Went fishing with the boys this week. Our plan was to catch some snapper for dinner. Our first stop was the ruins of Ernest Hemingway’s stilt house. Or at least, that’s what the locals call it..
This spot has a lot of history. Rumor has it, “Papa”, as Hemingway is locally known, had owned a house on these iron stilts, 8 mi nw of our little city. It was originally a lighthouse, known as the Northwest Passage Light, built in 1838.
The local legend is that he came here to get away from the hustle of Key West, and he’d come here to fish, write and drink.
As you can see from the below photo, all that remains are the pilings. The wooden house itself burned down in the 1970’s. The cross braces lie deteriorated in the water surrounded by schools of fish. (I would like to note that here is where I caught the 1st fish of the day, a grey snapper, but I forgot to take a pic!)
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Onto the next stop. It’s a secret location known to only those that know it. An abandoned upturned boat that snapper are known to hide in. You can see the boat in this photo if you look closely..
Dave brought barracuda for chum, and soon the boat was swarming with sharks. We could see two Blue Tips, one Bonnet, a Nurse, and about a half dozen Bull shark lurking about. Needless to say, I wasn’t going swimming!
So of course, the boys wanted to catch sharks. So, we caught shark.
We started with a Bonnet. Okay, so he’s little, but cute! Sort of..onto the big boys!
We caught 3 bull sharks between 6 and 8 feet. Look at all those teeth!
Vintage Key West 