Key Biscayne

Birdshit Key earns it's name... the old fashioned way!
aka
The Valentine's Day Massacre II

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Hello again.

Well we (Ray and I) after a series of delays finally got together on Rickenbacker Causeway, launching off the strip of beach (2nd rt. after the big (first) bridge. This is near the Seaquarium. We headed S/SE across a broad bay/inlet toward the golf course and marina just west of the bridge, into a 15 knot SE headwind.

There is a channel of sorts running down the middle of the bay, which is surrounded by flats. As the water was coldish we tried the deeper parts of the flats as well as the channel edge. Nada. Then moved to the KB end of the 2nd bridge, both bayside and oceanside. Nada X2.

So then the Yakbrothers mosied (as well as one can mosey in a yak) down toward the marina to a small circular key to the west which I shall now designate Birdshit Key. Why you ask? Well let me say this lovely spot is habitated by what seemed like many hundreds of pelicans, circling hawks, the "fishing bird" (forget the name), seagulls, geese and ducks. More later...

Spotting a diving pelican we decided to check out the windward (marina) side and ran into a nice school of hungry jacks that repeatedly hit our white bucktail jigs.

After having some nice fun (which made the trip already worthwhile) we decided to work our way around the bayside of BSK (see above). There are some lovely flats here that are VERY extensive but were way too cold, when we spotted at least 10 pelicans repeatedly breaking up a school. Holy Moly Batman! And off we sped...

But had to paddle WAY around due to the extensive flats. Had we gone around on the marina side we'd have been there in 2 minutes. As it was it took us at least 10 or 15 minutes to get there. There is nothing more grating to a yakfisher than to helplessly watch all this action as we struggled to get there. Which we finally did!?...

Just as the action ended! Double dog dang! So it was back to marina side for Ray, while I decided to check out the golf course area, certain that it "looked fishy". Wrong! Ray scored another 3 nice jacks, while I scored jacks**t. Finally rejoined and back to my trusty lima bean bucktail jig which was soon clipped off cleanly by a probable cuda.

It was then we decided to return on the lee side of Birdshit Key when we were assaulted with a wall of ripe odorous air thick enough to send UPS. And I no longer wondered why all the vegetation looked white from a distance.

After another fruitless exploration of the bayside flats we headed back to encounter three other yakfishers, a nice guy named Dave and two young women in matching red yaks who were anchored near the dome fishing live shrimp. Dave had drifted our area using a silver spoon and caught a small cuda. All were interested in the list and promised to email me.

Summary: Birdshit Key is amazing. Enough birds to drown out the chopped and channeled Honda Civics and Harleys, and to make diesel fumes a welcome relief. But great flats and a nice marina side channel that were fun and can only get better in warmer weather. Which to fish? To the windward mate, the windward.

PS... check the red Mainstream Fandingo (above)