For award-winning writer Brad Bertelli, life is about noticing the little things — especially when he’s hovering over coral heads offshore. His book, “Snorkeling Florida: 50 Excellent Sites,” reveals many of his favorites, and the reefs of the Florida Keys (renowned as North America’s most accessible dive and snorkel destination) best represent what the water has to offer.

"Snorkeling Florida" spotlights author and underwater aficionado Brad Bertelli's favorite Florida Keys snorkeling spots.

Brad’s favorite snorkeling sites include coral reefs, seagrass beds and shipwrecks. Luckily for aquatic enthusiasts, the Keys provide easy offshore access to each underwater environment. Water depths are typically shallow, and water temperatures range from the 70s in winter months to the 80s in summer — practically guaranteeing a safe and enjoyable trip.

If you’re a snorkeler, kicking from shore just beyond the seagrass beds will bring you to structures such as coral heads, rocks or outcroppings where you can see a variety of fish.

“Fish look for these ’condos‘ to live and dart in and out of,” Brad said.

Sightings increase, he advised, when the tide is changing or at low tide, and when there’s low wind — usually in the early morning hours before afternoon clouds build up and create surface chop.

Snorkeling sites in the Keys are shallow, allowing for maximum light (and color) exposure along the reef line. (Photo by Pat Taylor)

Keeping a slow pace is important as well. Snorkeling is not a race, so take your time to examine the reef, soaking it all in. The ease of snorkeling is what makes it so appealing for people of all ages and experience levels.

Key Largo is brimming with fine snorkeling spots — many of them in or near John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. They include the north end of Molasses Reef, a beautiful and shallow strip of reef lush with schooling blue striped grunts and Florida favorites like sergeant majors, horse-eyed jacks and Bermuda chubs.

Just off Founders Park on Plantation Key is a group of coral heads between three and four feet tall. For a family with little kids, cruising down the jetty is great for spotting nurse sharks, rays, starfish and seahorses.

Off Islamorada’s Cheeca Lodge, Brad often hovers over “Cheeca Rocks,” a shallow, healthy cluster of robustly populated coral heads that aren’t heavily dived.

Shown here above water, Brad Bertelli offers informative insights on the Keys' underwater world based on his first-hand experience.

Indian Key, accessible by boat or a 25-minute paddle by kayak, is home to small critters like banded shrimp, damselfish and juvenile angelfish that crowd around lime-colored brain coral heads.

In the Lower Keys, though Looe Key is legendary for its glorious finger reef seascape, Brad said his all-time favorite shore snorkel is the untouched and uncrowded beauty at Bahia Honda State Park. In shoreside waters only four feet deep, you can spot “babies” from a variety of species including starfish and conch.

“What is so remarkable about snorkeling the Keys is how much you can see offshore without having to be on a boat,” stated Brad. “You can wade in off the beach and it’s truly breathtaking.”

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Florida Keys, Highlights, Islamorada, Key Largo, Keys Environment, Local Color, Marathon, On the Water

Before Chris Robinson became a Lower Keys fishing guide, he co-owned the All-Breeds Hot Dog Pound, tended bar for some 20 years at Key West’s landmark Chart Room and Louie’s Backyard, and shared adventures with Jimmy Buffett and other notables.

As a young Key West bartender in the 1970s and early '80s, Chris met writers, actors and musicians fleeing the “real world.” (Photos courtesy of Chris Robinson)

In fact, when Chris arrived in Key West in 1972, the 24-year-old from St. Augustine, Fla., found himself in a renegade seaport town. Politicos ran the government largely from the Chart Room Bar (where Chris captured a coveted bartending job), hobbyist pot smugglers were admired as romantic outlaws, and local treasure hunters drank rum with Pulitzer Prize–winning escapees from the literary mainstream.

Tall and spare, with long hair and a luxuriant moustache, Chris displays a storyteller’s wit, easygoing attitude and lively enjoyment of the absurd. During his early Key West years, those traits served him well in an offbeat venture begun with buddy Tommy Hicks.

“We opened the world-famous All-Breeds Hot Dog Pound on Greene Street,” said Chris. “Our motto was We Relish Your Buns.”

The business didn’t last long, but old-time Key Westers still wax nostalgic about the “pound’s” juicy hot dogs nestled in soft Cuban rolls.

