Abel's Tackle Box and General Goods — Local services in Islamorada

The original location of Abel's is no longer a tackle shop as shown in one of the photos provided by previous reviewers. It's now a Pizza joint. The original property was sold to the new Resort owners and Abels moved to its current dockside location right next to the charter boat marina. It is now more of an upscale resort-like gift shop that sells some snacks, food, apparel and frozen and live bait, but not a lot of fishing tackle. We stopped here while checking out the newly bought out and renovated Three Waters Resort, which was formerly called The Postcard Inn, and before that. the famous (or infamous) Holiday Isle Resort. The new Abel's is nice inside, but it lacks the "Old Florida charm" that it used to have when it was in a stand-alone building on the north side of the property. We bought a bag of frozen shrimp here to feed the Tarpon that lurk just outside the back door along the dock looking for an easy meal. During our feeding, three nurse sharks also showed up to try and steel the shrimp from the hungry Tarpons. Additionally, a large mature Manatee showed up looking for a drink of fresh water from the hose I used to wash the bait small off of my hands. This is a great place to stop if you have well behaved kids, as they will really enjoy seeing the large Tarpon (most in the 60-80 lb size range) jockey to get a shrimp that's throw into the water with "feeding frenzy" speed. You can park for free on the west side of the marina, and it's just a 50-yard walk to the shop from there. A bag of frozen shrimp was a bit expensive ($7.00) and only included about half a pound (about 12-15...

We were lucky enough to run into Patrick Frampton while staying at Amara Cay Resort this past week. The kids know what a big deal the fishing is in the area and were excited to try their hand at it.

Patrick offered a great 2 hour class where he provided rods, bait, and instruction. We saw mangrove snapper being caught, a dock barracuda taxing the snapper( he became a focal point for my 7 year old), and my nephew ended up catching a 2'ish nurse shark.

Highly recommend doing one of his classes or calling Abel's and coordinating something with Patrick ,if you are staying at any of the 3 Islamorada Resort Collection locations.

Thanks for helping these kids make some core memories,looking forward to fishing with...

We participated in the Fish Like a Local program at Pelican Cove Resort our guide was Patrick and boy he was a riot! My husband and I had a BLAST fishing for 2 hours! Patrick was so attentive to each and every one of us. He kept bait on our hooks at all Times. He was very passionate and enthusiastic from the start. He is a total natural at this. I wasn’t sure what to expect but Patrick and his program exceeded my expectations! We had such a great time! My husband caught two fish so that was cool. I caught one but freaked out and it swam away. It was a great time and a very nice start to our great weekend! Thanks Patrick and keep up...