All posts by Mike

CURRENT 2024 SUMMER CAMP AVAILABILITY. $325 PER CHILD PER SESSION.

Please call or email me to reserve your space, or to be placed on my waiting list if a cancellation occurs. (561 324 1892). I will have the new 2024 registration papers up on line in the next week or two and will let everyone registered know where to find them. Please do not wait too long to register or let me know the weekly sessions you would like as I fill up very quickly and will be unable to get everyone in. Coast guard regulations allow me to only take 6 people per session. Summer Camp registration is $325.00 per child per weekly session. Availability is listed below and updated daily.

May 28 – 31, 2024 AM Session (9;AM – 1:00 PM) – Session Filled

May 28 – 31, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) – Session Filled

June 4 – 7, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM) –Session Filled

June 4 – 7, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) –4 Spaces Left

June 11 – 14, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM) – Session Filled

June 11 – 14, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) Session Filled

June 18 – 21, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM) – Session Filled

June 18 – 21, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) – 1 Space Left

June 25 – 28, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM) – 1 Space Left

June 25 – 28, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) – Session Filled

July 1 – 3, 5 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM) –Session Filled

July 1 – 3, 5 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) –  6 Spaces Left

July 9 – 12, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM) –4 Spaces Left

July 9 – 12, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) – 3 Spaces Left

July 16 – 19, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM) – 4 Spaces Left

July 16 – 19, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) – 6 Spaces Left

July 23 – 26, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM) – Session Filled

July 23 – 26, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) – 6 Spaces Left

July 30 – August 2, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM) – 4 Spaces Left

July 30 –August 2, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) –6 Spaces Left

August 6 – 9, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM)  – Session Filled

August 6  – 9, 2024 PM Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) – Session Filled

August 13 – 16, 2024 AM Session (9:00AM – 1:00PM)  – 4 Spaces Left

August 13 – 16, 2024 Pm Session (1:30PM – 5:30PM) – 6 Spaces Left

Looking forward to seeing you all again!!!

Let’s Go Have Some FUN!!!

2024 SUMMER CAMP REGISTRATION HAS BEGUN!!! DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER!!!

I just wanted to drop you a quick post and let you know that registration for my 2024 AdventureMike’s Summer Camp has begun!!! Please don’t wait too long to register! I will absolutely fill up for sure months in advance!!! My camp sessions are limited by US Coast Guard regulations to just 6 kids each, no exceptions! So unfortunately, I will not be able to get all of you in as I would like! My camps meet Tuesdays thru Fridays. The weekly session rates are $325 per child. My new registration papers will be up shortly and will need to be filled out and mailed back to me to hold your space. Please check out the camp dates below at the end of this email for availability. Call to register now to reserve your space!!! (561 324 1892) I know all the spaces will fill up quickly as usual, and I would love for each one of you to be able to join me again!! The first week begins May 28th, 2024. YIPPEE!!! I just can’t tell you how excited I am, and just how much I’m looking forward to having another unbelievable Summer of Fun, Excitement and ADVENTURE!!! Last year had to be one of the best Summers we have every had, and this year I’m planning on outdoing it! It’s going to be GREAT!!! I Guarantee it!!!

I’ve been scouting out many new locations and have come up with many more ideas to make this years camp sessions as absolutely fun, exciting and educational as possible. I know that all of us are going to have a fantastic time!!! I’m going to personally see to that!!! For those of you who have joined me in the past, you know the kind of Fun and Excitement that’s in store. We are going to have honest to goodness Adventure Sessions from start to finish!!! Day after day after day!!!

We will be hitting all the hot spots from The Rock Garden, Sea Urchin Shoals, Starfish Prairie and Beyond… The best of the best! As if boating, fishing, seine netting, specimen collecting and identification, cast netting, crab trapping, island hopping, nature walks, sandbar exploration, eco-tours, games and more isn’t fun enough already for a weeks adventure! I just never get over how many species of fish and invertebrates, etc we find and discover, and all the smiles, laughter and thrills that go along with them! Finding pufferfish, occasionally swimming with manatees and manta rays, finding dwarf seahorses, giant mantis shrimp, octopus, horseshoe crabs and more!!! Memories I will cherish forever and your child will too!!! I love every minute of it! It makes me feel like we are living within a rain-bowed sea, surrounded by beauty in every direction and blessed all at the same time. It just doesn’t get any better than this! An Adventurers dream come true… And for your child, an adventurers dream come to life…