At that time, Key West’s ramshackle charm and end-of-the-road atmosphere made it a magnet for writers, actors and musicians fleeing the “real world.” Among them were novelist and poet Jim Harrison, “Ninety-two in the Shade” author Tom McGuane and struggling singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who later memorialized the Key West lifestyle in song and earned enduring fame.

Chris (at left holding a freshly-caught permit) eventually became a Keys fishing guide.

“He was not a star then,” said Chris. “He used to sit with his little guitar and amp and play in the Chart Room.”

The two became friends when Buffett moved into the oceanfront apartment above Chris’s beside a bar and restaurant named Louie’s Backyard.

By 1986, Chris was tending bar at the Afterdeck at Louie’s, an open-air cocktail deck on the edge of the Atlantic, whose clientele combined local fishermen, upscale tourists and visiting celebrities. It was a position he would hold for 18 years.

Yet while he enjoyed the Keys’ partying pursuits, Chris also was drawn to life on the water. An angler since his childhood, he bought a boat shortly after arriving in Key West and learned flats fishing tips from Tom McGuane.

In action on the Florida Keys flats, Chris guides anglers to tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracuda and the occasional shark.

Eventually he got his captain’s license and began guiding. In 2004, he retired from Louie’s Backyard and began chartering full time on his 18-foot Action Craft, fishing the flats for tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracuda and the occasional shark. He called his business Big Kahuna Charters.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Chris enjoys guiding novice anglers as much as he does seasoned pros.

Poling through the shallows, he also shares his love of the diverse and vibrant Keys environment with his clients — pointing out sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, stingrays and manatees.

“I tell people it’s an eco-tour with a chance to catch a fish,” said Chris.

It might be a long road from the bartending high life to the natural realm of the flats, but Chris Robinson has traveled it with grace — and few regrets.

Some years back, while guiding a Chicago office worker on a February fishing escape, he realized just how lucky he was.

“It was about 80 degrees, the water had three different colors and the sky was that big, high-pressure clear deep blue,” said Chris, “and he looks at me and he goes, ‘Nice office’.”

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Florida Keys, Highlights, Key West, Keys Environment, Local Color, On the Water, Profiles

Ever wondered why there’s a gigantic panorama of fish and other sea creatures wrapped around a four-story building in the median of the Overseas Highway in Key Largo?

Actually, it’s the brainchild of an internationally acclaimed marine life artist who just happens to live in the Upper Keys.

Marine life artist Wyland takes a break after putting finishing touches on his 7,500-square-foot marine life mural in Key Largo. (Photo by Andy Newman/ Florida Keys News Bureau)

The 7,500-square-foot wraparound mural, located at mile marker 99.2, depicts the living coral reef that parallels the Florida Keys — the only living coral barrier reef in the continental U.S. And thanks to artist and environmentalist Wyland, Keys visitors can preview that reef’s breathtaking ecosystem without getting wet.

For some 30 years, Wyland has used his artistic talent to raise awareness about the need to preserve and protect the oceans and their inhabitants. An avid diver who’s spent hundreds of hours happily submerged in Florida Keys waters, he credits the Keys reef for inspiring much of his work.

“The Florida Keys is one of the best places in the world to dive,” said Wyland. “Every time I dive I learn more, and then I try to incorporate that into my paintings and my sculptures and my murals.”

A diver explores the coral reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo. (Photo by Bob Care/Florida Keys News Bureau)

In fact, just a few miles from the Key Largo mural site lies John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the first underwater preserve in the United States.

Pennekamp is incorporated into the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which covers about 2,800 square nautical miles of coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove swamp on both sides of the Keys island chain — with an indigenous population that includes more than 600 species of fish and 55 varieties of coral. Savvy underwater enthusiasts call the area one of the most fascinating dive sites on the planet.

Wyland’s Key Largo mural, completed in 2007, features manatees, manta rays, corals, sea turtles, fish and bottlenose dolphins.

“This mural is really the gateway to the Florida Keys,” said the artist, who has painted 99 other mammoth marine life murals on buildings around the United States, Australia, France, Japan and other far-flung locations including New Zealand.

Wyland details the eye of a manatee during the creation of his Key Largo mural. (Photo by Gary Firstenberg)

Another of his marine life panoramas graces a former warehouse in Key West’s Historic Seaport district, and a third overlooks the Overseas Highway at mile marker 50 in Marathon. Like all of Wyland’s murals, they’re designed to motivate environmental awareness and responsibility — particularly in children.

