Cabin Fever

In anticipation of winter, my girlfriend and I set out to plan a trip somewhere warm and tropical (or at least semi-tropical). At first we were looking to visit the Bahamas, but being lowly grad students decided for a slightly more economical option and chose to vacation in the Florida Keys. Home for the next 5 days was going to be Key Largo staying at Bay Harbor Lodge/Coconut Bay Resort (http://www.bayharborkeylargo.com/). This was place was truly a gem and I'd go back in less than a heartbeat. When we returned to our room from the day's activities we felt like we were going home to our apartment, not back to a resort room. Can't say enough about the facility. Outstanding A+.

Anyway, I'll limit my text and let you view photos of our trip (yep, completely non-muskie related). I wish we were still there! Oh well, c'est la vie.

Mmmm. Fresh mahi-mahi, portabello and white mushrooms, and risotto. Cheap glass of chardonnay to boot (not pictured). Bon appetit!

"You talkin' to me?" Brown pelican at the bird rehabilitation center on Key Largo (he wasn't injured, just a freeloader looking for handouts).

What would a trip to the Keys be without some fishing? Capt. Don Reichert (http://www.fishinmissioncharters.com) at the helm of his 28' Parker preparing to take Sarah and I out for a half-day of bottom fishing for snapper and grouper.

Combo of cigar minnows and ballyhoo for bait + box of fish chum + lobster head chum = ....

Snapper! Little guy here. Couldn't find the big muttons we were hoping for.

And grouper! A moratorium on harvesting all species of grouper prevented us from taking these tasty dudes home. This is a red grouper.

Here's a gag grouper. We also caught black grouper in addition to the reds and gags. All three are excellent eating, but all prone to over-harvest due to the time it takes to reach sexual maturity and their spawning behaviour (form large aggregations at predictable times of the year and predictable locations which make them easy to harvest in large quantities).

The weather was kind of funky (windy and cold), but not funky enough to prevent this spotted moray eel to latch onto Sarah's hunk o' fish. Stay away from those teeth (unless you don't want a digit)!

Snorkel trip to out to a few patch reefs just offshore. I'd call this an underwater "forest" of soft coral. A few grunts milling about, too.

Red grouper headed back to its coral haven (not sure what type of coral this is... should probably know though).

Last but not least, one of my favorite reef fishes - the stoplight parrotfish (terminal phase). It's hard to see, but at the base of the tail are three yellow dots, similar to a stoplight. Love the colors!

Okay, fun's over. Back to work.