The Keys

Sunset Over Little Torch Key

A trip to the Florida Keys has been several years in the making. This Spring, Katie and I decided to finally head south for three days of visiting friends, sight seeing, birding, and fishing. Having been away from saltwater flats for so long, my only goal was to get a shot at a bonefish or permit at some point on the trip. A shot. With a shortened window of time, no skiff, and no guide my hopes were a little ambitious but it actually ended up happening. Several other cool moments did too. Our short taste of the Keys left us with a burning desire to head back and explore even more...

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale, rented a car, and drove to Miami to an AirBnB. Since it was 2 am, and I was nursing a severe cold, we ended up sleeping in the following morning. We ended up leaving around noon to drive the last leg to the Lower Keys. Along the way, we stopped in Marathon to pick up a two person Nucanoe from Derek Rust of Rusty Fly Charters, which enabled us to fish without having to rent. Thanks Derek. If your in the area, check Derek out at the link above! We arrived in the mid-afternoon and put the Nucanoe in near Jose Wejebe's old house. The tide was heading out rapidly and it was a little hard to fish out of the canoe with two people. We ended up prowling some mangrove pockets and Katie caught plenty of small snappers. 

Post release...

Had my first stone crab and hogfish at Mangrove Mama's. It was excellent. 

The next day, I headed out with my buddy Tyler Nonn of Tidewater Charters while Katie spent the day birding. Tyler guides in the Chesapeake Bay, Alaska, and in the Lower Keys during the Winter. He had a few other buddies visiting and he let me tag along on their trip offshore to a blue hole. It was a long haul and I ended up sleeping on some bean bags in the front of the boat. Upon arrival, there were fish everywhere. Tarpon, barracuda, cobia, permit, and more. The blue hole just attracted so much life...

Matt with a good one.

Tyler's turn...

One of many cobia...

Dave with a barracuda.

If you saw the size of the goliath grouper that tried to eat this cobia...

Dave really wanted to catch a big goliath grouper and that became the primary focus of the outing. Tyler had several tuna carcasses from their trip the prior day and we would send them into the blue hole. Before they came close, the groupers would take the bait and Dave would set the circle hook. The fights were intense and short lived as they broke the line on the lip of the blue hole. Soon the tuna carcasses ran out and we needed more bait. Tyler put out a chum block and attracted what seemed like thousands of bar jacks. I happily caught a bunch on fly for the live well as Tyler and Dave rigged up a new rig to try and solve the riddle of the goliath grouper at the blue hole. 

Dave put the muscle to the fish above. Although it was probably the smallest grouper that was hooked, he succeeded in his goal for the day. 

For the second half of the day, I was up in the tower on the lookout for cobia. The action had slowed considerably, but I was able to spot a few pods of fish. After a few hours, I saw a pod of dark sickles on the horizon. I initially thought they were tarpon, but as I motored us closer, Tyler made it known that they were permit! Big ones too. Tyler quickly rigged up a live crab, made a perfect cast, hooked up, and Matt reeled in a monster.

After a long, fun night out in Key West with our friends Alex and Quyen, Katie and I got in some flats fishing the following morning. I spotted two solitary large bonefish, but both fish spooked before I could pick the rod off the bottom of the canoe and make a cast. It was as hard as I remembered...

My personal highlight came when Katie headed back to the take out to meet up with Alex and Quyen. I paddled out to the edge of a channel. There was an outgoing tide and I found a school of laid up permit. Their sickles were sticking out of the water and slowly moving side to side in about five feet of water. The tide was running out and they were letting the food come to them. I got off three casts with a crab pattern before my fly line caught my pliers and they fell into the canoe. The noise spooked the entire pod and they blitzed across the flat to the horizon...

With my shot gone, I paddled back to Katie and our friends. We had a nice paddle through shark infested waters and hung out along an island to talk about life, politics, and adventures.