FISHING KEY WEST AFTER THE STORM
On September 10, 2017 Hurricane Irma slammed into the Florida Keys. It hit Cadjoe Key a little after nine in the morning. By the afternoon they had a ten foot storm surge with one hundred and thirty mile an hour sustained winds. It was the worst hurricane to hit the Keys since Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and in addition to Wilma, Irma will go down as one of the worst hurricanes in Florida history along with the Labor Day Hurricane in 1935 and Hurricane Donna in 1960.
From the safety of our northern Wisconsin homes we followed the storm.
Our interest was more than just curiosity. We know and love Key West. We have friends in Florida and Key West and were worried.
Larry May holds a bonito. They make for goot cut bait and provide a great fight.
I called an old Army buddy of mine, Maria Polo who now lives in Fort Meyers. We had been platoon leaders in a military police company in Germany many years ago. She, her mother and their cats and dogs were going to ride the storm out. They took precautions, stocked piled supplies and were ready.
Two other friends, Larry May and Jamie Smith we have known almost as long as we have been visiting Key West. They evacuated to Tennessee where Larry has family. The drive from Key West to Tennessee normally takes about eighteen hours. This time it took them almost twice that long to get to Tennessee. Roads were clogged with other people evacuating Florida and Florida was running out of gasoline. Larry told me anytime the gas gage on his car hit half a tank he started looking for gas. There were times he waited over an hour to tank up. He finally got to Tennessee and called us. We were relieved.
The yellowtail snapper the author is holding are bigger this year than other years. They are a great eating fish, tasting similar to walleye.
HURRICAN IRMA HITS THE KEYS
There are other friends we have gotten to know in Key West over the years but didn’t have a way to get in touch with them. We worried and prayed for them and kept up with the storm as best we could with television. The Weather Channel did a good job keeping us updated and we watched the webcams on Duval Street. Duval Street normally boisterous and colorful with crowds of people, now was deserted and flooded. Then the webcam went blank.
A couple days later the storm receded leaving havoc and destruction in its wake. We heard reports only a quarter of the homes and buildings survived. Had the rest of our friends survived? Where the places we loved in Key West still be there and would they be back open again?
In summer, way before anyone thought of hurricanes, my wife Becky put a deposit down on the condo we stay in overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and purchased airline tickets. We could expect snow and ice on the ground in Wisconsin when we left for Key West. That is why we go down there; to escape the beginning of winter.
But then Irma came along. Would there be anything to go back to? A couple weeks after the hurricane we got word about the condo. It was good to go. On Facebook and on the internet the bars and restaurants announced they had survived and were opening back up again. The tourism office in Key West said Key West was up and running again. “Come on down,” they said.
I contacted my charter boat captain Desi Perez to check on him and reserve a day to fish with him when we were in Key West. He told me he and his family evacuated the Keys for central Florida. He returned to find his boat was fine but his house destroyed. He now lives in a hotel paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Our friends, Larry and Jamie had returned from their evacuation to Tennessee. Their apartment was fine.
Bonito like the one Mike Yurk is holding are all muscle and speed through thewater like a rocket.
RETURNING TO KEY WEST AFTER THE STORM
Arriving in Key West, we stepped off the airplane, walking across the tarmac to the smell of salt water in warm breezes swaying palm trees. On the way to our condo we saw little damage in Key West with the exception of a sailing yacht blown up on the beach on the Atlantic side of the island.
We raced down to the Half Shell Raw Bar for a couple dozen oysters on the half shell. The Half Shell was in business but we noticed there were a lot fewer people there than we normally see. Back on Duval we stopped at The Bull, our favorite bar. It was open but again with fewer people drinking and listening to music. Our friends, Vikki Katzakian-Akuna who works at the bar and Dawn Wilder who sings there were fine. As we walked around the next day or two we saw fewer people than what could expect. The hurricane still affected Key West.