For those of you who have joined me in the past, you know I can’t wait to see you! For those of you who will be joining me for the first time, I promise you your child is going to love it! Check out our Blog, our flickr photostream, download your photos to print!!! AdventureMike’s is not your “normal” Summer Camp! No “glorified baby sitting” or “boring day care” here! We are going to be having an honest to goodness educational hands on experience in an outdoor, safe, fun-filled environment!!! I love what I do and take great pride in what I offer! I want your child to have the very best time of their life, like I did when I was a kid and have never forgotten and always appreciated!!! I will give it my very best, and that’s a promise! And looking forward to it…

Come join us, and be a part of the Adventure!!! Call or email now to register and reserve your space!!! Many weekly sessions are already filling up!!! See you soon!!! Camp dates above!!!

For those of you looking to have a special day out on the water, just wanting to have fun, custom birthday parties, fishing and snorkeling trips for kids and adults, etc. please call me anytime to book in advance. Rates are $450 for 4 hour sessions. I will bring all the adventure gear we need! Looking forward to having a great time!!! See you all soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!

AdventureMike

ADVENTURE IN PARADISE!!!

Hi Everybody, Welcome back!!!

We’ve just finished up another week of summer time Fun and Adventure and what a wonderful week we’ve had!!! It was an Adventure in Paradise!!! One we won’t soon forget!!! It was thumbs up all the way!!!

Thumbs Up!!!

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! We went offshore on the calm mornings and caught one bonita after another! We found every kind of crab, starfish and sea urchin you could find! We caught giant porcupinefish, atlantic yellow rays, sharp-nosed pufferfish and striped burrfish in our nets day after day!!!Another day we watched manatees eat sea grass all around the boat and caught tons of crabs in our crab traps! And all that isn’t even half of it!!! It just doesn’t get any better than that!!!

Catching Bonitas!

Each morning we would snorkle the shallow sandbars around Peanut Island. When we weren’t finding starfish, we were chasing after puffers, porcupinefish and more. It was awesome!!! You can tell we were having FUN on this day!!! Wish you could have been there!!! We had a blast!!!

Catching Burrfish!

We spent an hour or so each day snorkeling the Rock Garden and watching hundreds of species of fish swim all around us. We found conchs, sea cucumbers and hermit crabs by the hundreds! We had a ball chasing after big swimming crabs and catching them in our hand nets, one right after another!!! I know Shane had fun catching this one!!!

Shane with a swimming crab!

We went seine netting the grass flats and discovered juvenile barracudas, puffers, pipefish, pink shrimp and grass shrimp, lane snappers, hogfish and tons of others. I think our favorite discovery on that day was a tiny trunkfish that looked like a fish in a box. It was just great!!!

Jack with a tiny trunkfish!

We found 9 armed starfish, cushion starfish and beaded starfish on every day we visited the sandbar. We found hundreds of variegated sea urchins, west indian sea eggs, reef urchins and even a few long spined urchins as well. We even came up with a couple of nice lobster to check out up close and personal. Needless to say, it was non-stop adventure from start to finish!!! All week long!!! A real Adventure in Paradise!!! You should have been there!!! I can’t wait to do it all over again, next week!!!

I’ll let some of my favorite pictures do the rest of the talking!!! Enjoy!!!

Fletcher with a giant porcupinefish!

Fletcher with a giant porcupinefish!

Dylan catches a swimming crab!

Dylan catches a swimming crab!

Oliver with a starfish hairdo!

Oliver with a starfish hairdo!

Lily with a barbless yellow ray!

Lily with a barbless yellow ray!

Conner with a striped burrfish!

Conner with a striped burrfish!

Michael with a Big-Mouthed Bonita!

Michael with a big-mouth bonita!

Maddie with a Giant porcupinefish!

Maddie with a giant porcupinefish!

Connor catches a long-spined burrfish!

Connor catches a long-spined burrfish!

Spencer finds an awesome 9 armed starfish!

Spencer finds a cool 9 armed starfish!

Some cool burrfish!

Some cool burrfish!

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 “July 17 – 20, 2012 AM session”.

