fishee

Hi eveyrone -- we're tyring to decide between a 2 br "beach" condo (similar to Futura Yacht club) and a duplex rental with attached canal dockage (although we don't have a boat). We like the idea of being able to fish from our backyard but we don't know what to expect from a canal -- are these canal waterways dirty? Do they attract a lot of bugs? Is the water stagnant? I assume one wouldn't want to swim in a canal, right? thanks for any help for those of you have stayed on a keys canal before. fishee

Tandoori_Girl

Canals are flushed by the tide. Unfortunately, that doesn't quite work as well as the builders had hoped. I would recommend that you try to spend time on this particular canal and find out if it's one of the ones that are plagued with stink. The worst ones seem to be the ones where there are seawalls as opposed to naturally-vegetated canals (the plants serve as a kidney to filter out and clean the water). IMHO, as a real estate investment, the duplex with dockage sounds like a great investment as it would be easier to rent out than the condo. I have a beach cottage that is 4 houses inland. My friend with a waterfront condo does not get nearly the inquiries that I do. But remember you will likely have to maintain the docks which can be quite costly.

joan

Are you renting or buying?

Go to the following website and plug in the street address of the canal home:

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/default.aspx

Then judge how close to the open water your particular canal is. Some that are canals within canals don't get much flow, others that are very close to the open waterway are constantly flushed. You can swim in those safely (NEVER swim at dawn or dusk ok?).

Either way, without a boat, I'd go with the beach home. You can still fish off the beach...

OO

heehee Joan...whatever would you be hinting at?!

GoTravel

Ditto with Joan. Since you don't have a boat, you really don't have much use for canal dockage. You can just as easily fish of the condo seawall or pier. The water in the keys is really really shallow in most parts so the ocean side isn't like a normal ocean frontage. The difference in high tide and low tide is a mere inches instead of yards and feet.

If you had a boat, the question would then be does the canal have quick deep water access or bay access? How long to get to open water?

Tandoori_Girl

why did i assume they were buying? If you're just renting, I'd go for the beach condo. Unless you boat, which you don't.

joan

OO ~gt; I know what you're thinking!
Fishee, there was a man killed by sharks swimming in his canal awhile back (St. Pete Beach), but...of course he swam every single day...and foolishly at dawn (or was it dusk?)...anyway what are the odds, right? 8-X

fishee

thanks everyone. we'll go with the beach condo instead. So people don't spearfish at night in Florida because of the sharks?

joan

Spearfishing - at night? Joke, right?

fishee

in Hawaii, people spearfish at night and it's pretty fun. You carry a strong light in one hand, a hawaiian-sling spear in the other and you swim wiht a snorkel of course. It's great because you can get a lot closer at night which is useful when you're not using a spear gun. When I asked about sharks I was instructed to "ahh, just spin around" every 10-15 min to make sure I wasn't being followed by anything. I neglected to ask what to do if I actually saw a shark when I was doing one of these 360's.

joan

Wow, fishee, that sounds interesting. Alot of stuff to hold onto. I imagine I'd drop everything if I saw a shark (while doing a 360)...thanks for the explanation! I own a seafood market, and get fish from some skindivers. I'll have to ask them about this...

Anyway, one more thought: although we don't fish much on vacation (we see enough fish all year long) we once booked a tuna fishing excursion out of Key West. I was so-so about going (small 20 ft boat with no potty). There were four of us. That was the best day I've had on the water in ages. The boatride to the Dry Tortugas (50 miles!) was great, as was the captain bartering with shrimp boats for bait, but fishing for tuna was so exciting. It got to where we said, enough! enough! We're exhausted, let's go back and eat these babies! And that's just what we did. Definitely expensive ($600 for the day), but worth every penny. Would that interest you?

fishee

dropping the light isn't nearly as bad as the batteries running out...

the tuna fishing sounds great! I read it's not the best season for tuna right now but I'd love to give it a try. Could you give me contact info for your captain? thanks joan!

joan

Wow, fishee, I can't believe I found the website! Here it is:

http://www.delphfishing.com/

We went with the son, Capt Billy I believe. His boat is located at Sunset Marina, which is just outside of Key West. Highly recommended.

fishee

thanks joan -- I just called them and their price is now 750. How long ago did you go with them? Do you mind if I use you as a reference to see if they'll lower the price a little, (i.e. "my friend Joan said you were great and that she paid $600 last year...) Where in the keys do you live? thanks again.

joan

No, fishee, I don't mind at all!
I don't live in the Keys, my hubby and I visited with my parents in April 2003, stayed in the penthouse condo at the Sunset Marina (it was an awesome 2br condo, my dad bought a long weekend on a charity auction). Anyway, that's ridiculous price - my husband recently went on another (local to us) charter trip for $600 - we live on Treasure Island, in the Tampa Bay area. Every summer we have family reunions, and somebody always wants to go fishing, and the price is usually $600. I dunno, maybe it's the gas price? Last name is Leak (we booked it under our name) I hope that helps. By the way, out of the same marina, when we checked in we noticed another much larger (read: luxurious, A/C & bathroom) boat returning after an overnight fishing trip, maybe a dozen fisherpersons on board, with a huge catch. They were crusty and chatty, and seemed to love their charter. Maybe you can google "sunset Marina" "fishing charter" for an alternative - perhaps cheaper. Best luck!

fishee

Joan, this is great info -- thanks so much for everything. We plan on doing 2 in-shore charters and one deep-sea charter (we found some really inexpensive captains but don't know what to expect... we'll see) I'll post when we get back at the end of the month for anyone who might search this thread later on. Thanks to everyone for all the great advising. Now we just pray that there's no hurricane that week. BTW, the map link that Joan posted is incredible -- I can't believe the aerial photos. It gives us a great idea of the waterways that surround the cottage that we're staying at. I wish I could find a map that gave us bottom structure too but we'll just ask some locals. thanks everyone.