“Art is something that can touch people’s emotion,” he said. “You can choose not to go into a gallery or a museum, but you can’t ignore a giant mural. If people see this beauty, I know they’ll want to get involved in protecting it.”

Next time you drive into or out of the Keys, immerse yourself in the island chain’s coral reef ecosystem at mile marker 99.2. It’s a great introduction to the underwater world … and you don’t even need to leave your car.

Topics: Arts, Florida Keys, Highlights, Key Largo, Keys Environment, Local Color, On the Water

Some people might dread a mundane workweek, ticking off the days on the calendar until their next vacation. But not Armando “Mandy” Rodriguez. The guiding spirit behind Marathon’s Dolphin Research Center, or DRC, Mandy calls his job a blessing and a gift — one that the Vietnam veteran says rescued him from deep post-war despair.

Mandy Rodriguez, the guiding spirit behind Dolphin Research Center, enjoys a quiet moment with a couple of good buddies. (Photos courtesy of DRC)

In 1984, Mandy and his then-wife Jayne Shannon-Rodriguez founded the nonprofit DRC after working as head trainer and manager of the research facility that previously existed on the property.

Now, more than 25 years later, both remain actively involved in DRC’s operation. Their underlying philosophies — to teach the world about marine mammals’ innate intelligence and problem-solving skills, as well as how to care for and protect them — are the principles that guide the facility.

With its protective environment for dolphins and sea lions, DRC draws national and international visitors to the Florida Keys. It’s also a center where people can increase their awareness of marine mammals and environmental conservation.

In addition, DRC is a great place to learn and work for young people pursuing careers in research and animal behaviors.

Under Mandy's watchful eye, dolphins Kibby, AJ and Tanner have some fun taking turns on a training platform.

Mandy’s connection to marine mammals, however, predates DRC. It began during his childhood in Cuba.

“I was taught to swim before I could walk, exposed to mammals at an early age,” said Mandy, who arrived in the United States at age 10. “I was an ocean brat.”

When he was 20, after fighting in the Vietnam War, Mandy worked at the Miami Seaquarium as “low man on the assistant trainer totem pole.” The experience left him unfulfilled and in search of a teaching institution.

He found it at the New England Aquarium in Boston, where he trained with harbor seals, sea lions and fur seals. Yet it was interaction with dolphins that ultimately captured his attention and became his passion.

A trio of "mellow fellows" share a swim in DRC's protected waters. The center has performed groundbreaking research on dolphin intelligence.

Mandy’s war experiences had left him edgy and suffering from persistent post-traumatic stress disorder. He credits the dolphins — their energy, behavioral responses, ability to evoke emotions and calm the soul — with helping him coexist better with fellow humans, including those who had harassed and persecuted him when he returned from Vietnam.

“The dolphins taught me to live life, accept life and to be … a mellow fellow,” said Mandy.

Now that he has spent decades with the gentle cetaceans, he admits to having a few favorites: Kibby, a resident of DRC for nearly 30 years, 21-year-old A.J. and his 7-year-old son Tanner, whose cognitive abilities earned him a brainiac reputation as the “jock who’s smart.”

The “four boys” like to play and romp together, with the dolphins gathering around for the kisses that Mandy generously doles out — all while maintaining an eye contact that demonstrates the trust between them.

“They taught me to have fun in life, to eat, play and make love,” said Mandy of the dolphins. “Anyone that goes wrong with that is nuts.”

Topics: Animal Ambassadors, Highlights, Keys Environment, Marathon, Profiles

“You just keep fishing with it, Andy. I guarantee you’ll catch a quality fish.”

Those words of veteran ESPN angling broadcaster George Poveromo, who also hosts the annual Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series, had become permanently etched in my mind for almost three years.

But despite logging literally hundreds of trolling miles on the purple Yo-Zuri bonita lure, the plug had not yielded a single fish — or even a hit.

George Poveromo, all smiles after landing this large dolphin, will head up the Jan. 23 Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series in Islamorada. The touted Yo-Zuri lure was not utilized to catch this fish.

My frustration started after Poveromo published one of the best how-to dolphin fishing stories I had ever read in “Salt Water Sportsman” magazine. In the article, he touted the Yo-Zuri as a must-have lure.

