FISHING IN THE FLORIDA KEYS

 

Florida Keys:

If you have ever dreamt of drinking ‘the life to the least’ by making an adventurous trip to one of the most diversified place on earth, by laying the soul on to the ever warm lap of nature to get back the feeling lost in the mechanized life or by going wild with some blood-curdling fishing experiences in an anglers dream world, Florida keys are out there to let your dream touch down the reality. In the southernmost part of the USA, Florida Keys stand as an island archipelago on the Strait of Florida where the Atlantic with its freezing current merges with the warm waves of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Where nature brings the souls together

There are around 1700 islands forming the keys that begin about 15 miles south of Miami and extend up to the Key West while finding their tails in the uninhabited islands near Dry Tortugas. The keys are subdivided as Upper Keys, Middle Keys, Lower Keys and the Outlying Islands. The first major key is the Key Largo followed by the Islamorada, the sport fishing capital of the world. The next major key is the Marathon, the heart of the keys, set apart by the seven-mile bridge shown in one of the James Bond sagas, the True Lies. But above all lies the Key West, the ultimate destination for the nature lovers and adventure seekers as well. It is where writers find their source of inspiration and anglers either past-timer or expert, find their way through hunting over two hundred species of fish sprawling in the crystal blue water of the Key West.

Legend has it that Earnest Hemingway wrote his A Farewell to Arms while seeking a peaceful time on the ever enchanting landscape of the keys where the ocean appears in different colors. This is where he wrote To Have and Have Not, his only novel with an USA setting. Not only that, popular TV serials entitling Key West or Drive found their plot in the setting in the Key West, the most populated and sought after city under Monroe County. All these are the clear indication of an enviable spot for each and everybody planning to be gone in the wilderness or lost in the tranquility. In fact the tropical climate that never let the area go beyond the freezing point in the known history; the highly rich bio-diversity in the forested areas of Dry Tortugas; presence of coral reefs; and most importantly the crystal clear water abound in fishes enough as to turn it a fishing paradise for the anglers, make the Florida keys an alluring tourist attraction.

Fishing in the Keys:

There is hardly any fishing loving junk would be found in the entire USA to be unheard of the fishing paradise, the Florida Keys. Many a lot legendary anglers were born in the keys and famous present day anglers like Flip Pallet, Lefty Kreh, and even Jimmy Buffett have given birth to many mouth watering adventures on the alluring water of the Keys. If you want to join the legend or even have the real taste of fishing expedition, there are several ways you can opt for:

Deep Sea Fishing:

Giants are there to cast challenges like running the risk of your life.

Probably this is the most exciting fishing experience that makes always you feel like chasing down the legendary giants like marlin, sailfish, wahoo or even little sharks in the enthralling beauty of the scene putting Gulf of Mexico on one side and laying the strait of Florida on the other. Boarding on big ships, hunting big fishes, going for big tackles: all these big things may happen on a single trip for an offshore fishing which will definitely turn the adventure a worth remembering event in your life with all its colors and flavors. You necessarily need not to be an expert angler. Just bring your boat down the sea with a guide or charter a boat available all the year round or be a part of a big ship waiting to take you to the Gulf Stream. There are always a number of experienced captains to guide you through in your fishing spree, taking you to some great fishing spots like Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Sarasota or the Orlando Florida area.

The incredibly excellent climate along the gulf is best suited for salt water fishing charters that can lead you to chasing after species such as marlin, sailfish, waho, king mackerel, cobia, tuna, amberjack, spanish mackerel, dolphin ( locally known as mahi mahi), shark, barracuda and many others you have ever imagined of. Grouper and snapper are also worth mentioning as they are available all the year round specially near Tampa Bay, the grouper fishing capital of the world.

Catching sailfish in an offshore trip can give you the ultimate thrill.

To make your offshore fishing adventure a success, selecting a good charter with an expert captain is always important as they are to take the responsibility of taking you to a perfect fishing spot, providing you with required tackles along with their expertise and above all for ensuring a happy ride giving you all the thrills of running after the giants. Captain Frank, Bill Wallace, Ben Morehouse, Mike LeDrew, Rob Delph and many other experts are there to lead you to the gulf in the charters like Offshore Hustler, Coolwater, Outcast, Coolcast, Dream Catchers etc.

Flats Fishing:

Your intense motivation might get you to an exhilarating end.

