Fishing In The Everglades

We left the Keys on Wednesday morning and drove towards Everglades City.  First stop was at the Miccasoukee Casino.  Not much of a casino and both of us made a small donation.  It was a nice drive across U.S. 41 and we saw lots of wildlife.  The only gators we saw were as we drove past one of the rest areas.

We got to Larry and Robin's place in Everglades City around 3:30 and our friend, Erol, was already there.  They live on a canal that connects to the 10,000 Islands region of the Everglades National Park.  They have lots of flowers blooming.

When I asked Larry why their Pink Flamingos were blue and orange, he said "Because we're Gator fans!"

We had a great meal of stone crab claws.  Here's some shots of the cracking of the claws.

Thursday morning we headed out into the water for some fishing.  

We caught a lot of trout, some of which weren't big enough and had to go back to the sea but we did catch 5 spotted trout a few silver trout that we kept for dinner.  We also caught quite a few small sharks.

We headed back in to clean the fish and take them to the restaurant.  Our dogs love fish!

Robin, Larry, Erol, Sonny, Doug and I had a feast.  You bring in your filleted fish and they cook them for you.

When we left the restaurant, the truck parked next to us had a guard sitting in the passenger's seat.

We had a great time!  Thank you Larry and Robin for your wonderful hospitality.  We'll be back next year so that we can get that personal tour of the Everglades museum.

Friday morning we headed to Delray Beach to visit with Erol and Susan.  We got here around 2:00, visited with Susan and her mother, Jonne, and then got set up.  When Erol got home, Susan served a great dinner of salad, croissants, shrimp etouffee and chocolate cream pie.  Susan is a great cook and it was better than a restaurant!

Our fishing trip with Captain Jim of Country Club Charters is tomorrow.  I don't know what adventure awaits us today, but I'm going to start my day with a fresh cup of coffee.