After reading his prose, I wandered in to Captain Harry’s Fishing Supply in Miami and searched out the can’t-miss plug. Poveromo’s wonderful praise made me quickly forget about the $40 price tag.

Time after time, I trolled the Yo-Zuri behind my boat and, despite catching fish on other lures and natural baits, the Yo-Zuri failed to yield a strike.

I called Poveromo and expressed my disappointment.

“Just keep fishing with it,” he said. “The strikes will be few and far between, but it will be a quality fish that will bite that lure. I guarantee it.”

One day I was out fishing with “Sun-Sentinel” outdoors writer Steve Waters off the Upper Keys. I dragged the Yo-Zuri then, as well. After several hours, I replaced it with a blue and white Islander and almost immediately a nice dolphin gobbled up the presentation.

As I was cranking in the fish, Waters queried me about the lure. I explained that I had purchased it based on Poveromo’s glowing report.

Waters laughed and said, “Andy, don’t you know that Yo-Zuri sponsors George?”

The next day I called Poveromo. He assured me that, despite the sponsorship, the Yo-Zuri would produce.

Andy Newman displays his "quality fish" and the Yo-Zuri lure that made the catch possible. (Photo by Roy Hughes)

“Just keep fishing with it,” he said. “The strikes will be few and far between, but that lure will catch a quality fish. I guarantee it.”

Well, I kept fishing with that lure and finally about a year later I had success.

I was out with some friends chasing schoolie dolphin (mahi-mah) about 30 miles off Ocean Reef. We came upon a floating palette. There were no dolphin, but we did see about seven tripletail. We managed to nab four of those fish, including a biggie weighing almost 8 pounds.

Before we left, I decided we should try a deep-running bait in the event a wahoo was in the vicinity. Of course, I thought about the Yo-Zuri — the pride of Poveromo — and rigged it to a 50-pound Penn International.

We went ahead and moved several hundred yards away from the palette, circled around and came back dragging the Yo-Zuri behind the boat.

Three minutes later, the rod bent hard and the drag signaled a fish. I couldn’t believe it. In less then 10 minutes we gaffed a small wahoo, about 15 pounds.

George Poverormo (right), senior editor of "Salt Water Sportsman" magazine, presents Andy Newman with a wahoo mount at the Salt Water Sportsman Seminar Series in Islamorada.

I told Poveromo of the achievement and several months later, at the inaugural National Seminar Series seminar in Islamorada, he was kind enough to present me with a King Sailfish Mounts’ wahoo reproduction in front of the entire audience.

“Well, it’s about time,” he told me and an audience of about 400 anglers. “You see, I told you that you would catch a quality fish with that lure.”

I responded to George that, while the wahoo was a welcome surprise, at 15 pounds it certainly was not going to get me in the record books.

“You just keep fishing with that,“ Poveromo said. “I guarantee you …”

“I know,” I interrupted. “I’m going to catch a quality fish.”

###

Blogger’s Note 1: Poveromo is scheduled to stage another Keys-based seminar Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Coral Shores High School Performing Arts Theater, mile marker 89.9 in Islamorada. A number of Keys captains and guides will share the stage providing Keys angling tips. A ticket to the Seminar Series costs $55 per person and includes a year-long subscription or extension to “Salt Water Sportsman” magazine, as well as other incentives. To order tickets online — and for more information — visit www.nationalseminarseries.com.

Andy Newman has scored many blackfin tuna catches off Islamorada with this Rapala lure.

Blogger’s Note 2: Poveromo is no longer sponsored by Yo-Zuri, but recently announced an affiliation with Rapala. I have had personal experience with a red-and-white Rapala CDMAG14 lure and can verify its effectiveness when trolled quickly for blackfin tuna off the Florida Keys. It’s sensational … and I guarantee it!

Topics: Florida Keys, Islamorada, Key Largo, Keys Environment, Local Color, Marathon, On the Water

This might be her 31st year in the scuba diving business, but Amy Slate has not lost an ounce of her enthusiasm for diving, ocean preservation or the Key Largo community she’s called home since the 1970s. Owner and operator of Amy Slate’s Amoray Dive Resort, she’s living a dream of being connected to marine life that began when she was a child growing up in Miami.