The enigmatic back-country water surrounding the uninhabited mangrove islands offers the most challenging and addictive angling in the world. Famous anglers like Zane Grey applied their expertise in catching landing sailfish, giant tarpon and specially bone fish moving across the miles of shallow sands and grass flats encircling the keys. It is all about your dedication and patience that can make you a success in flats fishing. Once you spot a fish under the pristine water, the next thing you get to do is to ensure an accurate cast before it sees you. You timing as well as the position of your boat determines how you would come up with your sight casting challenges. This kind of visual fishing is actually unexplainable as far as putting things into perspective is concerned; but an efficient  key west guide can lead you to an unforgettable experience of facing a one on one situation with the spooky species already known about their vulnerability comparing to deep sea.

Going on with a flat fishing in an environment of unparalleled beauty all you need is to have shallow boat, an expert guide to spot the fish and position the boat in your convenience and some light tackles like spinning rod or fly. Back-country water, coral reef or some ship wrecked areas might be great for a thrilling chase after species such as tarpon, permit, bone-fish, red fish, snook, sea trout, barracuda, jacks, sharks, and cobia.

Fishing on the line where the black meets the blue

Along with these offshore or inshore fishing, there are other ways out to replenish your angling experiences with reef fishing, harbor fishing and particularly the bridge fishing, feeling a romantic and inviting look of nature instilling into your heart. Excellent fishing can be added to smoothening time from the bridges like Ling key, Tom’s Harbor, Seven Mile, Spanish Harbor, Shark Channel and some other bridges open for fishing.

Fishing Calendars:

For the best catching experiences in fishing in Key West or in Florida keys a fish calendar might be a great help as many of the species available in the area are migratory and visit the place during a particular time of the year. Although there are species caught all through the year; considering the best statistics of the species caught all the year, some of the most sought after fishes are listed below along with the best time to go for fishing.

Wahoo: Best fall, winter & spring but caught all year.

Black Grouper & Gag Grouper: Best in winter and spring.

Tarpon: Best from Late February to September but can be caught all the year.

Permit: Best during spring & summer but caught in all the year.

Hogfish and Lobster: Best from August to March

Amberjack: Best in spring

King Mackerel or Kingfish and Black fin Tuna: Fall, winter & early spring are the best time for fishing.

Barracuda: all the year

Sailfish: Best in Late October to early December again in late March to April

Dolphin (also called Mahi Mahi or Dorado): Best in spring & summer but caught all through the year.

Blue Marlin:Best months are October & November and again in May & June, but caught all the year.

Yellowtail snapper: best in May to September

Mangrove snapper: best from April to July

Bone fish: April to October.

Fishing Tournaments:

Real fun lies in catching & releasing in a fishing sport

Fishing tournaments organized all through the year make the Key West more lucrative to the highly skilled anglers or the fishing lovers altogether. People from all walks of life can participate in the tournaments in different categories. Men, women or juniors compete with their peers to catch more than 30 species of fish. The list of some fishing tournaments held in the Key West is as follows:

January: Key West Lions Club Fishing Tournament.

April: World Sailfish Championship.

March to November: Key West Fishing Tournament that run for seven months providing opportunities to the people in general.

 May: Yamaha Dolphin Masters Invitational.

March: Cuban American Heritage Fest Tournament.

Last but not the least, it worth’s telling that to bring back the real taste of your life and to shed off the burden of your regular activities fishing in the Florida Keys might be a great experience with an everlasting effect. Making an enviable trip to deep sea fishing, going for some flat fishing or participating in a fishing sport with your friends can really fill your heart with some unforgettable memories on the crystal blue water of the Straits of Florida.

 

Traveling Back to the Past- Another Way to Step Up

 

The world doesn’t always look like the way you dream it to be. There are times when the colors of your life start fading away; your vision gets blurred out; your future looks like a big black void with the diminishing hope of light in the end of the tunnel. Having been stuck up into the time-stopping turn, you don’t seem to focus forward. You can pierce through what comes across your sight, without watching anything, end up looking at nothing. Instead you pick up the loose ends of the torn out symphonies of your life and rebuild the bridge with your forsaken past.

You seem to be in the Ezra Pound’s station of metro with all those apparitions crossing past you, crossing over you, leaving you stranded, and glued you to the black bough. And to break away with the iron cage all your ashen hopes are caved in, there is no other way out except than traveling to your past.

Traveling back to the past has got a double-way healing power. As you keep back-tracking your younger days, gliding over the sweeter moments, touching down on the untamed joys of childhood, brushing off the layers of dust on your bond to the nature with the gentle breeze of a moon-lit night, the colors will start getting back to your life. And the bitter moments, the moments of your past struggles will revive your strength to fight back, helping you stand tall for one more time. So, never give up. It’s your life and it’s up to you how you will define it; how you will live it.

