"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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NOYB wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
NOYB wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
NOYB wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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Don White wrote:
Harry Krause wrote:
Maybe NOYB will open a B&B to make ends meet.


Wonder if he'd throw in use of his boat? I wouldn't mind getting
some Florida sun in January or February.
There is a place in the upper to middle keys that does that. It's an
ok older motel right on the water, with a good restaurant and the
use of a whaler skiff and outboard is included. The beauty of the
place is that the "offshore reef" is about a half-mile offshore, and
that's as far as you have to go to catch some damned nice fish. I
stayed there for a few days about five years ago. Nice beach, too.
I lived down here for 4 1/2 years before I went to the Keys. I don't
know what I was thinking. I finally "discovered" them this year, and
have been there twice already since Memorial Day...and I'm going back
in 3 weeks. I realized that if I want to head out to deep water to
catch pelagics, it's cheaper and easier to put the boat on the
trailer and drive 3 hours to the Keys with boat in tow. I can be in
deep water off Islamorada in 3 1/2 hours...which is the same time it
would take to run my 25' boat out 110 miles off Naples to reach the
100 fathom mark. And the fuel spent on the Keys trip is 1/5th what
I'd spend running to the deep water over here.

A better alternative yet, is running across the Alley and launching
at Miami Haulover or Port Everglades. This area is great for snook,
tarpon, grouper, jewfish, sharks, redfish, cobia, and snapper, but if
you want pelagics (dolphin, tuna, billfish) you need to run across to
the East coast or Keys.


I have a friend who launches his Whaler out of Haulover. He lives just
south of there, across the bridge, in Bal Harbour, one or two condos
down from that bridge on the ocean side. When I'm down there, he lets
me borrow the Whaler. You sure don't have to go far out of Haulover to
catch some really nice fish.
It's a sloppy inlet on an outgoing tide and an onshore wind, though.




It's fun watching the inlet water wash up onto the little jetty on the
north side and the retaining wall on the other side. I've seen a few
slower boats get into trouble there.

When I went through it, I was in my 17' Outrage. The boat ahead of me
was a 25' Proline and took a wave right over the bow. I trimmed the bow
way up, and jumped through a lull in the waves.


Were you aware there is a nudist beach at the north end of the park
there, or at least there was?

Yes. While tying the boat down in the parking lot for the trip back to
Naples, a couple of guys in G-string banana hammocks went strolling
through the parking lot. Following them was a group teenage kids
whistling at them and hootin' and hollerin'. Any curiosity that I may
have had to walk across the street and take a look left me at that
moment.




Good place to buy and fly kites, too.

If you go back to the area, ask someone for directions to the Little
Havana Cuban restaurant, which is only a couple miles from there, a bit
south, and across the causeway. Great authentic Cuban food, pretty
reasonable. It's on Biscayne Boulevard. Good selection of beers, too.
It's a family restaurant; always lots of Cuban families there with kids.
We were in the front dining room one evening and got invited to join an
anniversary party at the next table.

I trailer the boat when I head over there...so stopping to park and eat
is not an option.



They have a big parking lot.

It's not the size of the parking lot that worries me. I have $6k worth of
electronics, tackle and gear in my boat when I travel over there. It's
easier to grab something from Burger King while my brother sits in the car
and guards the boat.