Vacation Photo's 3

Here are a couple of pictures of Andy from the Keys. Of course, I was carrying the camera most of the time, so must of the pictures are of Andy!

In the one picture he's holding two little bait fish, pilchers, it looks like he ripped one in half and has the tail in one hand and the head int he other, but I assure you it is two fish.

The other picture he is fishing at the end of the pier at the resort we stayed at. Where, you ask, did he get the gear? Well, I say, funny you should ask. There is, of course, a story behind that.

On the first day we were down in the Islamorada we decided to go to the "beach" at the resort and wade in the water. This resort allows pets, so there were a couple of people out with their dogs. One guy came down and was fishing at the end of the pier while his wife tended to their three small dogs. One of whom was an old little poodle that couldn't walk anymore, so they wheeled it around in a little cart. Poor little guy. Hated me though!

Anyway, while we were having a drink, watching this guy fish, and the little cart dog, another guy with his dog came down to the water. There was a bit of a hubbub and at some point a different poodle - not the cart dog - fell or jumped into the water. Someone jumped in after it and there was lots of hoopla. "Mom" took the dogs up to the bungalow, and "dad" continued to fish. Of course, at this point Andy made his move. Time to go out and see what dude was catching. Turns out nothing that night. So we (read Andy) ended up striking up a conversation with Trey about, what else, fishing. Trey was super cool. He showed Andy his rigging, let him fish with it, talked about where he fished, and what he caught.

After a while Andy hooked into a sting ray, a littleish one. It shot out and ran around a couple of pylons and snap. After a while Trey went up to get another beer. When he came back he had a fishing pole that he gave to Andy. He was thrilled. But there's more. The pole came with a story too.

Apparently a couple of years ago Trey was at the same resort (they go a couple times a year) and a dude was there that had literally never fished before. Same thing happened, Trey and dude got to talking, and Trey let him fish with his gear. Dude had some cash so he went to the huge fishing shop down the road and bought a pole and some other gear. The next night he was fishing, and had his pole leaning up against the end of the pier and all of a sudden the pole took off flying into the water. Something big just took it out to sea. He and Trey laughed about it for a bit and the next day dude went home. Well, then Trey and the Mrs. were out kayaking and Mrs. Trey looked down and saw something shiny about 20 yards out from the end of the pier. Turns out it's dudes pole! Trey got it out and cleaned it up and called Dude, who told him to keep it. He did, and finally ended up "paying it forward" by giving the pole to Andy. Hence the picture. I believe just this opening weekend (last weekend) Andy was fishing with the "Keys gear", throwing for pike, and he caught a 40 inch musky! Good karma on that pole I guess.