Amy Slate, today the owner of Amoray Dive Resort, discovered her passion for the world beneath the sea at an early age. (Photo by Frazier Nivens)

At age 6, a swim with the dolphins at Key West’s Flipper Sea School launched Amy’s passion. Afterward, convinced she would spend her life in, on and around the ocean, she excitedly told her parents, “This is it!”

Years later, as a teacher in rural Jacksonville, Fla., Amy taught sixth-grade students lessons in all subjects with teaching tools derived from the ocean. Utilizing seashells, students learned how to take measurements, use multiplication and explore scientific origins by reading about shells and marine life.

Amy also conducted dive training classes at the YMCA. Yet the tug of her South Florida roots (coupled with morning frost on the car windows), were enough to make her decide, along with then-husband Spencer, to head for the Keys in 1978. There they started a dive business named Atlantis Dive Center.

Amy Slate shares her Upper Keys life with Labrador retrievers Mia and Tia. (Photo by Peter Lorber)

In 1992, Amy dissolved her personal and professional partnerships to branch out on her own with brother Justin. After years spent studying other dive resorts — “research” that involved diving with humpback whales in French Polynesia and on the reefs of Bonaire, Cozumel and the Caribbean — Amy opened Amy Slate’s Amoray Dive Resort.

The property, and its name, were born from Amy’s deep love for the ocean and a play on her Italian family roots in the province of Sant’ Agata di Puglia. After every dive trip, the Amoray boat crew plays “That’s Amore!” on the return to the dock, and the resort’s signature logo is a moray eel in the shape of a heart.

The resort reflects Amy’s love of the Keys environment. All rooms are named after reef fish and brightly decorated with Caribbean-style colors, tropical linens, furnishings and wall hangings.

Amy still dives at least two afternoons a week along the reefs and wrecks of Key Largo. (Photo by Frazier Nivens)

Over the years, Amy and Amoray have earned a reputation for excelling at underwater weddings. Amoray Dive Resort ceremonies have been featured in “People” magazine and on a television show hosted by Geraldo Rivera — who even blew a conch shell on-camera for his audience.

Amy’s activities, however, aren’t limited to operating the resort. She has focused on fundraisers for local dolphin care centers and shelters for women and children, has served on the board of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, and is active in furthering coral restoration and transplantation projects with a local marine scientist.

Despite her wide-ranging travels, she believes the Florida Keys are still the best place to dive. In fact, she dives the Upper Keys’ Molasses Reef at least two afternoons a week to relax.

“Not everyone can live their passion,” Amy says. “But if you do what you love, the rest will follow.”

Topics: Florida Keys, Highlights, Key Largo, Keys Environment, On the Water, Profiles

Sixteen Florida Keys women are giving the term “naturist” a new meaning — proving their commitment to nature and community environmental efforts by posing au naturel for a 2010 fundraising calendar in some of the Keys’ most picturesque green spaces.

The "Women Sustaining the Earth" calendar showcases the Keys' natural beauty and its models' environmental commitment. (Photo by Sheelman)

The models for the calendar, titled “Women Sustaining the Earth,” are not typical cover girls. Their chronological ages range from 44 to 78, though their grace is timeless, and the calendar combines their images with thought-provoking statements on nature and the environment.

Among the women who posed for the project are hotelier Kate Miano, proprietor of Key West’s Gardens Hotel, organic restaurant owner Charlie Wilson and former Florida Keys Mayor Shirley Freeman. Some are draped in fabric or foliage, but they all display a comfort in their own skin — plus the courage to put themselves on the line to support the Keys’ natural world.

Calendar model Rosi Ware, one of the guiding spirits behind the Key West Garden Club at West Martello Tower, was photographed in the club's lovely secluded garden. (Photo by Carol Tedesco)

That natural world is one of the calendar’s enduring beauties. Locations for its mostly black-and-white art photographs include Nancy’s Secret Garden, a secluded Key West enclave nurtured by a local artist/environmentalist; the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, home to countless rare trees and plants; the Key West Garden Club’s historic waterfront haven at a former Civil War fort; the lush and lovely grounds of the Gardens Hotel; and a remote locale called Geiger Key that was named to honor a friend of John James Audubon.

The calendar was the brainchild of Erika Biddle, host of the Key West radio show “The ECOcentric View,” who poses with recycling groundbreaker Lucy Carleton on one of its pages. She drew inspiration from a statement, credited to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, that the environmental movement needed to get sexier to garner more participation.