We stopped the next day at the Key West Island Books and visited with our friend and owner of the store, Suzanne Orchard. Her husband, Paul is the manager of a restaurant, Red Fish Blue Fish, right off Mallory Square on the Gulf side of the island. They wanted to evacuate but by the time they got their businesses boarded up and despite their still being time to evacuate they couldn’t leave. There was no gasoline in Key West and southern Florida. So they decided to ride it out. They had been through other hurricanes so they knew what to do. They stocked food, water, batteries and other essentials and filled the bath tube with water so they could flush the toilet.
“We knew what we were in for,” she said. “But it was scary as hell.”
We bought several books from Suzanne, caught up on the news of some of the islands writers and later that night ate at the Red Fish Blue Fish. The food and drink were good and Key West was alive and well.
Although Key West was sparred some of the worst damage from Hurricane Irma, the Middle Keys were not. In the local newspaper we read many people were living tents in front of their destroyed homes and trailers. Trash and debris from the storm were piled along the road. People were living on bottled water and food cooked over camp stoves and campfires. Another story said over fifteen hundred boats blown up on land in the Keys had been recovered. That many more boats were still waiting reclamation.
People in the Keys are as tough as the land they live on. The Keys have seen great storms come and go over the centuries people inhabited them so it didn’t take long for them fight back. Regardless of how desperate it might seem these people had a resilience that is inspiring. Already Key West was getting back to normal. Bars, restaurants and many stores were open. My charter captain was ready to go fishing again and we reserved a date.
Captain Desi Perez III says the only way to catch yellowtails when the sharks are around is to reel as fast as can, getting them in the boat before the sharks can get them.
GOING FISHING
My buddy Larry was going with me. He came to pick me up as the first of the sun sprung up out of the ocean. It was warm already and there were light winds. It looked like a perfect day to catch fish. Desi was waiting for us, sitting in his boat when we got to the marina. “Let’s go fishing,” he said as we walked across the dock.
We needed to get bait so we motored through a couple of bays. Desi was standing on the front deck of his boat with a throw net wrapped around him. I was at the wheel as we slowly moved through the shallow water with Desi yelling back to me “turn right,” or “hard left” and then telling me to put the throttle in neutral. He threw out the net, letting uncurl in a loop as it hit the surface. Pulling back the line on the net we could see tiny flashes of silver in the mesh. Hoisting in the net, he dumped the minnows into the well on the floor of the boat. “I like to have live bait to go along with the cut bait,” he said. “You never know what the fish will be hitting.”
We motored out into the ocean, the boat gently plowing through the lightly ruffled surface of the ocean. Winds were still light. The city of Key West was just a blip on the horizon when Desi pulled back on the throttle and starting slowly cruising around as he watched the fish/depth finder. “There are the fish,” he said pointing to marks on the screen. He dropped anchor in over a hundred feet of water, sun sparkled on the surface like thousands of diamonds. I peeled off my long sleeve shirt and zipped off the leggings on my pants. It was warm and going to get warmer. I spayed myself with sunscreen. The sun gets intense on the ocean.
Desi dropped in a block of chum in a mesh bag tied to the back of the boat. We started with cut bait from a bonito with a chunk of bait hooked on a small jig. We hand stripped line off the reel, letting it float back with the current, dropping deeper into the water. Within fifteen minutes I had my first fish. The line jumped. Normally you feel the fish charge off but this time the strike was subtle. I reeled up the slack and felt a fish pulling off. The fish put up a strong fight, taking line off the reel with the spinning rod doubled over. Then we saw it coming through the water, pulling it in the boat. It was a yellowtail snapper. It was the fish we were after and as far as I am concerned the best eating fish in salt water, reminding me of the taste of walleyes back home.
A few minutes later Larry’s spinning rod was bent in half and he was reeling furiously as a fish raced off. It was another yellowtail. Both fish were over twenty inches long which is as big a yellowtail snapper as I have ever seen. Most often they run from a foot to about fifteen inches in length.
Then Desi caught his first yellowtail. A few minutes later my line was racing off. Flipping over the bail on the reel I felt a strong surge as a fish raced off. Suddenly the line was tearing off the reel and I couldn’t stop it as the drag was screaming. Desi yelled “that’s a shark.” I grabbed the spool so it wouldn’t take out any more line and the line snapped. I reeled it back in. The jig was gone.
