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| Sunrise at the Rod and Gun Club wall |
A new day dawns with some good news....upon checking the UPS tracking number for our water pumps this morning it now says they should be delivered here to the Rod and Gun Club tomorrow instead of Tuesday. That was welcome news and we hope that it actually comes through. That would keep us closer to our original schedule. If they arrive tomorrow morning early enough we think that we’ll likely try and make a 45 mile cruise to Shark River anchorage to drop the hook for the night. This would be approximately half of the ~88 miles down to Marathon Key. If the pumps don’t come in before 11am or so we will likely stay here one more night and then just make the whole 88 mile trip to Marathon on Wednesday. We will take it a day at a time and see what happens.
One advantage of staying multiple days in one location is morning time to make big breakfasts! Today's menu was Omelettes made with leftover kabob veges, bacon and toast was delicious 🍳 🥓
Morning time at the Rod and Gun Club is hoppin! At least a couple dozen smallish flat bottom boats and other fishing boats all heading out into the flats to fish. Quite a few of them are day charters bringing small groups out. We considered the possibility of getting a charter because Erik really wants to catch SOMETHING to blacken on the grill 😁 We spoke with a couple of the charter captains most of whom were booked up for the next couple days. One though was very friendly and called a couple of his fellow captains and found one that did have an opening for tomorrow. Then our frugal sides kicked in again after finding that it would be $500 for a half day.
So, with the charter off the table Erik switched gears to obtaining some additional appropriate gear, tackle and bait to attempt to fish on our own for some snook and/or redfish (red drum). On a short walk a couple blocks up the road to the bait and tackle shop he went and came back with a bucket of live shrimp 🦐, a fishing pole 🎣 for Renee, leaders, hooks, and a few other items that he was directed towards by a friendly young man at the shop.
By this time it was almost 11am and the heat had set in. We shoved off of the dock/wall and headed back through the mangroves toward the gulf. We first went out of the marked channels and found a promising looking spot (at least that’s what we thought) where we anchored about 25 ft off of one of the thousands of rock/mangrove islands and baited up. Unfortunately, our live shrimp were now dead shrimp 😂. We fished this spot for about an hour during which time we had quite a few bites where it appeared the fish was taking the hook but after attempting to set it each time the suckers absconded with our bait. Same thing would happen if we just allowed them to take it under and we waited. 🤔
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| Anchor set on beach |
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| Fishing pole bated and in the water |
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| Buddha belly |
We then motored out another mile or so to where the opening to the Gulf is. There was a cool looking island with a large sand bar with several boats beached on it out there. We beached the boat and set an anchor on the beach and another on our Stern. Erik baited up a line to throw out on the bottom. We were told that the most likely catch from out there would be a shark 🦈 😳No luck with the fishing out there either. It was, however, a very nice spot where we walked the sand bar, swam a bit in the shallows and enjoyed the peace and tranquility.
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| Our tranquil little spot for the afternoon |
After heading back in to the dock we quickly jumped in the pool to cool down and then got dressed and headed over to the restaurant at the club. Unfortunately, after seating ourselves the wait staff came out and informed us that the kitchen had closed for the day....no fresh grouper for Erik. We got on our bikes and road a short distance to the Island Cafe which was recommended by the locals. Early dinner was good and satisfying although fried seafood was not what Erik had yearned for. That will have to wait till next time.
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| Front desk and lobby areas of The Rod and Gun Club |
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| Very cool, old, ornate woodwork and relics |
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| Another shot of the lobby |
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| Front door with beautiful wood and leaded stained glass |
With full bellies at just 4pm or so after being in the heat all day we settled in for a nap and Renee also did some gifted student online training. Later, as the sun was setting, we went for a nice bike ride around Everglades City. We are told that there are only about 400 full time residents of the town. Erik attempted to fish again VERY briefly after our ride but quickly was attacked by mosquitoes 🦟
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| Sunset on a cloudy but nice evening bike ride as we were going over a bridge that led out to Chokoloskee |
A short swim in the pool, showers, and then a spell of blogging/Facebook with coffee and ice cream. It’s been a wonderful day! The biggest challenge/problem of the day was that Erik somehow managed to start singing “baby shark” on the cruise back in this afternoon and got that darn tune stuck in both of our heads.
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