Outside of some fog leaving St. Pete, the weather cooperated and by the time I got to Venice, the sun was out and it was a smooth 7 hour run to Key West!

The fishing was tough the first 2 weeks but then, it was like a light switch turned on and so did the bite! We had several good days catching Mahi and enjoyed fresh fish on the grill several nights in a row! It just doesn’t get much better than catching, cleaning, cooking and then consuming your own fresh caught fish.

I enjoy trolling when I’m out fishing which involves a lot of moving around looking for birds feeding on the surface or weed lines in the water. Well, one of the most exciting events happened when I was moving from one week line to another when something BIG hit a line. Little did I know what I had on at first but the video below captured the rest – enjoy!

Needless to say, I was more than excited once I realized what I had on the line and then all I could think about was how to get her to the boat and off the line! After battling for nearly 19 minutes, I was able to get her alongside the boat, removed the hook and then carefully released her.

After a month of fishing in the Keys, it was time to do the unthinkable… sell Side Step! With our plans to cruise the World, it just isn’t possible to tow the center console with us so we cleaned her up, listed her for sale and found her a new home.