See you all soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!
AdventureMike

NON-STOP ADVENTURE FUN!!! Afternoon Session.

Hi Everybody, Welcome Back!!!

I’m finally getting a chance to finish up the afternoon blog for last week, July 10 – 13, 2012 session. I’ve been so crazy busy doing double sessions, birthday parties and custom trips on weekends that I haven’t had a chance to get to it yet! I guess I”ve just been too busy having fun and adventure!!! what can I say… Sometimes having too much FUN can be exhausting!!!

To begin with though, let me just say the afternoon session had as much Non-Stop Adventure Fun 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!!! And just like the morning group, these kids were just GREAT and ready for adventure too!!! And Adventure we had!!!

Group photo by the beach.

Group photo by the beach.

Thru-out the week, we had some fabulous manatee encounters also, caught plenty of BIG barracudas, found tons of starfish and sea urchins, caught all sorts of crabs, pufferfish and striped burrfish in our hand nets, enjoyed snorkeling the Rock Garden, Peanut and Munyon Island, chased blennies and gobies around the rocks, and basically had the time of our lives!!! It was non-stop FUN!!! Wish you could have been there!

Barracuda Catchers.

Barracuda catchers.

On our fishing day we went to my secret snapper hole and the snappers had moved back in by the hundreds!!! Before we knew it, there were a dozen big snappers in the boat, and plenty of big barracuda around the boat trying to eat them before we could get them in!!! It was just great! Everybody was having a blast and catching snappers one right after the other!!! Just the way I love it!

Tommy catches a BIG lane snapper.

Tommy catches a BIG lane snapper.

Later that day we snorkeled around the shallow bar around Peanut Island and had so much FUN chasing crabs, sharp-nosed pufferfish and big, striped burrfish with our nets that we didn’t want to go home when it was time to leave!

Christopher with a striped burrfish.

Christopher with a striped burrfish.

We turned over rocks and found dozens of large swimming crabs hiding underneath, and of course, we had to give chase to those too!!! Most would get away but every now and then someone would come up with a nice big crab in their net, and we’d all check it out!

Madison catches a nice swimming crab!

Madison catches a nice swimming crab.

We stopped by Little Munyon Island a few times and found some really big beaded starfish burrowing in the sand. We didn’t have much luck finding any 9 armed starfish, but beaded starfish were everywhere!!! Let’s just say, we had a blast finding them!!!

Brian finds a beaded starfish!

Brian finds a beaded starfish.

We spent an hour or so everyday snorkeling around the Big Sandbar and watched juvenile barracudas chase menhaden all around us. We saw dozens of fighting conchs along the bottom and collected a few to check out before letting them go. I know Andy had FUN finding one after another!

Andy finds another fighting conch.

Andy finds another fighting conch.

We were so busy having Non-stop Adventure Fun, that before we knew it the week had come to an end! I can guarantee that none of us was ready to call it a week!!! It does seem the more fun your having, the faster time flies!!! Needless to say, we had a fabulous week!!! We had some awesome sea creature encounters, and we learned a pile of stuff along the way!!! It just doesn’t get any better than that!!! And that’s just the way I love it!!! I just can’t wait to do it all over again!!!

I’ll let some of my favorite pictures do the rest of the talking!!! Enjoy!!!

Mac catches another blue crab!

Mac catches another blue crab.

Matthew finds a big sea urchin!

Matthew finds a big sea urchin.

Brandon finds another beaded starfish!

Brandon finds another beaded starfish.

Samuel finds a cushion starfish!

Samuel finds a cushion starfish.

Harper finds 2 more fighting conchs!

Harper finds 2 more fighting conchs.

Another friendly manatee stops by for a visit!

564

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 “July 10 – 13, 2012 PM session”.

See you all soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!
AdventureMike

NON-STOP ADVENTURE FUN!!! Morning Session.

Hi Everybody, Welcome Back!!!

We’ve just finished up another fabulous week of Non-Stop Adventure Fun!!! As usual, we started the week out with another great group of kids looking for Fun and Adventure on the lake worth lagoon! And before you could say lickety split twelve times, we were having it and the time of our lives!!!

Group on the Dream Chaser.
Group photo on Dream Chaser.

