Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park is renowned for a picnic area shaded by towering Norfolk pines and cooled by ever-present breezes — and a 1,000-foot Atlantic-front beach that Key Westers regard as one of the best-kept secrets on the island.

The beach at Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park is Key West locals' favorite for its clear Atlantic Ocean waters and near-shore snorkeling.

Snorkeling fans love the park’s relatively deep water and rocky promontories close to shore — which means snorkeling off the beach can bring encounters with tiny, colorful tropical fish that seem eager to make eye contact.

“Fort Zach,” as the place is affectionately called, is a popular site for sunset weddings, remembrance ceremonies and lively picnics. One of the most memorable weddings at the park was set in a shady area overlooking the water. Dolphins played in the bay, an eagle watched the ceremony from the branch of a tall pine, and — I observed this firsthand as a member of the wedding party — a couple of boaters in the channel offshore hollered to the groom (or was it the bride?), “It’s not too late to save yourself! Jump and we’ll pick you up!”

No matter how appealing the park’s recreation and wedding areas are, it’s the fort itself, once nicknamed “Fort Forgotten,” that really makes it unique.

Civil War re-enactors dressed in period clothing demonstrate preparations for battle within the fort walls.

Its construction was begun in 1845, not long after Florida became a state. In 1850, after former President Zachary Taylor died in office, the structure was named in his honor. Work on it proceeded slowly, with setbacks and hardships ranging from materials shortages to yellow fever.

The fort was still unfinished when the Civil War broke out, but nevertheless it served as the home base for a Union blockade of Confederate ships. Though Key West was the southernmost port in the United States, oddly enough it remained in Union hands throughout the war — and scores of blockade-running ships were captured offshore.

In 1866, construction on the fort was finally completed. Surrounded by water and connected to land by a causeway, the three-story structure featured a granite foundation, brick walls five feet thick, and remarkable vaulted ceilings.

Located on the edge of Key West, Fort Zach was built to last, with a granite foundation and brick walls five feet thick.

Fort Taylor later saw duty during the Spanish-American War and both World Wars — but, despite attempts at modernization, advances in weaponry and defense tactics eventually made it obsolete. Unneeded and remote, it fell into disrepair.

In 1968 a restoration effort began, spearheaded by a Key Wester named Howard England. Slowly and carefully, the fort and its armament were excavated — revealing an astonishingly large collection of Civil War cannons.

In 1971, the “forgotten” fort was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two years later, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Today, thousands of people enjoy the park and beach each year. The fort is the site of a popular annual festival that features Civil War re-enactors in authentic camps, re-creations of historic military maneuvers, period merchandise and artisans’ demonstrations of skill.

Military re-enactors stage a sea battle between two historic tall ships in the waters off Fort Zach.

Even pirates and wenches have discovered the place. For the past several years, it has been the setting for a buccaneer encampment, complete with a marketplace and lively revelry, during the annual Pirates in Paradise gathering.

Now far from forgotten, the structure is watched over by a citizens’ support organization known as the Friends of Fort Taylor — and rightfully recognized for the role it played in Key West’s rich history.

Topics: Florida Keys, Highlights, Key West, Keys History

(Editor’s Note: Larry Kahn, author of this week’s column, is the editor of the “Keynoter” newspaper and occasionally fishes off the Florida Keys.)

Why?

What gives you the right to tease me with your bait while I am offshore of the Florida Keys, minding my own business, feeding on a flying fish or two?

Guest blogger Larry "The Fish" and a pelagic pal share a face-to-face session pondering some big questions. (Photo by Andy Newman)

Who vested you with the right to troll with the sole aim of killing me so I can wind up on your grill, in your pan or deep inside your smoker, marinated with a nice touch of Key lime juice?

Who among you decided you could play God, reeling and reeling while I run and run until I can run no more?

Speaking for the fish, it is a bummer. And I can speak for my pelagic friends, because I live among them.

At least, once a year I do … during the annual Ladies, Let’s Go Fishing! seminar.

It’s called the no-yellin’ school of fishing for women, and includes intensive instruction on how to rig baits, tie knots, gaff fish and even dock a boat. It also showcases the proper technique to reel in a fish.

Portraying The Fish, Larry demonstrates finny fitness for Ladies, Let's Go Fishing students. (Photo courtesy of Ladies, Let's Go Fishing!)

Which is where I come in.

