Once again, we're all back home in Miami, so I reached out to Davis and Milan to make a plan to head down to the keys to catch up and catch some fish. We'd gotten up and left pretty early in hopes of getting to the bridges early, which was a good idea even if not everything worked according to plan. I picked them up before heading down south, stopping at the last stop bait shop in Homestead right before crossing over into the keys, since we were going to take the Card Sound road this time. Milan said he knew a good bridge by Alabama Jack's that we would try out. However, planning on potentially later heading to Channel 5, we got two blue crabs as bait as well. When we got to Alabama Jack's, we saw that a place Milan knew to hold fish was fenced off. However, we parked along the side of the road and walked over to the bridge to see what we could catch. At this point, it was low tide, so we were somewhat skeptical about whether the fish would really hold in the shallow water. We tried it anyways. Once we dropped our baits, we started feeling nibbles. It was truly great to be back at it, fishing in the Keys with some good friends. I was the first on the board with an undersized Mangrove Snapper. Next up was Davis with a Bluestriped Grunt. While we started off catching fish, most nibbles resulted in clean hooks. We bought three dozen shrimp, but Davis was unsure at first about whether they actually gave us three whole dozen. This unfortunately became an issue quick as we were running through our bait. Due to the uncertainty of the parking situations (signs next to the road warned that there was a fine for parking there) and since we had the crabs we were hoping to get to other bridges anyways - so we packed up and moved on. We drove down to Channel 5 and got there at around 9:30 AM. Not very early like we'd hoped, but not too late. We got lots of nibbles on the bottom again, but nothing very substantial. We brought in a few snappers and a LOT of Slippery Dicks. Milan had stayed behind to fish the seawall under the bridge while Davis and I had fished the bridge, and after a while of getting our bait stolen and just catching the same fish, we moved over to Milan's spot. There, he had caught a lobster with a net which was just out of season. We also reeled in a few snappers on the edge of the seawall, but nothing much. Back up in South Florida, I'd heard reports about how bad the sargassum piling up on the beaches has been getting. It was apparent for us here too; while the current at the middle of the bridge had swept away any sargassum, it had clumpoed up toward the edges of the channel. Thus, when I casted out my crab on the heavy surf rod, which was rigged on three feet of leader attached to a three way swivel, with about a foot of line attached to a bank sinker on another eye, it would get caught up in the weeds. Thus, partially in frustration, I just dropped it next to the seawall, not expecting much. At one point, I noticed the line moving a bit so I picked up the rod and reeled in some slack. I thought it may have been caught on a rock, but whatever was on the other end took a big run once it was solidly hooked. I fought the fish steadily and brought it up, with the help of Milan netting the fish at the surface. Replacing the crab on the hook was the beaked mouth of a Rainbow Parrotfish, a beautiful new species for me. We kept on fishing, catching a couple more snapper before getting lunch since the fish were clearly hitting their midday siesta and we were getting hungry. We went to Robbie's, at this point becoming our tradition, with a great view and great food. It was less packed than we'd expected, which allowed us to get a table right next to the water with no wait. We saw some kids fishing in the water surrounding the docks with the famous tarpon which can be handfed with herring. It may be morally fishy, but where else can you find a better spot for hard fighting Tarpon? After eating we decided to fish over by the bridge on the side, away from the docks, to see if any snapper would bite. Milan had some leftover frozen shrimp he had caught months ago when the shrimp had pushed inshore in the winter. They didn't look or smell too great, but it was bait. Without moving the car, which was convenient, we got our rods and walked over to the spot next to the bridge, which actually seemed to be set up for fishing with a path and a garbage can. We spent the next two hours catching snappers and trying to avoid the needlefish. We didn't target them, but someone had clearly caught a Tarpon there because we could see dried tarpon scales on the ground. Unfortunately we didn't catch any keepers, with the biggest snappers being in the 8-9 in range, short of the 10 in minimum. We also caught one of the biggest Tomtates I'd ever seen. The time went by quickly though as we were having fun, and we packed up to head back home at around 3:30-4 or so in the afternoon. We spent the ride back reflecting on the keys, looking out over the colorful reefs and water on each bridge we crossed. It's really amazing how close we live to such a prime natural beauty. The fishing here, even when it isn't a particularly good day, is almost always surprising. You can almost count on pulling up something unexpected, as we did today with the parrotfish. With every cast or drop, you never really know what you're gonna get. The rest of the ride was spent catching up more and talking about boats, as Milan had gone to college in the keys learning boat mechanics, and life in general. It was reminiscent of the trip we took down here after graduating high school, and it was cathartic now that we had all graduated college. It was great to keep the tradition alive with this Keys trip and I look forward to many more.
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