COOL SEA CREATURE ENCOUNTERS!!! Morning session.

Hi Everyone, Welcome Back!!!

We”ve just finished up another wonderful week of Fun and Adventure on the Lake Worth lagoon and what an AWESOME week we had. First, we were lucky enough not to get rained out by tropical storm Debbie, though we did have a couple of short term torrential downpours without lighting, that gave a chance to hide out under the bow canopy on the boat while it rained catfish and dogsnappers! We all thought that was rather cool, and once the rained cleared, we were having FUN like there was no tomorrow! We snorkeled Peanut Island, the Rock Garden, the Big Sandbar and Blue Crab Beach for hours on end. We trolled plugs along the drop offs and caught big barracudas until the hooks broke off our lures and there wasn’t any paint left on them! We were catching barracudas by the boatloads and all of us taking turns reeling them in. It was just GREAT! What FUN days of fishing we had!!! We caught them all!!!

Group with barracudas.

Everytime we went by the Big Sandbar, we stopped to take a quick snorkel and found beaded starfish, cushion starfish and 9 armed starfish by the handfuls. The fighting conchs were in by the hundreds, most laying eggs, and it was a cool thing to watch as they laid their eggs in spaghetti like masses. It didn’t take us long to pick up a few for a quick photo op, then back to snorkeling, exploring and chasing crabs we went!

Group finding sea urchins.

Along the way, AJ came up with a big fighting conch that had a real attitude and everytime he held it up for us to see, that fighting conch would stick out its long foot and poke AJ in the hand to try and make him let it go! It was just great watching that happen over and over!!! Nice job not letting go AJ!!!

AJ with a cool fighting conch.

While AJ was messing with that fighting conch, Tripp was swimming around and coming up with a few fighting conchs of his own, plus one big giant 9 armed starfish that was truly a whopper!!! It was a nice find and we all loved it!!! Way to go Tripp!!!

Tripp with conchs and starfish.

Another day we were snorkeling around Peanut Island and came upon a really nice, BIG, short spined burrfish just swimming by!!! It didn’t seem to mind us picking it up or even try and get away. It just puffed itself up with water everytime we came near and became a big round ball of thorns and almost impossible to handle. It knew we weren’t going to eat it now! Talk about a cool defense mechanism! That fish was down right thorny, but Joseph didn’t seem to mind!!! We all took turns checking that awesome pufferfish out and were extra careful not to get our fingers anywhere near the mouth. Those fish can bite! Nice job Joseph!

Joseph with a porcupinefish.

Another day while trolling a plug along the edge of the Big Sandbar, another big barracuda decided to eat it for lunch! This time it was Owen’s turn to reel one in and we had a ball watching him reel that nice barracuda in while it jumped a dozen or more times out of the water. This week there seemed to be barracudas in by the hundreds and we kept a few to put in our crab traps, and gave a couple more away to some people who wanted them for for dinner. The action was almost non stop all week and we loved that too!!! Way to reel that fish in Owen!!!

Owen catches a nice barracuda.

Another morning we stopped by Blue Crab Beach and it wasn’t long before everyone was catching juvenile blue crabs and sand crabs by the netfuls! I’m not sure how many everyone caught, but about an hour later we had a bucketful of crabs that was about half full!! I know Julia was sure having FUN catching one crab right after another! When we let them go, it was awesome watching them scurry out of that bucket in every direction and dissappear into the sand, right under our feet!!! Julia you rock as a crab catcher!!!

Julia catches a juvenile blue crab.

Later in the week we went and checked one of the crab traps that we had baited with a piece of barracuda, and sure enough, it was filled with some big blue crabs that seemed to have some big attitudes to match! I carefully took a few out and showed everyone the safe and proper technique to holding big crabs with some serious attitudes, bare handed without getting pinched no less! Needless to say, Beau sure had FUN when it came his turn to pick up a few!!! Nice Job Beau!!!

Beau with some big blue crabs.

On Wednesday morning we stopped by the Big Sandbar on the way to the Rock Garden and found quite a pile of 9 armed starfish buried in the sand. They seemed to be crawling out and moving about just as we got there. We had a strong rain that morning and I wondered if all the fresh water was making them move into deeper water. They are always a great find and the group loves them! I know Ethan loved picking them up by the handfuls!!! We all did!!! Way to go Ethan!!!

