Key Largo, Florida

We’ve always wanted to go on an ocean fishing charter boat. The weather looked great, so we decided to go for it. Joe looked online and found a really nice and reasonably priced charter that we could all go on for half a day reef fishing trip. 🎣

Sailor’s Choice was great! We recommend purchasing your tickets in advance, because they do fill up quickly. Our charter was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. and we left right on time. We enjoyed watching the pelicans in the harbor while we waited to board. The sun was shining and we had a beautiful breeze, so the morning was truly enjoyable. 🌅

On the boat, we went out about 8 to 10 miles to get to the reefs. The color of the water changed from a greenish blue to a beautiful turquoise blue. It was absolutely gorgeous! The depth of the water we were fishing ranged from 100 ft. to 120 ft. deep. The crew gave us instructions and we went to work. 🪝

I was so excited to catch my first ocean fish as soon as I dropped my line in! Yelling “Fish on!” was super cool and exciting! 😎 Joe has caught many ocean fish in the past, but the kids and I were total newbies. I had 4 hit one right after the other and I was having a blast! The kids needed a bit of help getting used to the ocean reels as those were new to them, but they caught on quickly and started catching some fishies. 🐟

The bait was a completely new experience for me. We used a mixture of squid and cut fish. 🦑 It was kind of a challenge knowing what to put on the hook, but the crew helped by telling us what worked in different depths and areas, so that was great. All 4 of us were baiting our own hooks, but the crew definitely was available and attentive whenever we had a line problem, snag, and helped bring in the fish. 😊

We didn’t make many videos since we were so busy catching fish, but here’s one of Juliana reeling in a fish:

Here are a few videos of the boat ride back to the marina:

We caught a mixture of Yellow Tail Snapper, Strawberry Grouper, Grunts, and Porgi. Joe had a nice shark on, but it cut the line and was lost. Luke and I also had some huge fish on, which could have been either Goliath Grouper or sharks, but again those were lost and lived to swim another day. 🦈

I can’t say enough nice things about the crew! 🙂 Captain Joe, Kade, and Andrew were the best crew we could hope for. They were knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. We really appreciate all they did for us. Here’s the link to their website if you’re ever in the Key Largo area and looking for an amazing charter: https://sailorschoicefishingboat.com They also offer private fishing charters. We will definitely go on another charter with them in the future, and we’d really like to take the Night Fishing charter next time. 🛥️

After the boat brought us back, they separated everyone’s fish and went to work cleaning them for us. They did such a great job and before long we were on our way. 🚗

We took a break and spent a bit of time taking a nap since the fresh air and sunshine tired us out. 😂 It also was nice to let our arms rest after reeling in our fish. We enjoyed some time at the pool, then got rested up for our next day’s adventure. 😴

The next day dawned and we sat down to make some plans for the day. Since we enjoyed being on the water so much, we thought it would be a great day for a Glass Bottom Boat Tour. Juliana has been studying about Florida this year in Social Studies, so she had made a list of things she wanted to see. One of the top things was the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. It’s really nice that the park offers Glass Bottom Boat Tours over the coral reefs, so we booked our tickets. I will caution that they are rather expensive in my opinion, but it was worth it to us. 😉

Since we had some time before our boat ride, we wanted to explore the state park. We hadn’t been to the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park before, and we wanted to take a look around. 🪸

For those who are new to this state park, the park offers Glass Bottom Boat Tours, Snorkel Boat Tours, boating, camping, fishing, hiking, scuba diving, snorkeling, wildlife viewing, and swimming. While most of the park is in the coral reef under the ocean, the beach area was beautiful. We really liked walking around the area and finding neat little coves. The mangroves were so pretty and formed these coves you could go in and walk around a bit. 🌴

Once it was time to board the boat, we were given a safety lesson and took a seat to enjoy the ride. The boat had open upper level seating and air conditioned enclosed lower level seating where you could view the ocean through the glass bottom panels. On the ride out to the reef, we chose to stay inside so we could see the underwater ocean life. It was pretty neat! When we made it to the reef, we were really excited! It was cool to be able to see the ocean floor and reefs we had been fishing the day before. We enjoyed seeing the fish, too. We saw all kinds of different reef fish, some sea turtles, a spotted ray, and beautiful coral formations. 🪸

It was nice to have a narrated tour by the marine biologist on board. He explained what we were looking at, the names of the various fish, and the types of coral we saw. He also told us about the efforts to restore the reef that had been damaged previously. The kids really liked it and it was very educational to see a real life coral reef and the creatures that dwell there. 🐠

Here are a few videos of the marine life from the glass bottom boat:

On the ride back to the park, we decided to sit on the top level and wander around on the outside of the boat. We had a wonderful view of the scenery. There were 2 osprey nests that we got to see, and one of them had the momma and her chicks in the nest. So cool! 🪺

When we got back, we had a picnic lunch and relaxed for a while. We had a great ride in the car taking in the beautiful sights all around us. The Keys are definitely beautiful and we couldn’t wait to explore more! 😄

Our Keys adventure will continue in the next episode of Traveling with the Trapps.

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