We had manatee and dolphin encounters from the very start. By the end of the week, we had found and caught lobsters, barracudas, bonitas, all kinds of crabs, 4 different species of starfish, 5 different species of sea urchins, striped burrfish and long-spined burrfish, pufferfish, pipefish, filefish, blennies and some Big lane snappers to name just a few! We had a blast snorkeling the Rock Garden, Peanut Island, the Big Sandbar and around Munyon Island. We had a ball collecting sea urchins and west indian sea eggs by the handfuls!!! Needless to say, we were busy having FUN from start to finish!!!

Sea Urchin Collectors.
Sea Urchin Collectors.

We trolled plugs for barracudas along the sandbar and inlet while we went slow, and every now and then, a big one would take the lure. On this day, Max had Fun fighting and reeling in this nice barracuda. Way to go!!!

Max catches a nice barracuda.
Max catches a nice barracuda.

Another morning the ocean was flat calm and we ran out a little bit to look for sea turtles and what ever else we might find. Before you knew it, we were in a weed line watching turtles lounge on the surface around us and flying fish scatter just off our bow! We put out the line, and a few seconds later, Max and Ethan had some nice bonitas in the boat! It was great fun watching them reel those hard fighting fish in! Nice job!!!

Ethan catches his first bonita.
Ethan catches his first bonita.

Another day we stopped by sea urchin shoals and collected sea urchins by the handfuls! We found variegated urchins, reef urchins, west indian sea eggs, a few pencil urchins and a couple of realy nice, long spined urchins that I carefully picked so they could get a better look. It was cool watching Dahlia, Davina, Julia and Michaela balance the short-spined sea urchins on their heads like sea urchin snowman!

Dahlia balancing sea urchins.
Dahlia balancing sea urchins.

We went seine netting along the grass flats and found juvenile barracudas, pipefish, pink shrimp, grass shrimp, filefish, sharp-nosed puffers and loads of other different species of grunts, snappers, mojarras and other fish. I know the group liked finding the striped burrfish and juvenile long-spined burrfish the best!!! Nice find!!!

Davina with a striped burfish!
Davina with a striped burrfish.

Later in the week, we went to a few of my secret spots and found some big lobsters under ledges, caught some nice groupers, snappers and grunts on our fishing day, chased big blue crabs around the flats, found cushion, 9 armed and beaded starfish galore, caught a cool juvenile atlantic yellow ray that had no barb, and had FUN watching as 2 friendly manatees hung right below our boat!!! It was just awesome!!! What a great week we had!!! What non-stop adventure fun!!! Wish you all could have joined us!!! We had a blast!!!

I’ll let some of my favorite pictures do the rest of the talking!!! Enjoy!!!

Julia with a BIG lobster!
Julia with a Big lobster.

Max with a barracuda. My, what nice teeth you have!
My, what nice teeth you have!

Michael catches another blue crab!
Michael catches another blue crab.

Connor with a cushion starfish.
Connor with a cushion starfish.

Michaela with a long-spined burrfish.
burrfish

Grayton with a barbless atlantic yellow ray.
Grayton with a barbless yellow ray.

Checking out a long-spined urchin. Best not to try at home!
Checking out a long spined urchin.

Friendly manatee right under the boat!
020

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 “July 10 – 13, 2012 AM session”.

See you all soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!
AdventureMike

Sea Creature Encounters, Big and Small!!!

Hi Everybody!!! Welcome Back!!!

We’ve just finished up the first week of July having fun in the sun and having all sorts of cool sea creature encounters. From Big to Small, we saw them all!! The very first morning we had a wonderful manatee encounter that was followed up by a pod of bottlenose dolphin hanging just off the bow, to loggerhead and green sea turtles swimming lazy circles around the boat, and then having the ocean come alive around us as thousands of bonitas boiled the surface eating anchovies for miles around. Needless to say, it was darn exciting, and we had a blast catching big bonitas left and right!!! What a way to start the very first day!!!

Group with bonitas

The next day we went seine netting and caught numerous striped burrfish, juvenile barracudas, pufferfish, hogsnappers, yellowtail snappers, filefish, mojarras, grunts by the hundreds, pipefish, pinfish, grass shrimp, pink shrimp. You name it and I think we found it!! We had so much FUN, nobody wanted to quit when it was time to go!!! From there we snorkeled the sea grass beds and found 4 different species of sea urchins, cushion starfish, 9 armed starfish, beaded starfish and even a nice horseshoe crab. It was just great!!!

