Stock Island


		Stock Island Red mangrove thickets cover much of the undeveloped areas of Stock Island Joyce took this picture of a red mangrove thicket off Old Shrimp Road on Stock Island. Much of the undeveloped area on Stock Island is covered in red mangrove like this one. Nice King Mackerel heading to the scales in the Key West Harbor King Mackerel Tournament This is a nice king mackerel being transported to the scales in the Key West Harbor King Mackerel Tournament. We saw some impressive fish being weighed in at Key West Harbor on Stock Island. Huge dry storage building for boats at Key West Harbor Yacht Club on Stock Island I saw an advertisement that said this "boat-barn" would hold 377 vessels in dry-storage. The building is constructed to withstand 150mph winds. We were watching the Key West Harbor King Mackerel Tournament weighin when Joyce took this picture of the dry storage building at the marina. The three small boats on the left hand side of this picture are waiting in line to weigh their biggest king mackerel of the day. This was the second day of the tournament and everyone knew that it would take a fish in the 60-pound category to win so most boats were not weighing fish that they knew didn't stand a chance. Yesterday produced a good number of fish in the 50 to 60-pound class so it was a known fact that there was no need to weigh unless you had a "hoss". A 67.66-pound king mackerel caught on the Triple J took first place in the Key West Harbor King Mackerel Tournament Second place went to Native Premonitions with a 60.70-pound kingfish. Home Run took third place went to a 54.31-pound king mackerel caught on the Home Run out of Brunswick, Georgia. I gave you these weights to show you that there was no use weighing a "pretty good fish". On the second day of fishing everyone fishing this tournament knew it would take a "STUD" since the winning fish were caught and weighed on the first day. Hogfish Bar & Grill on Stock Island We liked this sign on the Hogfish Bar & Grill. Of course that is a hogfish. Stock Island Lobster Company storage yard Stock Island Lobster Company is one of several lobster operations operating out of Stock Island. The wooden traps are just part of the gear. They also have to store and deploy rope that connects to a buoy or series of marker buoys. I can see colorful yellow and red buoys in some of these traps. I also see some white buoys along the fence. The white buoys will not stay white long. The white buoys are placed like they are because they are about to be painted. Each lobster fisherman has an identifying color scheme for their marker buoys In addition the Styrofoam marker buoys have a license number branded into them. Plus every lobsterman has a color scheme used to identify their gear out on the water. In addition to the colorful marker buoys each trap must have a trap tag firmly affixed to the lobster trap. Shrimp boat winches on shrimp boat docked at Stock Island This shrimp boat was docked near Hogfish Grill on Stock Island. We did not see anyone on the boat. I always like to check out the gear used to pull the trawls in and out. As you can see these are pretty sporty winches. Young Guns is the name on this super nice Fountain fishing boat Joyce took this picture at the Key West Harbor King Mackerel Tournament held in mid-January. This boat had a nice king to weigh in. I do not think it was in the top 3 but it may have been in the money. Mike posing in front of the direction post at Hogfish Grill on Stock Island We stopped by to examine this direction post in front of Hogfish Grill on Stock Island. Hogfish Grill is situated on a narrow spit of land with a marina on both sides. Click here for more Key West travellogs Until next time remember how good life is. More Florida Adventures More Key West Adventures More 2011 Travel Adventures Mike & Joyce Hendrix Mike & Joyce Hendrix who we are We hope you liked this page. If you do you might be interested in some of our other Travel Adventures: Mike & Joyce Hendrix's home page Travel Adventures by Year Travel Adventures by State Plants Marine-Boats Geology Exciting Drives Cute Signs RV Subjects Miscellaneous Subjects** We would love to hear from you......just put "info" in the place of "FAKE" in this address: FAKE@travellogs.us Until next time remember how good life is.