My last story mentioned windy, choppy conditions as we fished the coastal waters off Cedar Key. The month of March is traditionally windy and this March sure is. Saturday the 24th started out with the wind at around 12 to 15 mph. That`s O.K. to fish in and not uncomfortable either. I had the Daughtery group of 5 aboard as we headed out to North Key . We went a mile past the key and anchored up in 5-6 ft. of water East of the channel there. It was choppy but we were catching small trout and whiting and bait fish. About and hour of that and I decided to move us up closer to the lee side of the key and a little less wind. In about 4ft of water we caught some keeper trout, 16in. to 17in. The wind was picking up. Getting rougher. 80 year old Manny, from Key West, didn`t say a word. It wasn`t rough at all for him. Approximately 65 years ago he and his Dad came across the Straights of Florida from Cuba and broke down in their vessel and spent 3 weeks drifting around before another fishing vessel picked them up and brought them to Key West. Raw fish to eat, and morning dew-water was their diet while floating in the current off South Florida.
We ended up in the grass flats off Seahorse Key catching more keeper trout and the wind was pretty strong by then, when all of a sudden ,`snap! went my anchor line. The swells and the wind broke the cleat right off the bow where I tie my anchor line to. Once again I had good sports aboard when all gave a hand at retrieving the last bit of anchor line floating so I could pull up my anchor. Scott said, " there`s only few minutes left, why don`t we call it a day". Didn`t have to ask me twice. I had to tack like a sailboat to get back in. Didn`t dare ride into the swells. We would have become awash certainly. I ended up filleting 8 trout and 4 whiting for a large ziplock bag of good fresh fish for my group to take home and enjoy that evening. Here is a picture of Dawn holding 1 of her speckled trout. She caught the 3 largest. I have a trip tomorrow the 27th of March and the forecast is for 7 to 10mph winds. Great! I`m looking forward to it and I`ll tell you how it went. Check out the pictures at http://www.inshorefloridafishing.com then call me at 352-221-5463 and lets go fishing. Keep an eye on the weather. Capt. Dan | 