 

Anybody, Please, make me a Prisma outta this:

 

I wonder and always end up losing myself in an endless wilderness, wondering what the heck the world-conscience stands for. Whatever this bullshit signifier refers to, it never fails to declare its sublime emergence in the hands of media to illumine the gravity of images like that of the Syria-boy, pulled out from the dust and rubble of a ripped off home, sweet home! in the war-torn Aleppo. They say the masterpiece poking at our motionless emotions give yet another punch-undoubtedly with the mighty strength of a kindergartner – to the biggest show on earth (in terms of Shakespearean comedy, the one and only WORLD Conscience.

 

Smile please, World Conscience wanna take a Selfie:

 

“What a piece of work is a man!...The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

(William Shakespeare: Hamlet)

 

Well, whatever Mr. Shakespeare intends to mean or however Hamlet cordially correlates us, the greatest creation on earth, to quintessence of dust, we do not need to go any deeper, nor do we need to be poetic enough to have a clear shot on the boy: the literal epitome of the quintessence of dust, dressed in the dust of the world, decorated with the ornaments of war, shouldering the greed of the war-lords….. A great piece of work indeed, with one eye being compromised to dust-smothered blood and the other one with the look that goes nowhere: so meaningfully blank, so artistically shell-shocked, just enough to tie down the tides of pain, agony, fear, despair, and despondence smeared into it.

 

Life Goes on, Statistics Changes

Syria’s pre-war population of 24.5 million goes down to 17.9 million, with half a million becoming the shadows of sighs to the world and finding themselves in the statistical reports of the humanitarian groups. We played with our emotions a lot enough with Aylan, the 3-year old toddler whose lifeless body washed up to the beach near a RESORT city. And, now with Omran. For God’s sake, media, let the World –Conscience go squandering, leaving our noses buried down in Aylan’s shore:

“Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why

Theirs but to do and die:

Into the Valley of Death.”

(Alfred, Lord Tennyson: The Charge of the Light Brigade)

Challenges to Expect in a Multicultural Environment

 

Multicultural Environment: the Emerging Reality in the Current World

The global village we are living in as the representing civilization of 21^st century does not allow physical distances of different parts of the world to be staying apart from others. In one way the so called chauvinistic nationalism finding its way through extinction, the other way people are having more access to different countries under diverse cultural umbrella. You like it or not, it has been a demand of time to acclimatize yourself to the changing trends leading to the ultimate fusion of multicultural environment.

Challenges to Brace for in a Multicultural Environment

Under the sky of a diverse culture an individual or an institute face certain challenges in carrying on a successful communication, building trust, developing relationship or mutual understanding with others. The challenges that we all encounter might appear in a dual nature: one relates to the personal traits or ability of an individual while the other, more elaborated one, correlates to the cultural dimensions influencing the living style and behaviorism of the individual. The most striking challenges of both two natures are as follow:

Bridging between Communication Gaps: 

This is probably the most crucial one in developing relationship and establishing trust in a multicultural environment. In a successful communication both the verbal language skill and the non-verbal signs, expressions, gestures or body language matter to a great extent. In verbal communication skill, it is very likely that a non- native user of a language will find troubles in understanding the accent, pronunciation, dialect, idiomatic expressions and some social languages of the native users. Again, communication through the non-verbal channels like certain body movements may vary from culture to culture and thus paving way to misinterpretation of an expression carrying a message. 

Understanding Personality Traits: 

Every individual can be identified with one or more personality traits that they are motivated by in each of their actions. Even in a same cultural exposure, people may differ from each other with their personality traits understanding which will be very important in approaching them. People around you might be introvert, extrovert, ambivert, altruist or even egoist; and you can not think of treating each and everybody in the same manner as long as you want a success in managing them.

Understanding Cultural Dimensions: 

We can leave behind the soil we brought up in, the air we breathed in, the people we know by our souls and the community we had been exposed to, but while crossing the borders, cultural identities are the things we can never ever abandon. One must understand the various cultural dimensions as a must thing to ensure success in a diverse culture. Cultural dimensions as illustrated by Geert Hofstede may prove efficacious in understanding cultures that differ on the dimensions of individualism versus collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and achievement versus quality of life orientations. Fons Trompenaars’ model of cultural dimensions illustrating universalism versus particularism, achievement versus ascription, affective versus neutral may also of great help in determining challenges in a multicultural environment.

Opportunities to Develop Relationship in a Multicultural Environment

Though there are many challenges in pursuing success in a diverse culture, you have your chances too. There are lots of opportunities you may find to develop relationship with your fellows from another culture; all you need to do is to just pick them. First thing is of course, your personal assessment of you: know your personality traits, cultural components mattering your behavior and make a balance between these things to stay simple, approach honestly, welcome others in your arena warmly and to show positive attitude toward other cultures in a friendly manner.

