How I spent my tax return

[Bri Guy]

YA thankx for taking the time out of your vacation to "bring us along" that was sweet!!!

 

[ken_wied]

Awesome pics John! Looks like you had a great time!

 

[dabruecker]

Very cool - thanks for sharing!

 

[MikeB]

Thanks for sharing. Looks like it was a great time.

 

[tc269]

wow i was happy i bought a vortech with my return.. yours looks like it is much more fun lol

 

[Joezreef]

Thanks for sharing John!

 

[NewMelee]

ok I am officially jealous.........

 

[TankScraper]

Fantastic Pics.

 

[ReeferGoalie]

Thousands of fish, manatees, and sea turtles perished.

Oh, the hu-manatee! :tongue:

Still looks like tons of fun. Get more pics up!

 

[acanman]

where did you stay at? i went last summer and loved it. i also rented a charter boat and got some nice fish. was it to cold for you to dive or scuba the jesus of the abyss?or the other reefs? they were awesome

 

[Jhildebrand]

I have done the Jesus dive in the past. That's at the other end of the Keys though. We didn't dive at all this time, it was more of an 'exploring on our own' type trip. The locals were pretty bundled up. I did my snorkeling in a 3 mil wetsuit. Still, when I came out the water once I was so cold I could not stop shivering and my lips and fingers were blue. I would have done a dive or two, but the water was fairly murky and decided to put the money towards another fishing trip instead.

I had bought a flimsy water resistant cover for my DSLR, but couldn't stomach putting that camera in the water to get some coral pics. Right from shore I could see lots of brain corals and branching oculina. Some were bleached white, but most were surviving in the cold water. Really made me wonder why I lost so many SPS after my heater went out a while back. Those Florida corals aren't the flashiest, but they have to be pretty tough.

 

[acanman]

I have done the Jesus dive in the past. That's at the other end of the Keys though. We didn't dive at all this time, it was more of an 'exploring on our own' type trip. The locals were pretty bundled up. I did my snorkeling in a 3 mil wetsuit. Still, when I came out the water once I was so cold I could not stop shivering and my lips and fingers were blue.

I had bought a flimsy water resistant cover for my DSLR, but couldn't stomach putting that camera in the water to get some coral pics. Right from shore I could see lots of brain corals and branching oculina. Some were bleached white, but most were surviving in the cold water. Really made me wonder why I lost so many SPS after my heater went out a while back. Those Florida corals aren't the flashiest, but they have to be pretty tough.

awesome. ya i love the fishing down there. and the corals are cool also where did you stay? i was in key largo at the marriott bay

 

[Jhildebrand]

Here is the place we stayed:

Marathon vacation villa rental unit_472230 - Quiet Open Water Retreat On Nature Refuge

It's in Layton, a small town on Long Key. Unfortunately, the parrotfish and sargaent magors were not in the shallows like normal because of the cold...

 

[acanman]

ya they were everywhere last summer huge parrot fish and tarpons everywhere, and barricudas. did you see any hammerheads? when i was there the locals said it was too hot and the sharks moved out
sweet place btw. didnt spend much time on long key but looks like a nice place to stay

 

[Jhildebrand]

Opposite problem - too cold! On our cancelled Everglades fishing excursion I was going to get a chance to go after sharks. It was 35mph winds though, so no dice. I caught a 5 foot blacktip about ten years ago and I've had the itch to catch another big shark though. Either that or a 'cuda or big tarpon. Next time around for sure...

 

[acanman]

Opposite problem - too cold! On our cancelled Everglades fishing excursion I was going to get a chance to go after sharks. It was 35mph winds though, so no dice. I caught a 5 foot blacktip about ten years ago and I've had the itch to catch another big shark though. Either that or a 'cuda or big tarpon. Next time around for sure...

i caught a 4 to 5 foot cuda when we were trolling for mahi mahi and black fin tuna. we were trolling the illmorada humps,they were tons of people paying to go shark fishing and bringing in 5 to 800 pound bull sharks in. they were huge!!

 

[PrisonCityReef]

Awesome! We got married down in IslaMorada. Great place. Small town-ish tourism. Not as flashy as the keys big resorts, which is nice depending on what you are going for.

 

[Jhildebrand]

We were between that town and Marathon and loved it. Heh, our goal with this one was to avoid the tourist traps. Aside from our day trip to Key West, I think we succeeded pretty well. We ate at every little local seafood shack we could find and checked out a ton of stuff 'off the map'.

 

[acanman]

ya i wasnt into the tourist stuff.. we took a boat with us and did lots of fishing and diving.. it was awesome,best thing is the place we stayed had private docks for the boats.

 

[D.J.]

SWEET PICS.....sorry i dont post much here!!!

that skeleton looks like a crucifix fish aka catfish skeletion....being from teh south we see this things on the beachs ALOT....pretty cool to collect...not for sure thats what it is but it resembles one...the large part is the skull where you find the "CRUCIFIX" part where they get their name..