As a facet of a holiday vacation in the Florida Keys that wrapped up Sunday, former President Jimmy Carter fished offshore of Marathon.
Last Thursday, Captain Rich Tudor with the Saltwater Experience out of Hawk’s Cay Resort & Marina, guided the small group to shallow patch reefs on the ocean side a few miles offshore, fishing light tackle and using pilchards and shrimp for bait.
“We found an incredibly good bite of Spanish mackerel in about 15 feet of water and lots of action with snapper,” said Tudor. “The President is an impressively agile angler, and for someone who’s fished all over the world, he said this was one of the best fishing days he’s ever had.”
The group caught more than 70 fish, including 12 different species, and brought home about 15 snapper and Spanish mackerel for dinner, Tudor said.
Carter was in the Keys with wife Rosalynn and a number of family members as part of a trip that also included an opportunity to interact with dolphins at Hawk’s Cay and help release a loggerhead sea turtle that had convalesced at The Turtle Hospital in Marathon.
The vacation in the Keys is not the first for Carter and his family. In 1996, the family had New Year’s Eve dinner at the Harry S. Truman Little White House in Key West and returned there for a visit in December 2007 during a cruise ship stopover.
By: Andy Newman/Carol Shaughnessy