Group island adventure

We spent other days snorkeling the Rock Garden, the Big Sandbar and all around Peanut Island and saw fighting conchs and queen conchs everywhere, found dozens of large swimming crabs, saw barracudas and snook by the hundreds, reef fish galore and caught more sharp nosed pufferfish with our hand nets than we could count!!! That kept us busy having FUN for hours!!!

Valeria having FUN with this Giant swimming crab!!!
Valeria with a swimming crab

Thursday was our fishing day, and as usual, we had non stop action from start to finish!! We caught tomtates, ceasars grunts, sailors choice, lane snappers, porkfish, pinfish, barracudas and even a few rough skinned filefish that the kids love to handle!!! The skin is covered with tiny tooth-like denticles, not scales, and feels exactly like that of sharks. Very cool…

Carter with a large filefish.
Carter with a large filefish

We ended the week having a most awesome manatee encounter at the Rock Garden where 2 very friendly manatees spent a few minutes swimming all around us and in between us, and acting as if they wanted us to tag along for the day. And if we could have kept up, we would!!! We were having that much FUN!!!

Friendly Manatees swim by.
friendly manatees swim by

Needless to say, we had non stop FUN and ADVENTURE during all these cool sea creature encounters!!! From the very start to the very end we had fun fun fun, all week long!!! I wish you could have joined us!!! We had a BLAST!!! I’ll let some of my favorite pictures do the rest of the talking!!! Enjoy!!!

Michael with a striped burrfish.
Michael with a striped burrfish

Kristine with a 9 armed starfish.
Kristine with a 9 armed starfish

Brianna with a cushion starfish.
Brianna with a cushion starfish

Elissa with 3 species of sea urchins.
Elissa with 3 species of sea urchins

Koen with a striped burrfish.
Koen with a striped burrfish

Stephen with a nice barracuda.
Stephen with a nice barracuda

Nathan with a cushion starfish and sea urchins.
Nathan with a cushion starfish

Eric with another striped burrfish.
Eric with a striped burrfish

Catching bonitas.
Catching bonitas

Starfish collectors.
Starfish collectors

Blue crab catchers.
Blue crab catchers

Cushion starfish.
Cushion starfish

Underwater fun.
Underwater Fun

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 “July 3 – 6, 2012 morning session”.

See you all soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!
AdventureMike

FUN FUN FUN … ALL WEEK LONG!!! PM SESSION

Hi Everybody, Welcome back!!!

We’ve just finished up another week of afternoon Fun and Adventure around the Lake Worth lagoon, and what a fabulous week we’ve had too!!! Just like the morning group, we spent the week boating up and down the intra coastal waterway, snorkeling the Rock Garden, exploring the Big Sandbar, fishing my secret spots and catching tons of fish non stop! We went crab catching and caught blue crabs, spider crabs, swimming crabs. You name it, and I think we caught it!! We were having a blast!! We also went back to observe those friendly manatees we saw with the morning group, and sure enough, they stopped by for another awesome visit!!!

Friendly manatees stop by for a visit.
192

During the week, we caught swimming crabs under rocks, found sea urchins and starfish galore, and topped that day off finding a big horseshoe crab cruising around in the shallows too. They are always a great find!!! We found fighting conchs, beaded and cushion starfish, huge queen conchs, hermit crabs and chased pufferfish non-stop! We even caught some pufferfish bare handed which isn’t easy to do, and most everyday, had a blast at the Big Sandbar finding all sorts of cool things! Needless to say, we had non stop FUN and ADVENTURE from the very start, all week long!!! I wish you could have joined us!!! We had a BLAST!!! I’ll let some of my favorite pictures do the rest of the talking!!! Enjoy!!!

Stephen finds a nice queen conch.
Stephen finds a nice queen conch.

Armida finds a sea robin.
Armida finds a sea robin.

Casey holds a BIG blue crab.
Casey holds a BIG blue crab.

Sawyer catches a BIG swimming crab.
Sawyer catches a BIG swimming crab.

Rujul finds a horseshoe crab.
Rujul finds a horseshoe crab

Erik cruises by underwater.
Erik cruises by underwater.

Elias catches another tomtate.
Elias catches another tomtate.

Trusha holds a large spider crab.
Trusha has a large spider crab.