Ethan finds 9 armed starfish.

Later that morning we snorkeled around Peanut Island and found fighting conchs, milk conchs and some really colorful hawkwing conchs. We collected a few to check out and watched as they “hopped” about on the bottom and headed off into deeper water. Jake found one that was extra colorful. It was an awesome find Jake!!!

conch

While we were finding hawkwing conchs and chasing sharp nosed pufferfish with our nets, Brett came up with another nice 9 armed starfish and put it on his head like a hat. It seemed to fit just perfectly and gave him a cool starfish hairdo!!! Way to rock that starfish hairdo Brett!!!

Brett with a cool starfish hairdo.

On the last morning on the way back to the dock, tropical storm Debbie decided to throw one more big rain cloud right on us. As we raced towards the dock the rain came down in buckets and stung our faces! When I looked over at Max, I saw that he had put his mask on and was wearing them like high speed racing goggles. It was awesome!!! He was loving every second of it and giving me the thumbs up!!! I could sure tell he was having Fun!!!Way to use your head Max!!! A few seconds later, we all were wearing them and smiling like there was no tomorrow!!! How cool is that!!!

Max with his racing goggles on.

Needless to say, we had a fabulous week!!! We had Fun!!! We had Adventure!!! We had some Cool Sea Creature Encounters!!! And we learned a pile of stuff along the way!!! It just doesn’t get any better than that!!! I just can’t wait to do it all over again!!!

To check out the rest of the photos from this weeks session, please click on “Check out our FLICKR photostream” found a little bit down on this home page on the right side and go to “June 19 -22, 2012 AM session”. ENJOY!!!
See You All Soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!

AdventureMike

ADVENTURE ON THE HIGH SEAS!!! Afternoon Session

Hi Everybody, Welcome Back!!!

I’m finally getting a chance to finish up the afternoon blog for last week, June 12 – 15, 2012. I’ve been crazy busy doing double sessions, having FUN and I also had to upgrade my flickr account so I could post all the pictures I wanted!!! Yippeee!!!

To begin with, let me just say the afternoon session had as much FUN and Adventure On The High Seas as the morning group did for the week. Everything was phenominal and we had a blast from the very first second till the moment we had to come back!!! During the week, one of the many highlights was catching a big nurse shark that we had a chance to photograph, and carefully check out up close and personal before releasing her. She was awesome and we all loved it!!!

Group photo with nurse shark

Other highlights:

We saw manatees with calves right next to the boat and also along the inlet, and another day we watched bottlenose dolphin play off our bow. We snorkeled with hundreds of different species of fish at the Rock Garden and caught dozens of pufferfish like there was no tomorrow!!! I’ll let some photos do the rest of the talking!!!

Amanda sure loved finding this cute pufferfish!!!

Amanda with a pufferfish

We caught a few spotted yellow rays in our nets and had a chance to hold one without a venemous barb. We all loved how that ray would suck right on to us like we were the bottom. I could sure tell Joseph thought that ray was great while Sophia was holding it!!! This photo cracks me up!!! Nice job making me laugh Joseph!!!

Sophia and Joseph

We spent a little bit of time snorkeling the sea grass beds and found a few lobster we could catch with our hands. We all thought that was cool!!! I know Beau sure did!!!

Beau with a spiny lobster

We found dozens of cool creatures seine netting the shallows along the sea grass beds and I knew for certain Dylan thought this seahorse was a winner!!!

Dylan with a seahorse

We spent a good bit of time snorkeling around Peanut Island each day and it was sometimes hard to get Dylan L. out of the water!!! He was having a blast!!!

Dylan  swims by

On our fishing day we caught so many fish that we stopped counting. Everything from snappers, grunts, tomtates, sailors choice, sergeant majors, porkfish, butter hamlets, pinfish and blue runners, and more, etc.. Just non-stop action as usual!!!

Ben had fun catching fish non stop!!!

Ben catches another fish

We found 9 armed starfish and beaded starfish at the Big Sandbar and even a few cushion starfish scattered about. I know Sophie loved finding this nice 9 armed starfish!!!