I am the tuna. The dolphin (i.e. mahi-mahi).

I am The Fish.

For the past two years, I’ve been put in a pool at the Holiday Isle Resort with a line attached to a belt around my waist.

It’s pretty simple. The women reel; I try to swim away from them. It teaches them not to allow slack line, to follow the fish as it moves in the water — and, ultimately, to wear out the fish.

Unfortunately for me, they learn well. And I learn what a fish goes through.

It starts out so innocently. Seminar founder Betty Bauman and her 60 students gather around the pool to practice the basics of reeling in a fish. While this is happening, they attach the line to my belt and I get in the water with flippers on.

Betty tries to reel me in. I swim to the other end of the pool, but not so easily. Swimming against her pressure is like being a salmon trying to swim upstream. Wait — they do that. I can’t.

The Ladies, Let's Go Fishing gang relaxes with the "catch of the day." (Photo courtesy of Ladies, Let's Go Fishing!)

After less than two minutes fighting that line, with 60 women watching and learning, I’m so worn out that I’m looking for a paramedic.

In just 10 minutes of being The Fish, I discover a newfound respect for the real fish that can fight for hours before being boated.

I am the lucky one that got away. To my finny friends less fortunate, I say only this: “Grill tastefully, my brothers. Grill tastefully.”

Topics: Animal Ambassadors, Florida Keys, Islamorada, Keys Quirks, Local Color, On the Water

Not long ago, Penn Alexander realized the balance of nature in his Old Town Key West neighborhood was definitely out of whack.

Armando Parra, left, formerly the official chicken catcher of Key West, shows an indigenous fowl to Penn Alexander and a lovely "chick." (Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau)

One evening, when he was listening to a vintage Eagles CD in his hundred-year-old cottage, Penn glanced down at the plastic cat crate that housed a wounded Key West chicken he’d rescued from a marauding hawk. There on top of the crate snoozed his large gold tabby cat, clearly uninterested in the feathered inhabitant and what should have been their predator/prey relationship.

In Key West, however, most relationships involving chickens transcend traditional boundaries. The island’s indigenous poultry, probably descended from roosters bred generations ago for cockfights and hens kept for eggs, roams historic Old Town at will. Private cars and taxis stop to let chickens and their babies cross the road, visitors coo and cluck as they snap photos of the meandering fowl, and roosters can be heard crowing not just at dawn, but whenever they feel like it.

While most Key Westers accept the chickens as part of the egg-ccentric island they love — and some, like Penn, feed or shelter them — a few anti-poultry proponents claim the population is too noisy and growing too fast.

Joe Liszka, one of the Key Westers who hatched ChickenFest, appears at a city meeting with a feathered friend. (Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau)

In fact, in 2004 city officials hired a chicken catcher to round up and relocate almost half of the city’s estimated 2,000 birds to a mainland farm. Armando Parra, a third-generation island resident, barber and amateur ornithologist, caught eight chickens in humane traps during his first day on the job — but his new career was thwarted by the efforts of poultry lovers, who freed trapped fowl at every opportunity.

The resultant commotion led to (I am not kidding here) a four-day festival that was quickly dubbed ChickenFest — hatched by some local event coordinators to give chicken lovers something to crow about.

Fowl fanciers flocked to participate, dressing in full-body yellow chicken suits and feathered headdresses, covering their noses with vinyl rooster beaks and donning red and yellow plush chicken-head caps.

“The Original Chickens,” the brainchild of a Key West accountant, cavort during the “Fowl Follies” costume competition that took place during ChickenFest Key West. (Photo by Mike Hollar/Florida Keys News Bureau)

The highlight was a Poultry in Motion Parade that featured 10-foot-tall dancing chickens, a Colonel Sanders look-alike, a flock of renegade roosters staging a “coop d’etat” against hapless humans, and a 12-foot “Chicken Caesar” — a toga-wearing rooster reclining on a chariot-drawn chaise and waving a regal wing to parade spectators. In the face of that kind of support, the poultry population’s “hard-boiled” detractors didn’t stand a chance.

Today, although ChickenFest is no longer held, chickens rule the roost in Key West. The island’s hens and roosters have become the subject of oil paintings and watercolors, giant sculptures in neighborhood parks and locally published children’s books.

If you’re seeking chicken companionship during a visit to the island, stop by Key West’s funky Blue Heaven, a renowned eatery whose fans include famed singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett.

