Monday, November 17, 2008

Rabbit Key 11/12-13/08




















Ahhh Rabbit Key...
I love that place, just a short paddle from Chokoloskee and you are in the middle of nowhere. Going during the week ensures that you will here little evidence of civilization save for the occasional motorboat making its way out to their fishing spots. Rabbit Key and Pavilion have quite an interesting history: Rabbit Key is the location where Mr. Watson was buried after he was killed (made famous by the book "Killing Mr. Watson"), on the sandbar protruding from the NE shore, they eventually dug him up and moved him for fear of the body being discovered...oddly enough there are always crows hanging around Rabbit Key and Watsons Place on the Chatham River...no where else in the 10K have I seen crows but in that general area...and I'm not the only one who finds it odd. Pavilion Key was named by a ruthless pirate who kidnapped a beautiful young woman and brought her to an unnamed key to ravish her and eventually poison her. The story claims that after this the pirate felt guiltly about leaving her to die slowly on that deserted island so he built her a shelter and then left her there to die...thus the spanish word for shelter "Pavilion" became the name for the key.

We set out around 7:30am, paddled with a purpose to get out of Rabbit Key pass as the tide was switching at 8:30 and no one wanted to paddle against the incoming. We had originally planned to camp on Pavilion Key but the forecasted 10knot winds were more like 20 with gusts up to 25...no fun over the open bay for the two newbie's I had with me so we stayed on Rabbit Key.
On the way out we hit a few of my spots for snook but found trout, nice sized trout for the 10k, we caught a mess of them over the flats and then landed on Rabbit and made camp. I waded around a bit and produced a pair of reds but nothing else. Later that night we shark fished for hours getting broken off, spooled, and frustrated to no end, I finally managed to subdue a small Bull Shark into taking a few pictures with me...I fell asleep shortly afterword.

The next morning was brisk and windy but the winds had shifted to the south, couple with that and the incoming tide we had a very easy paddle back into Chokoloskee Bay, not much biting as it was the full moon the previous night and the fish had eaten their fill that night. I was at home nappin' on the couch with my weiner dog by 3pm.

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