Sophie finds a 9 armed starfish

We spent some time snorkeling around little Munyon Island and found hundreds of variegated sea urchins, a few queen conchs and some huge cushion starfish! Sarah found one that was a monster!!!

Sarah with a cushion starfish

Of all the things we did, I think Bailey love holding this barbless spotted yellow ray the best!!! Her smile was contageous!!! AWESOME!!!

Bailey with a barbless spotted yellow ray

Everytime we went thru a slow speed zone we would troll for barracudas or what ever else felt like eating out plug! On this day Joseph had a ball catching this big barracuda!!!

Joseph catches a barracuda

We found, saw, shared and did so many cool things that the week flew before we knew it and I could tell no one wanted to go home by the time the week came to an end!!! Needless to say, we had one fun-filled week of Adventure On The High Seas too!!! Wish you all could have joined us!!! We had a BLAST from start to finish!!! It was just GREAT!!! Here’s a few more pics of us having FUN!!!

Sophia and fighting conchs at the Big Sandbar.

Sophia and fighting conchs

Sarah with a lined seahorse.

Sarah with a lined seahorse

Amanda finds a 9 armed starfish at Peanut Island.

Amanda with a 9 armed starfish

Beau checks out a barracuda we caught earlier.

Beau with a barracuda

Sophie checks out this horseshoe crab she found in the shallows.

Sophie with a horseshoe crab

Joseph has Fun with a cool horseshoe crab hairdo!!

Joseph with a cool horseshoe crab hairdo

Bailey and Sophia show off the largest and smallest sea urchins of the day.

Bailey and Sophia with sea urchins

Ben finds another cushion starfish in the shallows.
Ben with a cushion starfish

Amanda and Dylan L. having FUN at the Rock Garden.

Amanda and Dylan swim by

Dylan showing off another lobster she caught!! Just AWESOME.

Dylan catches another lobster

The group finding 4 different species of sea urchins and having a BLAST.

Group with sea urchins

Bailey and Sophia snorkeling the sandbar, finding hermit crabs and having FUN.

Bailey and Sophia swim by

Like I said, “We had an AWESOME WEEK!!!” Morning and afternoos sessions!!!!
To check out the rest of the photos from this weeks session, please click on “Check out our FLICKR photostream” found a little bit down on this home page on the right side and go to “June 5 – 8, 2012 PM session”. ENJOY!!!

I just can’t wait to do it all over again!!! Stay tuned for next weeks sessions!!! I know its going to be GREAT!!! See you all soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!

AdventureMike

ADVENTURE ON THE HIGH SEAS!!! Morning Session

Hi Everybody, Welcome Back!!!

We’ve just finished up the second week of Fun and Adventure on the high seas and what a fantastic week we had!!! This was the first week doing morning and afternoon sessions so it was basically non stop FUN from dawn to dusk!!! We had a great week, great weather and an absolutely GREAT group of kids! It just couldn’t have been nicer!!! I’ll start with the morning session first.

One morning we had incredibly low tide and had a ball having fun Island Style!!!

Group having fun Island Style

We spent a bit of each morning exploring the sandbar where the group found 4 different species of starfish, numerous fighting conchs, blue crabs and box crabs galore! We visited the Rock Garden every day and loved swimming with hundreds of fish of all sizes, shapes and colors! We spent Thursday fishing like there was no tomorrow and everyone caught fish non stop! Each day we observed manatees feeding in the shallow sea grass beds and on a few occasions we watched bottlenose dolphins with newborn calves play just off our bow. It was just great!!! Another morning we went seining in the grass flats and came up with juvenile barracudas, yellowtail snapper, juvenile boxfish and a beautiful long spined burrfish. I think the highlight of the week for the kids came when we pulled in a line baited with a chunk of barracuda and had a 6 to 7 foot nurse shark on. We thought that was awesome!!! We all had a chance to check her out up close and personal before unhooking her and letting her go. Did we ever love that!!! Needless to say we had one fun-filled week of Adventure On The High Seas. Wish you could have joined us!!! It was just GREAT!!! Let’s check out some pics!

Enjoying the “Hot Tub” at the Big Sandbar after a long day of snorkeling!

Into the hot tub we go!

Jillian with a long-spined burrfish!!!

