DAY THREE....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Here we go again!!!!!

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And again!!!

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And again!!!

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And again!!!

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And again!!! Five more Wahoo....and 28 more pounds of filets!!!

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More fresh Wahoo...yummo!

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Stay tuned for the grand finale! Catch you on the flip flop...

CJM

DAY TWO....NEW YEAR'S EVE

We headed out early because "the early bird catches the Wahoo!"

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While we were trolling our "High Water Alarm" went off....YIKES!!!! For the first time EVER it became important to me to locate the emergency gear and lifeboat! CTM hurried below into the engine compartment. He quickly confirmed that one of our bilge pumps had malfunctioned but that there was no water in the bilge....PHEW!!!!

We continued "The Hunt" and boated a total of 4 Wahoo.....25 more pounds of filets!!!! What a way to end 2011!!!!!

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Dave and Mary Ann White joined us again for fresh Wahoo. We cooked at Dr. Dave's since he had kitchen facilities.

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The Looperman reliving that big catch....

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We got in on the Bahamian Junkanoo....

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Jeannie joined the parade :)

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A PERFECT end to 2011 :)

CJM

DAY ONE....FISHING FOR WAHOO IN BIMINI

CTM and I have talked of trying to get to Bimini to do some Wahoo fishing for a long time and now our dream had come true....we were finally headed out with Freddie and our boat mates, The Loopers, to fish for Wahoo in Bimini :) Ten o'clock....BAM....first "FISH ON!"

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We had boated our first Wahoo :)

Before eleven....BAM....second "FISH ON!" CTM was a happy camper :)

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The first day we boated 3 fish before noon. It looked a little bit like we had butchered a hog in the back of the boat before the day was over but we were happy hog butcherers (??? Jabet, is that a word?) :)

Nice catch!!!!

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25 POUNDS OF WAHOO FILETS!!!!

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Caldwell and Kate's Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Dave came by the boat and enjoyed cocktails with us and Dr. Dave arrived around 6ish. We took several pounds of fish to the Sand Bar where we celebrated Dr. Dave's birthday with one of our favorite waitresses in Bimini....Millie....

The Birthday Boy!!!

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We left our "mark" at the Sand Bar :)

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A good time was had by all.....

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THE END....DAY ONE OF WAHOO FISHING IN BIMINI :)

CJM

DAY ONE, TWO, AND THREE....PREPARATION & CROSSING

CTM and I arrived mid-afternoon and The Loopers arrived late on Tuesday, December 27th....Day One. We had a late Happy Hour. Day One was fairly uneventful...drinks and bed.

Wednesday, Day Two, was spent provisioning the boat. Jeannie and I ran down to Marathon for groceries while the boys continued readying the boat. Since we anticipated catching mass quantites of Wahoo we decided to load our small chest freezer to take. We transported a whole deer from Pontiac to Islamorada to take to Bimni to share with Freddie and others. By mid afternoon we were ready to roll so headed out to run a few errands and in search of "horse" ballyhoo prior to Happy Hour at Island Grill, Hog Heaven, and Whale Harbor for that "1st Night in Town Syndrome."

Day Three....THE CROSSING....We headed out at daylight up the Intercoastal Waterway to Biscayne Bay then turned east toward Bimini. The winds cooperated and we had a GREAT crossing (other than suffering from that 1st Night in Town Syndrome)!! We arrived in Bimini around 3ish, cleared customs, touched base with Freddie, drank some rum, had dinner at Bimini Big Game Bar & Grill, and hit the hay for an early fishing day on Friday.

Stay tuned for fishing reports :)

CJM

FANTASY FEST BOUND.....

Wednesday brought more wind so we decided to head to Key West for the day to check out Fantasy Fest. Since we were going to just go down and back I volunteered to be the DD! I know....kind of scarey, huh!!!! Well, I must confess....part of my heroism was due to being overserved by all of those overzealous bartenders on Tuesday during our Happy Hour Bar Hopping Extravagenza so not drinking anything on Wednesday sounded not only O.K. to me but APPEALING! :)

First stop was No Name Pub on Big Pine Key for some of their world famous pizza. It was delish!!!! Hummmmm.....this bunch looks like they NEED a Happy Hour to get happy or maybe they were overserved by those same overzealous bartenders :)

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Well, Lanell is ALWAYS happy!!!!

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Ahhhhh....finally getting happier AND smarter at the Sunset Pier (not sunset, however)!!!!

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Now, let me just say this about the rest of the day.....my camera would have exploded if I had taken pics of all of those painted boobs!! It was Wednesday of Fantasy Fest and all of the young girls were working so the only painted boobs were on the retired gals who weren't at work..... I will leave that up to your imagination!!!! The later it got the more interesting it got :) We finished up our visit to Key West and Fantasy Fest with a fish basket at B.O.'s Fishwagon....again....DELISH!

