Keys trip (part 2)

Two trips to the keys in one summer...I definitely could get used to that lifestyle down there. We just got back from a week staying in Marathon where we rented a house on a canal off the ocean. The place was great and the weather was perfect other than it being 100+ degrees every day. Unfortunately, this made the inshore and near shore reef fishing a little slow but we still were able to find some fish. The highlight of the trip was the 40"+ barracuda my sis caught while reeling up a nice yellowtail. She was really pumped and I was amazed we were able to land that fish with only 14lb. test line and a 30lb. mono leader. Most of the yellowtail and mangrove snappers we caught were on the small side but we did manage to find a few keeper fish. I had some fun the last afternoon catching several nice barracudas and snapper on a Blue Glimmer MinnowZ. The Elaztech in the Zman baits is really some awesome stuff because I was able to use the same bait for all of the fish and it never tore. The snorkeling out of Marathon was unbelievable on the Sombrero Reef and the whole group had a blast seeing all the fish. Of course they don't let you fish on that reef but we enjoyed it anyways.

The most surprising part of our trip was when we were anchored off the 7 Mile bridge and the local Monroe County Sheriff's deputy pulled up to us in his boat. My initial thought was of course he is going to check all of us for licenses and I am going to have to pull out all my safety gear, but this encounter was different. The deputy yelled out to asking if we could do a favor for him. I said sure whatever you need us to do. Not only did he not ask us for any licenses or safety gear, he was actually coming to give us some advice on a better place to fish. We followed him into the bay where he put us on several nice rock piles where we caught many grunt and snapper. I guess you just never know what to expect.