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Posted by Angel & Mariel on 15:03:53 02/24/08
Hi Everyone,
Yesterday we spent a day out on Biscayne with Toe, Miranda, Mariel & I. We cruised the waters in search of pelagics as we fished. The day started out on the right foot with Toe & I working together to manuver the boat as Toe threw a perfect cast over a school of bait fish. As Toe reeled in the cast net full of bait fish he said put the boat in netural and help me pull the net to the live well. As we filled the well we couldn't believe the number of bait fish we caught in one throw...50 pounds or so! With the live well full of Pilchards we cruised onward to our first stop at Fowey Rocks in search of the Brown Booby. Last pelagic trip we had one Brown Booby. As soon as we arrived at Fowey Rocks we immediately noticed that there were several Brown Booby resting on the structure. Toe manuvered the boat in closer for better looks as I am grabbing the camera out of the cabin, I hear Toe & Mariel counting off all the boobies 1, 2...5...10...13! Wow that is a lot of boobies! I shot some photos and we started to move on. As we pulled away I asked Toe to stop the boat to check a group of 5 birds flying into the structure that looked like more Booby. Toe let the boat drift as he confirmed the flock were indeed more Brown Booby for a total of 18 or so. More Booby than we have ever seen at once! Onward to fish we started baiting the waters in search of Dolphin without any strikes. We then decided to try out the shallower waters to target Kingfish. Nothing but a few trigger fish bites so we tried to try and lure some birds in with bait which only produced a few Royal Tern, Laughing, Ring-billed and Herring Gull. No Jaegars, No Shearwaters, No Skuas, No Loons and No Scoters...where are all the birds and fish??!!
Maybe the very warm winter has something to do with it. Although the day of fishing was even less productive than pelagics it was still a beautiful day out on the water with Captain Toe and his daughter!
Brown Booby (18 + at Fowey Rocks)
Northern Gannet
Herring Gull (several)
Laughing Gull (several)
Ring-billed Gull (few)
Royal Tern (several)
Brown Pelican (several)
Double-crested Cormorant (several)
Magnificent Frigatebird (few)
White Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Grackles among the usual suspects.
Nature is Awesome!
Angel & Mariel
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