This article along with others on cultural diversity & challenges is available in eBook or paperback in Amazon.  

Communication Skill: The Real Challenge in a Multicultural Environment

 

Among all the challenges in a multicultural environment undoubtedly the most difficult one to handle is the communication skill as it is how we express ourselves, share information, develop relationships, establish trusts and above all build a multicultural environment even with the establishment of a Creole language. Even the native users of a language have trouble with the proper understanding of certain expressions- either verbal or non-verbal, accents, or dialects of sub-cultural groups in a country.

 Verbal Communication Skills in a multicultural Environment:

Apparently, to its basic level communication is quite easy with a limited knowledge of a different language; however a successful communication in a working environment requires a high level of expertise. For example, English, the most widely spoken language, can put a native user of this language in difficulties while talking to a person from another English speaking nation as the accents, word usage, and dialects varied to a great extent in the UK English, US English or in Australian English. So, the verbal skill involves your ability to understand different accents, to use it in an internationally recognizable pronunciation and to master the word-craft-ship in the better correlation with the signifier and signified.

For an effective communication even the underlying or implied meaning of a statement has to be known along with the linguistic one as in almost every culture idiomatic expressions are very common to be used widely. Additionally the cultural-bound terms may have the chance to bewilder you even if you are a native user of a language as these sorts of terms are identical to a particular location in a country. For instance, as the concept of a ‘knock, knock joke’ may not be understood by someone carrying another cultural traits. Some other culture-bound words as picked up by Chad Lewis are ‘pie chart’, ‘high five’, ‘get out of jail free card’, ‘touchdown’, ‘piggy bank etc. which are commonly used in the United States but may be hard to understand to people from different states.

Non-Verbal Communication Skills in a multicultural Environment

Chad Lewis, in his Successful Communication in Multi-cultural Environments, orchestrates how the non-verbal expressions matter to the successful communication under a diverse cultural rainbow. To him even the secondary channels like smell, movement (fidgeting), our body position (posture), facial expressions, yawning to convey a message are important to have a control over, though it not always possible to do so. For example, seeing a person riding a bi-cycle we can guess that the person is too poor to own a car, he or she has a low social status or perhaps the person had their driving license revoked, though the person might have used it just for being environmentally friendly.

Another challenge of the communication in a diverse setting lies in the fact that the secondary channel to convey an expression may be interpreted just opposite to people with other cultural identity. So learning the body language, personal space or distance in a conversation, and intonation being practiced in a particular community can be very crucial to have learned to develop your communication skill.

In communication, kinesics that refers to the usage of body language, gestures, eye-contacts etc. can be another issue to pose challenges in a diverse culture. In some places eye-contact is treated as a sign of paying attention or showing interest, but still there are communities that would rather readily take it as a sign of aggression. Again, head wobbling being used in India as a body language to answer a question can lead to misinterpretation to some other cultural context. One more example can be cited in this regard is a physical movement like giving a quick pat on the back to show support or encouragement to a colleague can put you in an awkward situation as there are places where touching of any kind especially between the opposite sexes is strictly prohibited.

Intonation conveying a non-verbal message can be another communication challenge for a diverse group as the meaning associated with it is not universal. For instance in the sentence, ‘you are going to party’, the accent on the word, ‘party’ would indicate a question for one group while some other groups may take it as an expression of anger or irritation.

This article along with others on cultural diversity & challenges is available in eBook or paperback in Amazon.  

Intercultural Ignorance: The Cost a Multinational Company Can Barely Afford.

 

Cultural Ignorance:

The world that we call now a global village has traveled a long to wipe out the physical distances and to pave way to greater opportunities for bigger organizations operating worldwide, yet under a unique multicultural umbrella. Globalization might have shrunk the world as much as to fit your need, but the undeniable fact is that the basic cultural traits identical to each and every community are too deeply imbedded in people’s soul to ignore. And undoubtedly the intercultural ignorance will cost you too much while operating a business in a multicultural environment. One of the most striking examples regarding this cultural ignorance can be Africa

