great experience:
-Robbie's can get busy, but our 5 pm arrival was perfect. There were a couple other people but we had the run of the dock. No waiting, fighting the crowds and the fish were hungry!
-Be careful where you lay on the dock to avoid pelican/sea gull poop. (First hand experience on this one!)
-Don't let the pelicans intimidate you and DO NOT feed them! Just shooo them away by running after them a little. They will bite...fair warning!
-Take off your sunglasses, empty your top pockets, put you camera wrist strap around your wrist, and secure anything loose. You don't want to lose it in the water!
After feeding the tarpon, it was time to feed ourselves! We jumped back in the Ford Edge and headed to The Island Fish Company Tiki Bar and Restaurant in Marathon. It has tasty food, great drinks and a beautiful view. Be sure to check out the conch fritters, Key West Pink shrimp, and various baked oysters and don't forget to tell Slash the Iguana hello.With happy bellies and a setting sun, we continued our cruise to Key West. Excited about our upcoming 2 day deep sea fishing trip we made our way to our last stop, the Lethal Weapon, a 45 foot sport fisher docked in the Westin Marina. With our bags and selves loaded onto the boat, we put on our jammies and headed to bed. Captain Teddy Baier and First Mate Andrew would arrive at 1:30 am to start the 70 mile trek to the Dry Tortugas National Park. Fishing in the park is limited to a handful of permits and Captain Teddy owns permit #1. He's the man for Tortugas and any other deep sea fishing!
Our smooth ride to the Tortugas made for a wonderful sleep! The West current sped up our trip which had us fishing before 8 am. Captain Teddy is an amazing fisherman, but the water that
day wasn't cooperating with his plan. It's funny to imagine, but the water was TOO clear for the drift fishing he wanted us to do that day. Why is that a problem? If the water is too clear, the fish can see the line and are much less likely to take the bait. We did catch a few fish including a whopper A caught. That strawberry grouper was the cutest thing I've ever seen!Captain Teddy moved on to Plan B to try for a little more success
in our fishing day. We started trolling the waters in the park and hooked on to quite a few huge barracuda (great bait for our upcoming night fishing), a couple mackrel and several red grouper (our dinner). Once we caught our fill of both bait and dinner, we headed to Ft. Jefferson to walk around the historic site. The 19th century fort was never finished or fully armed and later served as a coaling station for warships. It's an amazing structure that can only be accessed by boat or plane.After our tour of the Fort, we headed back to the boat for a delicious dinner prepared by our amazing captain. As he cooked dinner, Andrew prepared the lines for our fishing expedition in the anchorage. The anchorage outside the Fort is a popular spot for sailboats and other vessels and provides for amazing night fishing...and night fishing we did!!! Just as I fixed my plate, the first line started screaming. I dropped my plate on the table and grabbed the specially made fishing pole. The 3 poles Captain Teddy has for this type of fishing are specially made just for him and just for this type of fishing. Why is that needed? Well, in the anchorage, you're just that...anchored...and when you hook on to a big fish you cannot use the boat for assistance. It's just you and the pole. Stand up fishing. Talk about a workout! The only saving grace is the belt that the pole fits in around your waist. First up, we each caught nurse sharks, which put up a good fight and definitely prepared us for the fight we were about to encounter!
Up next...Tarpon and Goliath grouper!!!!!! First of all, let me explain about catching these fish. You cannot actually catch either fish, as in bring them in the boat and take them home, but you
can "catch" them by getting the leader through the first eye of the pole. If you've never been deep sea fishing, let me explain a little about fish fighting. Dorado, Baracuda, Mackrel all put up great fights but nothing like the Tarpon or Goliath Grouper!! The Tarpon can breathe in and out of water which makes them extremely hard to catch, especially on stand up tackle. They do not like being caught and oh momma, do they fight! A hooked and caught a smaller tarpon while I fought (unsuccessfully) a Goliath Grouper and then the real catch began!!!! We hooked onto a HUMONGOUS 7 foot Tarpon and it gave us an amazing fight. For over an hour, A, B, Captain 
Teddy and I fought the Tarpon. It was exhilarating, tiring, amazing, awesome, and one of the most wonderful times of my life. We saw the fish jump and roll and I'm pretty sure at some point shoot us the fin. :) After our Tarpon adventure we hooked on to a 500 lb Goliath Grouper and man, it was all we could do to fight that fish. That night wore us out but overall we fought the fish and WON! (Not to mention we had no problem falling asleep that night...)A's 30th birthday wish was to wake up in the Tortugas and she got her wish. Captain Teddy cooked up a killer breakfast before heading out for our day of trolling for Dolphin Fish (Mahi Mahi/Dorado), Bonito, Barracuda, Mackerel, and whatever else wanted to hook up on our lines. During our boat ride to the fishing area, we got to see pods of dolphins,
Loggerhead and Green turtles (mating at that), and even saw a pair of Blue Marlin swimming past the current line. It was a great start to a wonderful day. While we didn't catch a ton of fish on our second day, we did catch some big 'uns! A & B hooked on to a Bull and Cow Dolphin at the same time. The fish jumped, fought and put on a good show. The water was quite a bit rougher which made for wobbly legs but great fishing.As we wrapped up our final day of fishing, we chatted with Captain Teddy on the bridge and watched as Key West grew closer and closer. Team Texas Tarpon, as Captain Teddy named us, had an amazing 2 day fishing trip, caught some amazing fish and made even better memories. Then A made the best statement of all "Girls, this has been so much fun and it's just getting started!"
With that, we docked the boat, bid farewell to Captain Teddy and Awesome Andrew, and headed to the airport to pick up C. And with that, Part 2 begins in the next post.
Until then...happy travels and many laughs.
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