Jillian with a long-spined burrfish

Owen comes up with a Giant Hermit Crab at the Rock Garden!!!

Owen with a Giant Hermit Crab!

Jules finds a Big Cushion Starfish while exploring the Sandbar!

Jules finds a big Cushion Starfish!

Ethan finds a lovely Queen Conch while exploring ths shallows!!!

Ethan with a nice Queen Conch

AJ catches the biggest Ceasars Grunt of the day!!!

AJ catches the biggest grunt!

Max finds a big 9 armed starfish! Way to go!!!

Max finds a 9 armed starfish!

Jack catches a swimming crab at the Rock Garden!!!

Jack catches a swimming crab!

Brett catches a colorful Sergeant Major!!!

Brett catches a colorful Seargent Major!

Isaac finds a Florida Fighting Conch along the Sandbar!!!

Isaac finds a Florida Fighting Conch!

Christian catches a spotted filefish at the Rock Garden!!!

Christian finds a spotted filefish!

Group catches a Nurse Shark!!!

Group catches a nurse shark

To check out the rest of the photos from this weeks morning session, please click on “Check out our Flickr photostream” found a little bit down on this home page on the right side and go to “June 12 – 15, 2012 AM session”. Hope you enjoy!!! See you all soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!

AdventureMike

SUMMER TIME FUN!!!

Hi Everybody, Welcome back!!!

We’ve just finished up our first week of summer time Fun and Adventure and what a wonderful week we’ve had!!! We spent the week boating up and down the intra coastal, snorkeling the Rock Garden, exploring the Big Sandbar, fishing my secret spots and catching tons of fish non stop! Another day we watched manatees eat sea grass all around the boat and later that day we had a ball watching a pod of 30 or more bottlenose dolphin frolic just off our bow in crystal clear water! We caught swimming crabs under rocks, found sea urchins galore and topped that day off finding a couple of big horseshoe crabs cruising around in the shallows. We found fighting conchs, beaded starfish, hermit crabs and watched a school of reef squid change all sorts of colors right before our eyes! We caught pufferfish bare handed, explored the beach and along the ocean and chased sand fleas in the surf. Needless to say, we had non stop FUN and ADVENTURE from start to finish and thats just the way I love it!!! I’ll let some of the pictures do the rest of the talking!!! Enjoy!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!
AdventureMike

Group Photo on the boat:
group photo

Watching Bottlenose Dolphin!!!
watching bottlenose dolphins!

Finding starfish:
finding starfish

Group finds a horseshoe crab!
group finds a horseshoe crab

Fish On!!!
group with fish

Michael catches a filefish!
Michael catches a filefish

Rocky catches a Big lane snapper!
way to go rocky!

Ryan catches a nice Ceasar’s grunt!
nice fish

Gabriel catches another yellowtail snapper!
gabriel catches a yellowtail snapper

Trevor Catches a big Ceasar’s grunt
Big Ceasars grunt

Danielle and Ryan find beaded starfish
Ryan andDanielle

Jamie with a sea urchin hairdo!
sea urchin hairdo

Robert with a large swimming crab!
Robert with a swimming crab

Elena snorkeling the Rock Garden
fun underwater

Julian finds a beaded starfish
julian with a beaded starfish

Trevor finds a Big Horseshoe Crab!
horseshoe crab

Acadia catches a barracuda!
Acadia with a barracuda

Jamie finds a beaded starfish
Jamie with a beaded starfish

Jamie and Ryan with some cool finds!
cool finds

Gabriel with a large horseshoe crab
Gabriel with a horseshoe crab

Michael with a large horseshoe crab
horseshoe crab

Robert watching a barracuda
robert

Chasing mangrove crabs along the dock
chasing mangrove crabs

Catching crabs underwater
catching crabs underwater

Michael catches a big swimming crab!
Michael catches a crab

To check out the rest of the photos from this weeks session, please click on “Check out our FLICKR photostream” found a little bit down on this home page on the right side and go to “June 5 – 8, 2012 AM session”.
See you all soon!!! I can’t wait to do it all over again!!! Stay tuned for next weeks sessions!!! I Hope to see you there!!!

Let’s Go Have some Fun!!!
AdventureMike