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Posted by Toe on 17:32:27 04/21/06
I went out yesterday with my dad with three objectives: see if the boat repairs worked, catch some fish, and hopefully see some birds (without getting on my dad's 81 year-old nerve). The boat worked like a charm; the fishing was decent; the birding was slow. We left Crandon and after catching some bait headed for the outer reef. There were the usual gulls, royal and least terns, and frigatebirds here and there. At Fowey Rocks lighthouse there were a few Brown Boobies, with three more at the monument bouy north of Triumph Reef. Fishing was slow so we headed for Carysfort Reef off N. Key Largo. Plenty of Northern Gannets heading north (??), and the only other bird I saw was a lone Audubon's Shearwater in 175 ft. of water just north of Carysfort light. On the run back to port, I found a nice current rip and weed line in 600' of water and decided to follow it. This produced 6 Sooty Terns, 2 Bridled Terns, and the best bird of the trip: an adult breeding Pomarine Jaeger, also flying steadily north. The fish list is much better, but I'll save this for a fish board. Not exactly a productive pelagics trip, but the Jaeger was nice, and so was the Shearwater. I hope to do more birding and less fishing on the next trip. Cheers!
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