Calendar creator Erika Biddle (left) is pictured in its pages with fellow environmental activist Lucy Carleton. (Photo by Richard Watherwax)

For Erika, the calendar’s elegant sensuality was a means to an end: raising awareness and funds for earth-friendly Keys initiatives. The first printing of 500 calendars, which sold out almost instantly, benefited the local Green Living & Energy Education community garden effort. The second printing benefits the Mana Project, a nonprofit organization striving to sustain Nancy’s Secret Garden.

“The whole calendar is a collaboration of people who are working for a cause,” said Erika. “I’m just trying to connect the green dots.”

Like Erika and the women who posed for the calendar, the photographers who shot them — Carol Tedesco, Richard Watherwax, Lynne Bentley-Kemp and Sheelman — donated their time, energy and passion.

“The women featured in this calendar are each outstanding advocates for planet earth,” said Carol Tedesco, whose goal was to communicate their unique spirit in her photographs.

Find out more about the 2010 “Women Sustaining the Earth” calendar at www.keywestcalendargirls.com — and order one to support Mother Nature and her valiant “daughters” in the Florida Keys.

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Florida Keys, Highlights, Islamorada, Key Largo, Key West, Keys Environment, Local Color, Marathon

The southernmost stretch of U.S. Highway 1, running some 110 miles from mainland Florida throughout the Keys to Key West, has earned many names over the years. It’s been called the Overseas Highway. The Highway That Goes to Sea. And on October 16 it earned the right to be called an All-American Road, the highest national designation a roadway can receive.

The Florida Keys' landmark Overseas Highway is now an All-American Road ... the only roadway to earn the top national designation in Florida and one of just 31 in the entire U.S..

But for those of us who love the Keys, whether as residents or regular visitors, the highway has a simpler and more elemental designation: it’s the road home.

Heading south from mainland Florida, the highway leads into a world of seemingly endless water and sky. On the left, the Atlantic Ocean unrolls to a blue horizon; on the right lies Florida Bay and, further south, the Gulf of Mexico.

From the mainland to Key West, an astonishing 42 bridges leapfrog between islands. One of them, the Seven Mile Bridge at Marathon, stretches 6.79 miles across open water — and was once nicknamed “the eighth wonder of the world.”

The new Jewfish Creek Bridge is the first of 42 Overseas Highway spans that southbound drivers cross on their way to the end of the road. (Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Yet the Seven Mile Bridge wasn’t always a highway bridge, and the Overseas Highway wasn’t always a road. It began as a railroad, the brainchild of millionaire Henry Flagler, who envisioned a train route connecting all the Florida Keys and mainland Florida. Flagler inspired an army of men to spend seven years constructing the railroad’s bridges and land-based tracks, and in 1912 the first train pulled into Key West.

After only two-plus decades of carrying freight and wealthy vacationers, much of the railroad was badly damaged in a 1935 hurricane. Three years later the Overseas Highway debuted, built on a foundation that incorporated some of the original railway spans.

In 1982, 37 original bridges including the Seven Mile Bridge were replaced with wider spans (eagerly welcomed by those of us familiar with the scarily narrow old bridges). About a third of the original bridges were removed during the project, but three of those remaining — the Long Key, Bahia Honda and Seven Mile bridges — are on the National Register of Historic Places.

This lucky couple (and their trusty flamingo "mascot") travel the 18-Mile Stretch between mainland Florida and Key Largo, just before embarking on the Overseas Highway's one-of-a-kind driving adventure. (Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Traveling down the Overseas Highway, drivers can see many of the old bridges running alongside the newer ones. And all of us who travel the road regularly have our favorite stretches and sights — talisman vistas that offer a welcome foretaste of home on the southward drive.

For example, when I reach Islamorada in the Upper Keys, I can’t help smiling as I pass a particularly beautiful cluster of contemporary oceanfront homes. Spotting the pocket-sized island of Pigeon Key, nestled beneath the Old Seven Mile Bridge, inspires daydreams about living in one of its tiny restored cottages.

Farther along the Old Seven Mile Bridge, defying natural logic, five scraggly bushes sprouted on the weather-beaten pavement years ago and somehow have managed to survive. For me, they’ve become leafy mascots. Every time I cross the newer bridge, I glance anxiously over at each bush to make sure it’s still hanging on.

