3/22/2012 Riviera Beach YEC

This afternoon, Janel and I met the Riviera Beach YEC for an afternoon of snorkeling and fishing.  Sadly there were no fish caught, but the students did have a wonderful time snorkeling around the shallows, chasing fish and catching starfish.  Above are some pictures of the students with 2 of the starfish they found this afternoon.

Boynton Beach High School and Santaluces High School - Peanut Island Kayaking and Fishing 3/19/12

Today I spent the entire day out at Peanut Island with my United Way students from Boynton Beach High School and Santaluces High School.  We met at the marina at 9:00am, and despite it still being a little chilly, we packed up the kayaks and headed out for the day.  We began our Peanut Island adventure snorkeling in the swimming lagoon, where we saw mullet, snappers, grunts, barracudas, and much much more.

Once the water started getting a little murky, and we were getting cold, we hopped in the kayaks and began fishing around the island.  Sadly we did not catch any monster fish, but we did catch well over 100 snappers and grunts, lost more barracudas than we could count (we had no wire leaders with us!), and we even had 2 manatees come up to the kayaks to see what was going on.

We had an amazing day out on the island, enjoyed some fishing, swimming , and some much needed relaxation.  Todays group has already committed to going back to Peanut Island on Friday, but before then we have a fishing trip and two other kayaking trips planned for this week.  Hope the weather stays beautiful, and the fish keep biting!!

Riviera Beach CRA 3/17/12 - Kayaking and Swimming at Peanut Island

This past Saturday we had an amazing time with our students at the Riviera Beach CRA Boating Program.  We all met at the marina at 11:00am, and started the day by doing a beach clean up while Capt. Rich was cooking us all lunch.  The students filled 2 large garbage bags with plastics, ropes, glass, cigarettes, and much much more.  Following the clean up we all met back up and enjoyed a wonderful lunch of hot dogs, hamburgers, fruit, and veggies.

After lunch we all sat around talking while we digested the wonderful lunch cooked by Capt. Rich.  We then all loaded up in the kayaks and crossed the Intracoastal to Peanut Island, where we swam and explored the Island.  The students went from swimming to exploring, back to swimming and then exploring again.  They were extremely interested in seeing all the marine life around Peanut Island.  We found all sorts of fish, hermit crabs, starfish, urchins, and much much more.  Once the students were all exhausted, we loaded up in the kayaks again, and headed for home.  We have seen a huge improvement in their kayaking abilities, and are extremely proud at how hard they are working to achieve their goals of mastering kayaking.

This weekend was the largest group we have had at Riviera Beach, and we hope to see many more students in the weeks to come.  Next Saturday we are taking the Riviera Beach students out fishing offshore, and we are all crossing our fingers for a beautiful day and tons of fish.

With Spring Break this week for the Palm Beach County schools, we have organized trips for all our United Way and Riviera Beach students.  We are going out fishing one day this week on the boat, and spending a lot of time on Peanut Island swimming and searching for snook.

Riviera Beach CRA Boating Program 3/10/12

This past weekend we went kayaking again with our students from Riviera Beach.  We all met at the Riviera Beach Marina at 1:00pm and went through our kayak and water safety lesson before heading over to Peanut Island.  Last weekend the students practiced and became familiar with the kayaks around the beach at the Marina.  We set out as a group the cross the intracoastal, and everyone did extremely well.  Despite the current trying to push us south, everyone made it over to the Island in less than 10 minutes.  Once over to the island, we spent a bunch of time swimming in the Intracoastal and exploring the mangrove lagoon for marine critters.  Sadly it started to rain towards the end of the day, and we all made our way back to the Marina where we loaded the kayaks back up and tried to warm up under the shelter.


This coming week we hope to venture a little further round Peanut Island to the snorkeling lagoon on the southwest side.

Urban Youth Impact Fishing Excursion Take Two

Yesterday after a short lesson at the Urban Youth Impact site, we decided to try our hands at fishing the lake behind their facility.  It was a gorgeous afternoon, and we all felt lucky.  We set out to fish the north side of the UYI facility, since we fished the south side last week.  Within minutes one of the students caught a small bass, and we all had great expectations for the rest of the day.  Sadly, we only caught one more bass before we had to pack everything up and head inside.  We are slowly figuring out the lake and how to fish it, and we are all looking forward to catching the two released bass when they grow much much bigger!

Captain's Report 2/22/12

Yesterday morning Capt Rich and I headed out on a charter with three extremely enthusiastic anglers.  We started the morning clearing Palm Beach Inlet, and trolling around out front.  After about 30 minutes we landed our first nice sized dolphin fish on a rattle-jet with a bonito strip.  The second dolphin can soon after hitting a squid dropped back behind the boat on a slow troll.  After 2 hours we decided to try our hands at some bottom fishing, and caught triggerfish, bluerunners, and a nice grouper which was quickly released due to the season being closed.  Once everyones arms were nice and tired from reeling in the bottom fish, we set up another troll and caught 2 more dolphin fish, bonitos, and a nice wahoo.  The wahoo was caught by trolling a lure with a strip on the planner.  The you so much for such a wonderful day guys, and we hope to see you again very soon.  We have another charter booked for this Saturday morning before we meet our Riviera Beach students for kayaking, and hope we can have as much success as yesterday.

Urban Youth Impact - first fishing trip

On Tuesday we decided, since our students had been doing so well the last few weeks at the Urban Youth Impact site, that we would hold a short class and then try find some fish in the lake behind their center.  The afternoon was a little chilly, for South Florida standards, we I presented the students with their own fishing rods and we set out to find the fish.  This was the first time many of these teenagers had been fishing, and it was a sight to watch them trying to put a wiggling worm on their hook.  There were a few hesitant students at first, but after awhile everyone was putting on their own worm.  The fishing was a little slow to start, but we finally started hooking a few bluegills and sunfish; there was even a bass hooked, but sadly it spat the hook out after a minute or so.  All fish were released so we could try catch them again next week!!  Everyone has a great time fishing and relaxing after a long hard day at school