Blue Heaven’s  “breakfast with the roosters,” served in an outdoor courtyard where resident hens and chicks wander freely, features items ranging from lobster and shrimp benedicts to sinfully good homemade pancakes and banana bread.

Or, if you know Penn Alexander, just head over to his place. The little hen he rescued, now named Henrietta, has become a pet whose daily treat is a smidgen of cat food filched from Penn’s orange tabby.

The cat doesn’t seem to mind a bit.

Topics: Animal Ambassadors, Events, Festivals, Key West, Keys Quirks, Local Color

I know a lot about fish. I know hogfish is the best tasting fish in the entire universe, particularly when cooked with olive oil, capers and a squeeze of lime. I know dolphin (the fish, not the mammal) should be broiled with garlic, herbs, butter and maybe a dollop of pesto added at the last minute. And I know that, once you’ve tasted tuna salad made with fresh Keys tuna, you’ll never touch the canned stuff again.

Knowing how to "cook the catch" is a valuable skill ... but it leaves you dependent on those whose skills center on catching something for you to cook.

What I don’t know about fish is how to catch them. Fortunately, the Florida Keys are home to a breed of experts who can teach even a novice like me — as this essay by guest blogger Bob Serata, a local journalist and angler, attests.

*****

Sometimes being around one of the experienced charter captains or backcountry guides of the Florida Keys can be spooky.

Twenty-five miles from shore, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, the captain will call from the bridge, “Get those lines in.” Before long, a dolphin leaps or a wahoo starts its high-speed run.

Deep in the backcountry, on a shallow flat, the guide says, “Relax, the bones won’t be here for another 10 or 15 minutes.” Ten or 15 minutes later, three schools of bonefish cruise by.

Captain Sandy Moret, shown here with a bonefish, is an unparalleled angling expert who teaches eagerly-anticipated classes in the Upper Keys.

After shaking their heads in wonder, wise anglers realize that much can be learned from the offshore captains and backcountry guides of the Keys.

A primary subject of discussion is fish behavior — and the lessons come in one- or two-sentence factoids.

For example, dolphin congregate under schools of bait fish. Bait fish seek cover, so they school up under floating weed or debris. The bigger dolphin will be below the smaller “schoolies” near the surface.

Troll fast for tuna — faster for big tuna. Drop down for wahoo and kingfish (king mackerel).

Lower Keys flats guide Chris Robinson treats his anglers to a fishing experience, easygoing instruction and world-class stories.

Cast in front of the bonefish and be very, very quiet about it. Bow to a tarpon. Hang on for dear life when a permit runs.

Work the bottom for speckled trout. Or, work the surface for speckled trout. Sometimes the information seems contradictory, but that’s just because conditions change.

The captain’s job is to give anglers shots at catching fish. But the teaching goes on all day, even when the captain isn’t thinking about teaching.

Conversations during rides to fishing sites are good times to get questions answered. At the site, a “what’s that?” or “why stop here?” elicit an answer that encapsulates years of hard-learned experience.

Some backcountry guides specialize in teaching casting technique, especially with beginning fly anglers. But it’s important for the angler and guide to agree on the day’s objective.

Top tournament captains win tournaments because (a) they know where to find fish, (b) they work very hard, and (c) their anglers know how to cast. So novices or anglers who fish just a few times per year might be better served by finding a guide who welcomes the inexperienced caster.

Rick Berry, left, and mate K.J. Zeher show off a beautiful bull dolphin Rick caught while fishing on the Catch 22 off Islamorada. (Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Still, for Keys offshore captains and backcountry guides, teaching — or better, “coaching” — is an almost unconscious act.

Set the hook as hard as you can. Be gentle. Reel now. Reel as fast as you can. Slow down. Keep the rod tip up. Lean to your side. Let the fish run. Wait. Hurry. Cup it.

Advanced anglers will find support in their captains’ calls. The novice or vacation angler will find comfort in a steady stream of advice.

The problem for the angler is trying to remember all the information that’s been imparted.

Or worse, hearing that most feared of all comments on casting — “No, your other left.”

****

With such skilled instruction available, maybe someday soon I’ll catch the catch I cook. But meantime … you’ll find me in the kitchen, seasoning a fishing friend’s dolphin with garlic and herbs.

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Districts, Florida Keys, Highlights, Islamorada, Key Largo, Key West, Marathon, On the Water, Topics