Lynda's Mom had a little health issue so they headed north on Thursday morning to be closer to home in case they were needed. I am happy to report that in the words of my good friend Leann...."It's all good!" She is home from the hospital and doing fine!

Thursday was CTM's birthday and since the wind was STILL blowing Roger, Lanell, CTM, and I took a boat ride in the T/T Feeding Frenzy up to Lorelei for Happy Hour....IMAGINE THAT!!!!

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Obviously this was on the way to Happy Hour because CTM doesn't look happy OR smart!

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On the way back....R and L are very happy AND very smart!!!!

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Friday the winds finally calmed so we got to go fishing :) I am sad to report that we got skunked :( So we came in early to celebrate Roger and Lanell's 6th wedding anniversary. Six years before they were married on the back of Feeding Frenzy II in the basin just outside of our canal at sunset. It was totally AWESOME!!!!!

We celebrated their anniversary and last night in town at Whale Harbour. Congratulations Roger and Lanell on 6 years together!!!!

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We said goodbye to Roger and Lanell Saturday morning and we spent the day doing boat and condo chores..... :(

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

WHAT WE DO ON WINDY DAYS.....

On Monday, October 24th, CTM and I flew into Sanford, FL and Roger and Lanell were there to pick us up. We headed south and got into Islamorada late on Monday. Buck and Lynda had been there since Saturday so they had made all of the happy hours prior to our arrival :) Just a side note.....two years ago Buck and Lynda came to Islamorada for a visit and the wind blew over 20 knots the entire time they were here. We were unable to go out fishing the ENTIRE time! So....I suggested we keep it a secret that they were visiting again this year so the "Wind Gods" would not know. Well....someone let the cat out of the bag and not only has the wind been blowing AGAIN but for a couple of days we monitored Hurricane Rina's movement watching and wondering if it was going to head our way! So....since it was windy on Tuesday, we decided to do the Happy Hour circuit. First stop was the Islamorada Fish Company for "foundation." We all enjoyed their fish tacoes....DELISH!

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Next stop was Rumrunners at Holiday Isle.....the view was worth the stop!

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Next stop was Island Grill and mass quanitities of their 35 cent wings, shrimp, & conch fritters. This was "dinner!"

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Next stop was Hog Heaven....hummmmmmm.....what is going on here?????

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Would this be the Three Musketeers or Three Stooges????

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From Hog Heaven we headed down to the Safari Lounge a/k/a the Dead Animal Bar (close to home) to finish out our day....

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Uh oh....time to go home!

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Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

NO PICS TO PROVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right we don't have any pictures to prove it, but CJM and I, fishing with one of our new neighbors, Bob Robbins, had an incredible afternoon of fishing Friday. To start from the beginning...last year we had planned to spend most of the month of September in Islamorada because in 2009 we had a GREAT fishing trip there with our good friends, the Petersons. Well, low and behold Lola showed up on September 3rd so needless to say our September trip in 2010 was put off. This year we vowed to spend 3 weeks in September fishing in the Keys. Well, this time our new little building project got in the way. We almost cancelled our trip altogether, but having left CJM's car there and the Feeding Frenzy out of the water, we decided to make a very short trip of it mostly to check on FF III and pick up the car. We, of course, had some maintenance to do to both the FF III and the T/T to FF III. We replaced the trim tabs and shaft zincs and put in some new damp rid bags in the big boat and put a different prop and an additional fuel tank on the little boat. We caught a couple happy hours on Tuesday and took the T/T FF III out Thursday for a nice little run up to Hog Heaven and Island Grill. We checked in with our new neighbor, Bob Robbins a GHS graduate a couple years older than me and he invited us to go fishing with him on Friday. He had a few things to do that morning and none of us wanted to make a big deal of it so we went out about noon. He has a 30' Grady White with twin 250 Yamahas. It will run about 45 mph or so and if you know Bob, he always runs his boats WOT. We were still in sight of land when we came upon a huge weed line with boards in it and birds working it and fish everywhere. This was no doubt a Guy Harvey picture opportunity under those weeds as the fish bit immediately and were everywhere. Every time we put something out, we got bites. Most times before we could even get the baits out on the riggers, they were getting hit. We kept only one Mahi and about 3 or 4 Wahoo as Bob did not want them and we were leaving the next morning, but we caught and released a LOT of fish.......all very nice keeper Mahi. We also got bitten off 4 or 5 times by Wahoo. Twice we dropped big 5" spoons down and they were both bitten off almost immediately. We were very short on wire leaders so could not really see what all was there, but it was truly a "feeding frenzy." Finally we all said "enough", Captain Bob called "lines up" and we were back in by 4:00. I guess that day you did not have to be the early bird to catch the worm. It just verifies that September is a great fishing month in the Keys. So I'm giving notice....next year no building projects allowed in September. And...Caldwell & Kate and Matt & Jabet, if you are thinking of making any babies, please plan accordingly!

CTM