Sawyer finds a variegated sea urchin.
Sawyer finds another sea urchin.

Seth having FUN with a horseshoe crab.
Seth having fun with a horseshoe crab.

Bradley catches a monster swimming crab.
Bradley catches a monster swimming crab.

Caden with a cool starfish.
Caden finds a cool starfish.

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 26 – 29, 2012 PM session”.
See you all soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!
AdventureMike

FUN FUN FUN… ALL WEEK LONG!!!

Hi Everybody, Welcome back!!!

We’ve just finished up another week of summer time Fun and Adventure around the Lake Worth lagoon, and what another wonderful week we’ve had!!! We spent the week boating up and down the intra coastal waterway, 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 few bottlenose dolphin frolic just off our bow. We took a quick run offshore to observe some loggerhead and green sea turtles in crystal clear water and came upon a sargassum seaweed line that had mahi mahi swimming up and down it everywhere!!! They were literally jumping out of the water all around us!!! We cast out a line with a plug on it and before you knew it, Neil had one in the boat!!! Way to go!!!

Catching mahi mahi.

During the week, we caught swimming crabs under rocks, found sea urchins and starfish galore, and topped that day off finding a big horseshoe crab 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 and found some really cool scrawled cowfish, trunkfish, puffers, pipefish and juvenile barracudas, etc while seine netting . I think the huge checkerboard puffer and scrawled cowfish were the favorites that day! In between all that, we had a blast at the Big Sandbar finding all sorts of cool things!

Group photo on the sandbar.

We ended the week having one of the very best manatee encounters I’ve ever seen!! While anchored behind Munyon Island, we had 3 manatees come right up to the the boat, lay directly against the side and roll over like they wanted their tummies scratched. Of course we had to oblige for a few seconds. For 45 minutes they just layed there and we had a ball watching them from inches away!!! It was AWESOME for everyone!!! What a way to end the week!!!

friendly manatee

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!!!

Neil catches a nice mahi mahi.

Neil catches a nice mahi mahi

Samuel finds a BIG cushion starfish.

Samuel finds a big cushion starfish.

Bennet catches a pufferfish.

Bennet catches a pufferfish.

Alex catches a BIG swimming crab!

Alex catches a big swimming crab.

Colin catches a spanish hogfish.

Colin catches a spanish hogfish.

Robby with a scrawled cowfish.

Robby with a scrawled cowfish.

Aaron and sammy with a checkered puffer.

Aaron and Sammy with a checkered pufferfish

Bella with a tiny trunkfish.

Bella with a tiny trunkfish.

Joey finds a fighting conch.

Joey with a fighting conch.

Joshua finds a west indian sea egg.

Joshua finds a west indian sea egg.

Elias catches a tiny pufferfish.

Elias and pufferfish

Evan finds another nice fighting conch.

Evan with fighting conch.

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 26 – 29, 2012 AM session”.
See you all soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!
AdventureMike

COOL SEA CREATURE ENCOUNTERS!!! Afternoon Session

Hi Everyone, Welcome Back!!!

We”ve just finished up another wonderful week of afternoon Fun and Adventure on the Lake Worth lagoon and what an AWESOME week we had. Just like the morning session, we were lucky enough not to get rained out by tropical storm Debbie. Somehow or other we didn’t get rained on at all. Perfect! We spent our days snorkeling around Peanut Island, the Rock Garden, the Big Sandbar, Munyon Island and Blue Crab Beach for hours on end. We dipped up sargassum weed and found dozens of species of fish, shrimp and crabs. The sargassum frogfish were our favorites!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! On our fishing day we caught lane snappers, filefish, grunts, tomtates, porkfish, sergeant majors and more! What FUN days of fishing we had!!! Everybody caught fish!!! I think we caught them all!!!

Group photo with barracuda.

We did tons of fun things and had many cool sea creature encounters!!! Everytime we stopped by the Big Sandbar we found fighting conchs by the dozens and chased juvenile blue crabs around in the shallows. We watched mantis shrimp in their burrows and fighting conchs lay eggs. I think the most favorite discovery was a giant cushion starfish that was bright red. I know Jacob thought it was cool!!! We all did!!!

Jakob with a Cushion starfish.