Larry holds a pair of yellowtail snappers that will be dinner that evening.
SHARKS
“Sharks are relentless,” Desi said. He told me they are seeing a lot more sharks then ever before. He thought the storm had a lot to do with it. “It [the storm] messed a lot of things up down here,” he stated. He thought the sharks acted like they hadn’t eaten in a while and were even more aggressive than normal. The only way to beat the sharks, Desi explained was to drag the yellowtails in as fast as we could, getting them in before the sharks could get to them.
A few minutes later I feel a fish racing off with. This time the sharks don’t attack. The fish put up a strong fight circling around to the side of the boat and within a couple minutes we saw it is a bonito. Bonitos are all muscle, speeding off like little rockets. “I guess the sharks don’t like them very much,” I said. Desi said apparently not. They just like snappers. “But we like them too,” I replied.
Larry and I lost several more snappers to the sharks when I felt a fish strike and pulled back as hard as I could. I start reeling as hard as I could and a minute later a yellowtail was just below the surface. I pulled back, got some line back on the reel and hauled the fish in. “This time I beat the sharks,” I said. But just underneath the boat we could see three brown shapes, seven to eight feet long. They are bull sharks, intimidating and menacing.
Larry has a fish on and gets it close enough to the boat we can see it is a yellowtail. The fish is just below the surface and Larry is trying to get it in quickly. Below three long brown shapes are circling. Two sharks surge forward with their heads erupting out of the water, mouths open and miss the fish. It is raw, frightening to watch. Larry dragged his fish in the boat. We beat the sharks again.
A days catch from the ocean off Key West
By early afternoon we have a livewell full of fish. We have thirty yellowtail snappers and six bonito. We threw back several more bonito but Desi wanted a few to freeze and later use for cut bait on another fishing trip. Back at the marina Desi cleaned fish and we all have a couple of beers. They are cold, sweating from the ice chest. It just might be the best beer we ever tasted. We leave with a bag of ten fish for our dinner that night and another bag with half a dozen fish for Larry to take home for a later dinner.
Back at our condo I throw my clothes, reeking of sweat and fish, in the washer, jump into the shower and lay down for a nap. Early evening Becky and I walk down a quiet, dark street to the Half Shell Raw Bar. There we meet Larry and Jamie. I pass the bag of fish fillets over the bar with water dripping off the bottom of the bag and we order drinks. The Half Shell Raw Bar will cook our fish for dinner. We had a great day of fishing and now in a few minutes we will have a great meal of fresh caught fish. Life is good and doesn’t get any better. Key Wey West is alive and well after the storm.
Authors Notes On Key West:
If you would like to book a fishing trip with Captain Desi Persez III he can be contacted at 305-731-0371 or through his website www.nodoubtfishingcharters.com The Half Shell Raw Bar, (231 Margaret St., 305-294-7496) will cook your fresh caught fish for $12 a pound. In addition to the fish they also provide several sides with your dinner. They are known to have some of the best fresh oysters on the half shell.
Red Fish Blue Fish (407 Front Street, 305-295-7447) has a varied menu from seafood such as crab cakes, shrimp scampi and stuffed hog fish to steaks, Cuban pulled pork and jambalaya. The mussels are especially good and my wife’s favorites.
Key West Island Books (513 Fleming Street, 305-294-2904) has a complete selection of books about the Keys, by Key West authors or set in the Keys. If you are looking for a good book to read while sitting around the pool Key West Books will have it.
The Bull (224 Duval Street, 305-296-4565) is one of many bars on Duval Street but has been our favorite for years. It is on open air bar where you an still smoke a cigar while having a drink and listening to music. They make an awesome Bloody Mary and have some of the best music in Key West.
Editors Note: Mike Yurk’s column is sponsored by Warner’s Dock in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Warner’s Dock is the premier marine dealer in northwestern Wisconsin. They have a complete supply of new and used boats, motors, and trailers as well as other marine supplies plus a complete maintenance staff for all your boating needs. They can be contacted through their website at www.warnersdock.com or by telephone at 1-888-222-3625.