Back to fish
By Captain Larry Jarboe
The summer weather and water temperature have turned to perfect in Key Largo.
The water temperature is in the mid-Eighties and the wind has stopped blowing. Though it is August, the air temperature is only in the low Nineties. My wife and I have taken this time to explore the near shore reefs and out of the way places in our “backyard” in Garden Cove.
Garden Cove is located in the heart of John Pennekamp State Park and is directly adjacent to the Dagny Johnson Botanical Hammock State Park. We can visit both these parks from our Wavewalk stable twin hull kayaks every day without waiting at the highway entrance gate or paying the entrance fees. We can also harvest fish and lobster under Florida and Federal regulations but spearfishing is definitely prohibited. Thus, we have a fully stocked pantry of fresh seafood only a mile or two from our house beside the only commercial docks on the Atlantic side of North Key Largo.
This is the perfect place to operate a fishing and eco-tour business featuring safe and portable vessels that require minimal effort to paddle or operate a motor from. And, when business is slow, I can use these same vessels to harvest fish and lobster commercially in accordance with my State and Federal commercial fishing permits.
The Wavewalk S4 is the perfect kayak to motorize and use to fish or find new spots inshore or offshore. Almost every day, I find more areas to fish that most people overlook in their quest to go faster and further offshore.
It must be nice to be able to afford five or six hundred dollars a day of fuel expenses to try to catch a fish. But, I prefer to save my money.
A dollar’s worth of fuel runs my S4 all day. Or, we can take out a couple more S4’s with electric trolling motors and spend maybe twenty five cents more on our electric bill.
Yesterday, I invested a couple hours to catch some fish from our backyard pantry to eat next week.
The proof is in the pic.
Larry offers guided fishing and diving trips in the Key Largo and the areas that surround it »