Another afternoon we went seine netting the shallow grass beds around Munyon Island and found pipefish, juvenile barracudas, filefish, juvenile scorpion fish, yellowtail and lane snappers, grunts, mojarras, short nosed puffers, trunkfish and more! I know our favorite find was a long-spined burrfish that puffed up as if on cue. It was just GREAT and we all loved that!!! I know Crew sure did!!!

Crew with a long-spined burrfish.

Most afternoons we stopped by the Rock Garden and loved swimming with the hundreds of fish that call this area home. The water was perfect, and we watched barracudas, snook, doctorfish, angelfish, parrotfish and more swim just past our face masks. Jackie came up with a nice queen conch that was a lovely find!!! Awesome!!!

Jackie finds a queen conch.

We spent a little bit of time snorkeling along the north side of Peanut Island and around Munyon Island and chased sharp-nosed pufferfish with our nets. We worked together herding them into the shallows and scooping them up in our nets when we got the chance. It was a lot of fun and sometimes quite challenging!!! I know Gabi had fun when it was her turn to catch one!!! Way to go!!!

Gabi with a pufferfish.

As we spent our afternoons snorkeling and swimming about in the shallows, we would turn over rocks and to see what we could find. Occasionally under one of those rocks would be a giant swimming crab that would scurry about and be most difficult to catch!!! I know Rachael thought it was cool when it was her turn to catch a big one in the net! Way to go Rachael!!! Way not to get pinched too!!!

Rachael with a giant swimming crab

The strong east winds from tropical storm Debbie blue tons of sargassum weed inshore and along the shallow bar around Peanut Island. We spent about an hour scooping some up and shaking it out in our nets. We discovered all kinds of cool sea creatures from sargassum filefish, shrimp, crabs, pipefish, juvenile jacks and tripletails and more. The coolest discovery of all was finding large sargassum weed frogfish, a type of anglerfish that lives only in the sargassum weed and camouflages perfectly!!! We found them by the dozens and I know Josh thought they were awesome!!! We all did!!!

Josh with a sargassum frogfish.

Another afternoon while snorkeling around the Rock Garden we discovered a large sea cucumber filtering sand along the bottom. It was a nice find and we all took turns checking it out. It would slowly change its shape to fit your hand and I know Chase had fun letting it “fit” to his head!!! I think it fits just perfect!!! Cool hairdo Chase!!!

Chase finds a sea cucumber.

On our fishing day, we caught tons of fish non-stop!!! The very second you dropped your baited line down, something was eating it!!! We caught snappers, grunts and pinfish non stop, and occasionally, someone would catch a porkfish, sailors choice or sergeant major. The most common fish we caught were tomtates that seemed to be in by the thousands and I know Valeria seemed to be catching them by the dozens!!!

Valeria catches a nice tomtate.

Another day we snorkeled around Little Munyon Island and found variegated sea urchins and west indian sea eggs by the thousands!!! They were in the shallows feeding on sea grass and literally covered the bottom!!! While we were snorkeling about and searching for treasures, Douglas came up with a nice treasure of his own, a 9 armed starfish for us to see! Way to go Doug!!!

Douglas finds a 9 armed starfish.

Of all the places we go to snorkel, the kids seem to like the Rock Garden the best! They enjoy the crystal clear water, watching the hundreds of fish and turning rocks over in the shallows to see what they find. I can always tell when they discover something they love by the excitement in their voices when they yell, “AdventureMike, over here, over here!!!” On this day, Alex found a nice stone crab, and I could tell he was having FUN!!! It was another cool find!!!

Alex catches a stone crab.

Each time we had to go thru a no-speed zone, I would put out the fishing line and troll for barracudas to see what we could catch. We would use them in our crab traps and to bait our hooks. This week we seemed to catch barracudas by the dozens and the girls had FUN showing off their catch!!! Way to fish girls!!!

The girls catch barracuda.

The last hour of the week we stopped by the Big Sandbar to search the shallows and relax in the Hot Tub before loading up and heading back in. I could tell everybody had FUN when I heard, “Do we have to go back already?” I know I sure did!!! What a GREAT week, and what Cool Sea Creature Encounters we had!!! Wish you could have joined us!!! We had a ball!!!

Relaxing in the hot tub.

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 PM session”. ENJOY!!!
See You All Soon!!!

Let’s Go Have Some Fun!!!

AdventureMike

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