The historic Old Seven Mile Bridge, at right of the newer bridge, cuts through tiny Pigeon Key and is home to five unlikely but beloved bushes. Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau

Just before Big Pine lies one of the highway’s prime vistas. At Bahia Honda State Park, a portion of the old Bahia Honda Bridge arches up against the sky, a stark and throat-catchingly beautiful reminder of the Keys’ past glories.

To earn All-American Road status under the National Scenic Byways program, a road must have nationally significant archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational and/or scenic qualities — and must possess features that don’t exist anywhere else, making it a visitor destination in itself.

The Overseas Highway certainly fits the bill. It’s the first and only Florida road to achieve All-American status, and it joins just 30 other All-American Roads in the entire U.S. So the designation is prestigious indeed.

But no matter how impressive the honor, it can’t eclipse the status the Overseas Highway already possesses in the hearts of Keys residents and those who wish they were. It’s our highway, our connection to each other and the outside world — and always, our road home.

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Florida Keys, Highlights, Islamorada, Key Largo, Key West, Keys Environment, Keys History, Marathon

Fishing in Florida Keys waters can sometimes have a strange and wonderful effect on a person. Take local “Keynoter” newspaper editor Larry Kahn, for instance.

In this photo from a few years back, Larry Kahn delightedly displays the first dolphin fish he ever caught.

Regular readers of this blog may recall my account of his angling misadventures (“Larry’s Dilemma: Perplexed by a Pilchard”) in an earlier post. If you haven’t read it, you should. But let’s just say that, despite Larry comparing his angling skills to those of Ernest Hemingway, the picture wasn’t pretty.

On a recent angling adventure, however, he proved he’s come a long way since then.

It was my final hurrah for the summer. We set out in my Sailfish 2660 boat about 7 a.m., headed for a local spot known as the 409 hump, literally an underwater mountain about 21 miles south of Islamorada. I was full of anticipation after scoring a banner catch of blackfin tuna the previous weekend and hearing from other anglers the fish were still there.

But when we got to the hump, we were a bit disappointed. An overnight wind shift, with the breeze coming out of the west, probably was responsible for pushing most of the bait out of the area. We saw some tuna, but not the acres of fish experienced the previous weekend.

Post author and passionate angler Andy Newman caught this blackfin tuna recently off Islamorada.

We did see a few birds feeding, so we commenced trolling Rapala red-and-white lures, feathers and a few ballyhoo. We caught plenty of skipjacks — some of them quite large at around 18 to 20 pounds. They’re terrific fighters, but not great eating.

We did manage to catch a half-dozen blackfin tuna as we continued working the area through the morning and early afternoon. We also had one sailfish strike, but couldn’t get a hook into it.

Around 1 p.m., we hooked into a big skipjack and Larry began to battle it. The fish peeled off line but was finally stopped. Larry started gaining line and the fish began to come in much easier.

As I looked back, I saw the fish about 50 feet behind the boat — but something was not right. Upon closer examination, I realized it was missing its tail.

Then I saw a huge flash and figured it was a barracuda. Larry continued reeling in what was left of his catch — and that’s when I spotted the biggest wahoo I’ve ever seen about 10 feet behind the boat. I figured the fish would easily go 75 pounds, probably heavier.

Anglers Andy Newman, Jerry O'Cathey and Matt Strahan relax after a long -- and obviously successful -- day fishing in Florida Keys waters.

Clearly, the wahoo was the culprit that was cannibalizing Larry’s fish. Even when only one-third of the skipjack remained at the end of the line, the wahoo continued to hang around the boat eying it.

Now, you must understand that a wahoo is a highly prized gamefish. They’re incredibly strong, lightning fast and make for fabulous dining.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any live bait, so I casted a previously frozen ballyhoo. The wahoo showed no interest. Then I brought in the skipjack’s remains, cut a slab off it and tossed it out. Still nothing. Finally, I baited the remainder of the skipjack, but the wahoo had swum away.

At that point, we decided to head back. On the way in, about 15 miles off Islamorada, another friend, Roy Hughes, saw a piece of bamboo that we passed and almost missed. We managed to pull in half a dozen gaffer dolphin (a/k/a mahi-mahi, which is the fish and not the mammal) — an excellent way to end the trip.

