July 9 – July 15, Week 4 in Review (Days 22 – 28)

Saturday July 9th – Friday July 15th 2022

This week’s headline. A plethora of activities.

Day 22 – Saturday July 9th: Nest Key & Some Offshore Fishing

Half way there! Today marks the halfway point of this 44 day break from my work life. I feel a tremendous mix of emotions. Thankfulness, joy, gratitude, love, excitement. What an amazing time it has been since this period began on June 18!

Today, my long-time friend Quintin & his kids came down for a brief visit. They arrived late last night, and we learned they’d have to return on Sunday, so we felt the need to do all Key Largo has to offer, in one day. In the morning, we rode over to Nest Key for a swim and splash fest.

Nest Key with the friends

On the way home from Nest Key, we stopped for lunch waterside at Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill. This is one of our favorite locations to go when we have friends in town. The view is fantastic. Then we headed home and turned the boat over for a ride out to the weed-lines and to chase some mahi mahi. We caught a few little ones, but after more than a week of high winds, to be able to get offshore was a victory.

Caleb with a small mahi, his first.
Tripletail everwhere.
Caleb with a small tripletail, his first.

Day 23 – Sunday July 10th: A Day Of Rest

After our hard work on the lilly pad at Nest Key, followed by a trip offshore for mahi, and a late night game of Garbage, we were pretty tired on Sunday. Our house guests slept in and we all needed to recharge the batteries a little. A little R&R at the house with some snoozing on the down stairs porch is just what the doctor ordered. Our guests left around 4PM and we wished they could have stayed longer.

John and I have been watching the weather daily for a break in the wind, and tomorrow looks like it will be pretty flat. The winds are supposed to be 5-10 knots out of the south and bay waters smooth. Just what we’re looking for. As such, we want to get the boat ready for mahi.

NS getting the boat ready for a trip offshore tomorrow.

Day 24 – Monday July 11th: Offshore With John For Mahi (Again)

John Hurff simply loves to fish. Today was the perfect day for him. The weather was perfect and the fish were plentiful. We lost count of how many mahi mahi we caught, but our best guess was 31. Any time you set your target fish on the dock, then go out and catch lots of that species, you feel pretty good. We did just that on July 11 2022.

We caught 3 keeper mahi before 9AM, and then spent the rest of the day looking for cool weed-lines. At a place we called the Netty Bucket, John was catching almaco jacks on a bare hook.