Florida Guide > Days Out
Robbie's Marina - feed the tarpon
During our recent stay in Florida we decided to spend a few days away from our villa and drive down to the Keys.
We stayed overnight in Key Largo - at a small community of town homes, overlooking the ocean. It was an ideal break in the journey, particulalry becuase it meant we could continue our journey down the Keys the next day and get the full benefit of the wonderful views during daylight! It also turned out to be a good idea because whilst there at the overnight stop the receptionist told us about Robbie' s Marina.
Robbie' s Marina is around half an hour' s drive from Key Largo at Islamorada, situated on the right hand side of the road. The next day , on our journey down to Key West we decided to stop there. We pulled in and parked.
The marina offers boat trips, fishing trips, boat rental, an eatery and several small craft stalls. The attraction for us was feeding tarpon in their natural environment.
Our friend who was with us is a very keen fisherman at home in the UK. He was thrilled to see these large fish, all aorund 3 feet long, at close hand and in their natural habitat. It costs $1 per person to go onto the marina and around $3 for a bucket of fish. We bought just one bucket for our friend to do the honours!
If only we had taken our video camera in. . . . . we had left it in the car! It was a thrilling experience to see these large fish feeding - and it was so funny! Our friend dangled the first fish in the water and almost immediately a large number of tarpon were there! Suddenly a huge fish came up out of the water and engulfed our friends arm past his wrist and took the fish! Our friend jumped back in suprise! The fish swam off - so all was well - but we did laugh! Our friend said that it was the most strange sensation as these fish have no teeth - it was rather like being sucked by sand paper!
The bucket of fish lasted around 15 minutes - as the fish were fed one at a time. We had an audience of a couple of young children who were enthralled and also several pelicans who also had designs on the fish. We were told not to hold the fish for too long outside the bucket as the pelicans would grab them!
Altogether a very interesting diversion to our journey down the Keys - and well worth stopping for!
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