Written by Nick Cassidy
I should have known that it wasn’t going to be my day when after eating an early breakfast at Denny’s and waiting for our guide to pick us up a bum approached me and tried to start a fight. Apparently, when a homeless guy is on his last cigarette and doesn’t have a light and asks you for one, you are not supposed to say, “Sorry man, I don’t smoke” He kept staring at me, so I said, “I don’t have a lighter. Wish I could help you” Apparently those seem to be the words that set off a hobo. He started shouting profanities in his slurred drunken stooper, and then said “Since you can’t help me out with a lighter how about some money…like $100?” It was definitely a different approach and one which he was probably sent down from the big leagues of pan handling to perfect in front of Denny’s before he is sent back up to Duvall Street where the big money is. After I shared a few words of my own with him and tried to critique his approach, he went on to the next bystander and opened with the same line.
Our guide Ryan picked us shortly after and took us up to the marina on Stock Island about 6 miles north of Key West. This trip had been postponed for 3 days due to the excessive winds and this day seemed like it would be calm enough to get out on some flats. I had expressed interest in hooking a tarpon, so we immediately headed for some mangroves. At our first stop we spotted some tarpon in a cove and Ryan poled us close. He told me that I might only have one shot at these fish. Once we got close enough we couldn’t see any fish. We just waited for a couple of minutes and then two tarpon appeared from underneath the mangroves. I made a perfect cast and stripped the fly slow. One tarpon came up and nosed the fly and turned away. With my next strip, the other tarpon engulfed the fly. I set the hook as hard as I could and the tarpon leaped out of the water and started to run. With his next jump the hook popped out and the fish was gone. Apparently, I made one mistake…with tarpon you do not set the hook with your rod. You have to keep the rod pointed at the fish and pull the line to set the hook which will set the hook deeper. We waited for about 15 minutes to see if any other tarpon would appear, but had no luck. We went to several other mangrove spots but didn’t see a fish. The tide was so high that most of the tarpon were in the mangroves. With a lower tide they would be concentrated on the edges. After burning about an hour searching for tarpon we decided to head for the flats and search out some bonefish. As soon as we hit a promising sandbar the wind picked up…way up. With winds pushing 30 mph and a strong tide going out, fishing the flats with a fly was basically impossible. Ryan explained that our best option at this point would be to chum for bones and use spinning gear, at which time Andrea and I both could fish. Since I wanted to see her fish and I didn’t want to cast in 3o mph winds, I put up the fly rod having made only one cast.
This was when the day got really interesting. We were fishing with spinning rods, tipped with a jig and shrimp. Ryan told us that for some reason whenever a couple comes out on the boat and has to spin fish the woman always catches more fish. Within the first 5 minutes of her line going in the water Andrea had a fish on. After a couple of minutes of her drag squeeling she landed a nice shark (I can’t remember what kind). By this time I had my line in the water. Then I had to reel it in again because Andrea had another fish…an even bigger shark. After I finished my camera duty for the second time in the matter of 10 minutes, I threw my line out again. Then all of a sudden I heard the drag squeeling again. She had another shark on. This is when she started apologizing for being a “Fish Hog”. We had a few minutes of inactivity and then Ryan suggested moving. The next two spots we tried didn’t produce fish in the first 10 minutes so we kept moving. Then we stopped at an area where Ryan said he had good success as of late. Sure enough, as soon as Andrea’s jig hit the bottom her rod was bent and her drag was squeeling. She continually apologized for catching all of the fish while posing for another picture with her catch. After the shark’s release we both rebaited. This time Andrea told me to stand in her “lucky spot” and to “Try holding the rod at more of an angle like me”. Obviously I didn’t have the right angle because in less than 5 minutes she had on a real drag squeeler. This time she turned to me as the fish was running, holding the rod with one hand, and said “Why don’t you reel this one in so you can see how it feels?” She might as well have just kicked me in the junk. Anyway, after a few minutes of fighting the fish she landed a beautiful bonefish. Andrea continued to apologize as we threw the lines back in the water. Within 10 minutes she was at it again, hooking into another large shark. After she landed the fish, I tried to cast in her spot and then tilted the rod at a little more of an angle as Andrea had suggested a few fish ago. Unfortunately, time was running out, the wind was picking up, and a storm was moving in, so we decided to pull in the lines and head for shore. We tried to stop at one mangrove spot, but by this time the tide had dropped so much we couldn’t get close enough. The day ended with Andrea landing 6 fish to my 0. She had a great time, but kept complaining all the way back to our hotel about how sore her arm was from fighting fish all day. Despite only getting one cast with a fly rod, it was a good day on the water and maybe one that will get Andrea into the sport a little more. She did say she would love to go out again, but maybe next time I should reel in a few of her fish so her arms wouldn’t get as tired.