Robbie's Marina — Islamorada

What's happening at the dock is genuinely strange in the best way. The whole thing traces back to 1976, when founder Robbie Reckwerdt found an injured tarpon floundering in the shallows near the dock, nursed it back to health, and returned it to the water. The fish — which he named Scarface — kept coming back, and others followed. Today, between 50 and 100 wild tarpon crowd the pilings in clear, shallow water, free to come and go as they please. You buy a small bucket of bait, kneel on the dock, lower a fish toward the surface, and wait for one of those massive silver shapes to lunge up and take it from your hand. Tarpon have no sharp teeth, so it's less dangerous than it looks — but the sheer size of the fish makes the moment genuinely startling. Pelicans are a real presence on the dock and will grab your bait if you're not paying attention; staff help manage them during busier periods.

The compound around the dock has grown well beyond that original encounter. The Hungry Tarpon Restaurant sits right on the water and opens early — the marina itself runs from morning through evening daily. A bait and tackle shop, open-air market with local vendors, kayak and paddleboard rentals, jet ski rentals, fishing charter booking, and snorkeling tours all operate on-site. For riders, the practical upshot is a legitimate reason to kill an hour at Mile Marker 77.5 on the bayside of US-1 without feeling like a tourist trap detour — there's cold beer, waterfront seating, and something actually worth seeing a few steps from where you park the bike.