 Africa: the Victim of Cultural Ignorance

Africa, now widely considered as the continent with most valuable gifts of nature, was once presented as the continent of darkness, especially in the 19^th century, thanks to the greatest writers like Joseph Conrad with celebrated pieces like Heart of Darkness or Lord Jim. Standing as an epitome to what cultural ignorance can cost you, they did indeed make an impression of the semi-human cannibal being worth to be hunted like ferocious animals for seeking some animal pleasures, to be caught by lasso, to be chained and whipped until tamed, and finally, if unfortunately escape death, to be sold as slaves. And the cultural ignorance worked well in the then time world, as long as it kept your guilty conscience slammed from peeping out. My point is that, for centuries, we, the common people had been in darkness about the cultural identity of the second largest continent, partly because of expanding business by ignoring their own culture and coercively instilling in the western culture in the process of colonization. And now we know the impacts of this so called cultural ignorance: the UK long ago lost their track in Africa, the USA is struggling hard to grab the hold of the market of the continent and China has found its way through boosting up its economy using Africa. Now we have pieces coming out of the heart of Africa, sweeping away the clouds once engulfed us; the writers like Chinua Achebe whose Things Fall Apart has been translated in more than 50 languages. And now the bigger organizations or business establishments have had their strategies deflated toward the culture as it is: after all, the marketing policy or the business theory that work in Europe or North America would definitely face an anti-climax in the third world countries like those in Africa.

 How Cultural Ignorance Affect an Organization

What cultural factors or, to speak more straightforward, cultural ignorance, can sometimes raise the cost of doing business can be found better orchestration in the Cdn Edition of the book, Global Business Today, by Hill & McKaig. With an example from the UK, the authors bring forth the historical class divisions which are strongly embedded in the British culture. For centuries, because of the failure in managing this cultural trait, a lot many firms operating in the Great Britain found it really difficult to achieve cooperation between management and labor, which eventually “led to a high level of industrial disputes... and raised the costs of doing business in Great Britain relative to the costs in other European countries. "

In fact, cultural ignorance is not the thing you can afford in running a multinational organization; nor can you avoid the driving force of culture in establishing business. For instance, in 1980’s Japanese companies was heard fingering at Canada's official bilingualism policy as one of the reasons they didn't want to set up operations in Canada. They moved instead to the USA where they thought would operate their business in English, only to realize later that to operate in the USA is to operate in English and Spanish, with the demographic changes remolded US in 1990’s.

How Does Emotional Intelligence Help You Face The Challenges of a Multicultural Environment?

 

Emotional Intelligence

Judging an individual by considering alone their cultural diversity may not be always fruitful in bringing a positive result in developing relationship in a multicultural environment, as every individual carries some identical personal traits that can easily set them apart from others belonging to the same community. Emotional intelligence is the kind of ability that can enable you to identify, asses, and control the emotions both of you and of others while letting you use it to get things going in your desired direction. In a multicultural environment, your extensive knowledge on the cultural dimension accompanied by the emotional intelligence can definitely lead you to success by making things appear as you wish for in a diverse culture.

Emotional Intelligence will assist you in almost all of its models illustrated as Ability EI, Mixed Model of EI and Trait EI.

 Ability EI to Make You Master the Emotions

With their continuous research on Emotional Intelligence, Salovey and Mayer paves way to ability based model of EI (Emotional Intelligence) partially redefining it as "The ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand emotions and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth." The four types of abilities as described in this model can help you become a perfect fit to a diverse culture:

1. Perceiving Emotions: as a basic aspect of EI, this ability can help you detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices to make a better approach.
2. Using Emotions: with this ability you can harness your emotions and easily capitalize your changing moods to best fit the situation demanded.
3. Understanding Emotions: the ability to understand emotion can help you to grab a hold of the secondary channel of communication used to convey messages through senses. Again this ability of EI can readily alert you about the slight variations of emotions or of shifting moods that matters to the behavioral pattern of an individual.
4. Managing Emotions: with this ability, an emotionally intelligent person can enjoy the total control to regulate emotions both in themselves and in others and thus manage it, even if it be a negative one, to achieve the desired goals.

 Mixed Model of Emotional Intelligence

 Taking for granted the model of EI introduced by Daniel Goleman, the emotional intelligence again ushers in the best possible solution to gain success in overcoming the challenges of a multicultural environment. As the model focuses on, your self-awareness, competency to control your emotion, social skill, that is managing relationships to move people in your desired direction, your empathy and motivation to reach the target can make you an emotionally intelligent person.

 

Trait Model of EI to Go Deep Down the Personality for a Better Understanding

Trait model of EI, as propagated by the Soviet-born British psychologist, Konstantin Vasily Petrides refers to the “constellation of emotional self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality,” by which an individual can identify the drives shaping their personality and thus figure out the behavioral dispositions of others to make the best step in developing relationships under the umbrella of the diverse cultures.

This article along with others on cultural diversity & challenges is available in eBook or paperback in Amazon.