Gimme!

Feeding the Silver Kings.

Basically imagine a herring that has spent too much time in the gym and is the same size as a human being.

It's out of the real tarpon fishing season in the Keys, but Robbie's - the marina at the end of the island has a bunch of fish that stick around for the free pilchards on offer. $3 gets you a bucket of small dead fish and a warning not to stick your hand in the water... Not that you'd want to after dropping the first offering into the waiting jaws below. A noise like a bear trap closing and even standing up on the dock you get sprayed with water. In the photo the air being forced out through the tarpon's gills is visible as it takes it's huge gulp!

This wasn't the biggest fish we saw today either...

Early morning and we left the dock for a small kayak odyssey around the mangroves and onto the flats. After catching a lizard fish, another small barracuda, a needle fish and being inspected by a much bigger barracuda, we slid out onto the flats - the huge areas of knee deep seagrass and sand that surround many of the Keys.

This is classic stuff, drifting across turquoise waters looking for the moving shadows of fish. First big patch of sand and what may or may not have been a bonefish was hooked and lost. Then there were dolphins/porpoises close by. A bit further on was another patch of sand, but much deeper with the turquoise grading to blue. As I made the first cast I realised the boat was surrounded by fast swimming fish that showed no interest in the lure at all. Looking at the fish ID book for keys I'm pretty sure these were permit. So maybe I can claim a visual grand slam (Tarpon, Permit & Bonefish in one day) if not an actual fishing one.

However a few minutes later is occurred to me, from my perch standing balanced on the kayak, that these were not our biggest companions on this sand patch... Huge shadows were moving across the bottom. Perhaps six or seven very large sharks, at least a couple bigger than the kayaks were mooning about over the sand. It was awe inspiring but also a bit comical as the slightest waved paddle would send them shooting off into the distance, only to return after a minute or two. After this there appeared to be sharks of all sizes all over the flat with lots of curious little lemon sharks paying us a visit as we paddled off to get lunch at Robbie's.

After lunch we headed deeper into the mangroves in the hope of a manatee sighting. No such luck, but we did spot sheepshead and snook as well as rather too many jetskis...