Fun Boating Day of Snorkeling and Fishing 05/17/2020

We started out the day at Looe Key and finished our boating day by fishing out past Tarpon Belly. Today was Terry and Marcia’s last day before they head for home on Monday morning, so we took advantage of the nice weather to run out to Looe Key. Even thought the south wind was relatively mild, we still had some swells. But nothing the Boston Whaler could not handle.

Once we got to Looe Key, we hooked up to Buoy No 21. Next time we think the buoy to the South West of this buoy would be better since it is closer to a shallower area. I was happy to see the nice Yellowtail Snappers immediately after I threw the first handful of dog food into the water. What we did not expect to see was a good size shark approach Marcia as soon as she got in the water. It was a nurse shark so Randy was comfortable enough to jump in even though the shark was still hanging around. Terry saw a small grouper, but none of the Goliath groupers hanging under our boat. I think they are not hanging around because there is no free, easy food without the dive boats, We did not stay out very long because both a Terry and Marcia got a little queasy from the swells. They said they prefer to scuba where you don’t feel the movement as much. It was still a beautiful morning on the water and we got to see a large dolphin on the way back to the house.

There were a few other boats at Looe Key
Randy checking out the water
There is a shark below Randy The nurse shark came right up to Marcia and Randy still jumped in the water.
The Yellowtail Snapper love the dog food.
Terry getting back on Sweet Thing
Marcia snorkeling at Looe
Marcia looking at the nurse shark below her.
Randy heading back to the boat

After we dropped Terry and Marcia off, we headed back to the RV fir lunch. Then we loaded up the fishing rods for a little fishing. I know we don’t normally catch as much on an outgoing tide, but we wanted to see if we could take advantage of the South wind with the outgoing tide. The current and wind were going in the same direction where we normally fish for sea trout, do we were hoping for a productive afternoon. No such luck. First the sea grass was so thick it was tough to fish. And the wind died down so we were barely moving. Neither was conducive for catching fish. We tried several spots, but no luck forsea trout. We ended the afternoon in the deep hole where we catch Lady Fish and Jack. We caught several large fish. And lost a lot of tackle. We did see a large 3’ cuda and large shark. The cuda hit on the Jack while Randy was reeling it in. And the shark was going after it too. The grass finally got on our nerves enough that we called it a day. Another fun day, even if nothing in the box.

A small Jack
Nice Lady Fish
A 3’ cuda wanted this Jack for his dinner