No longer a squeamish angler, Larry salutes his vanquished foe.

And Larry? Well, first of all, despite losing a few blackfin tuna earlier in the day, he made up for it by catching one eight-pound dolphin and one 11-pound dolphin on a spinning rod with 10-pound-test line.

And after reeling in the mangled skipjack, he picked it up and looked at it with an almost tender expression — an expression Hemingway would have recognized — as though saluting a vanquished foe that lost its life in the good fight.

Only a few years earlier, Larry squeamishly complained about baiting his own hooks. That afternoon, he was cuddling a bloody fish carcass. Truly, fishing in Florida Keys waters can have a strange and wonderful effect on a person.

Topics: Florida Keys, Highlights, Islamorada, Keys Environment, On the Water

It’s called the No Name Pub, and it bills itself as the oldest pub in Florida. It might also be the hardest to find — the quirky eatery lies off U.S. Highway 1 in the Lower Florida Keys, down a winding road and over a humpbacked bridge in an individualistic settlement known as No Name Key.

You have to venture off the proverbial beaten path to find the No Name Pub, but the experience is well worth it. (Photo courtesy of the No Name Pub)

This out-of-the-way location doesn’t keep people from discovering the local landmark — or falling in love with its historic Florida Keys charm, world-class pizza and ramshackle décor that includes interior walls papered with dollar bills.

What is now the pub first opened as a general store and bait and tackle shop in 1931. In 1936, the owners began serving food; in the late 1930s they opened a brothel in an upstairs storage room.

The restaurant proved more popular than the brothel (no doubt a surprise to certain ladies eager to earn extra money!). The latter faded away, while the pub started attracting an ever-larger following.

Serious enjoyment and ramshackle decor characterize the quirky No Name Pub. (Photo courtesy of the No Name Pub)

Amenities in subsequent years included a honky-tonk atmosphere and amusements ranging from pool to less savory games of chance — some reputedly run by the local sheriff.

The pub’s famous pizza was born in 1960, prepared according to a recipe imported by two Italian cooks. It proved to be such an enduring draw that today it’s modestly promoted as “the best pizza in the known universe.”

You can choose traditional varieties or gourmet delights like a Keys shrimp pizza (a must-have treat — the combination of bubbly, slightly salty cheese and the Keys’ own sweet pink shrimp is impossible to resist).

The pub's individualistic character is exemplified by its funky casual signs -- like the ones pictured here. (Photo courtesy of the No Name Pub)

As the pub’s nearly 70 years of popularity prove, when great food and laidback Keys flavor come together, “no name” is no barrier to success.

The place itself may be hard to find, but its website is easy. Visit www.nonamepub.com for a glimpse of the landmark’s offbeat character, historic photos, menu highlights and a more-or-less exact address (actually, you find it by turning off U.S. Highway 1 at mile marker 30.5 bayside and then following the winding road … but resign yourself to the inevitability of getting lost at least once).

AND WHILE YOU’RE LOST … EXPLORE THESE!

Big-eyed and shy, Key deer can be spotted throughout the Lower Keys widlife refuge created to protect them. (Photo courtesy of Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

NATIONAL KEY DEER REFUGE, down Key Deer Boulevard off U.S. 1 at mile marker 30.5 bayside. At first, you might wonder what all the fuss is about. Then you see one — a big-eyed Key deer, no taller than a good-sized Doberman, standing at the roadside in an instant of arrested motion before it scampers away — and you’re hooked on the tiny critters. The best times to spot them are early morning and dusk, and they wander freely in the refuge. The refuge has an informative visitors’ center located in Big Pine Key’s Winn Dixie Shopping Center.

THE BLUE HOLE, within the Key Deer Refuge down Key Deer Boulevard off U.S. 1 at mile marker 30.5 bayside. This was originally an old rock quarry used in the construction of the Overseas Railroad that connected the Keys to mainland Florida (and to each other) in the early 1900s. Today it’s a freshwater habitat for alligators and wading birds. Spend a few minutes at this secluded oasis, before or after your pizza, and you’ll swear you’ve been transported back in time to the Keys’ early days.

Topics: Animal Ambassadors, Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Florida Keys, Food, Highlights, Keys Environment, Keys History, Keys Quirks, Local Color, Restaurant Picks