Keys Trip - February 2011

My friends Bill and Eric and I had planned a trip to Laguna Madre in south Texas for early February, but our plans were foiled by the foul weather beleaguring 90% of the country.  After reviewing the forecast with the Texas outfitter, we elected to cancel at the last minute.  Kudos to Kingfisher Inn and its fishing guides for their flexibility - I still hope to visit them in the foreseeable future.  But it's a good thing we punted - the high temps on the days we were scheduled to fish were in the upper 40s and a north wind was howling, so a decision to venture out for redfish would have ranged somewhere between ridiculous and impossible.

Eric is fortunate to live in one of the small slices of the U.S. not usually subjected to the dismal February climate elsewhere.  Bill and I are not so lucky (or smart), and we were dying to find some sunshine and warmth, so we quickly redirected ourselves to the Florida Keys and were fortunate that our usual guide, Capt. Richard Keating, could make himself available.  On the morning of my departure, in the middle of a snow/sleet/freezing rain storm, I found myself unable to drive up the icy hill in front of my property.  I was desperate to tackle the longer and flatter route, and after a 1.5-hr. drive I found myself in the Philadelphia airport praying fervently that my flight would take off on time.  The flight did in fact leave the gate on time, but took off an hour late after we sat in line for de-icing.  Check out the pic above - what a dismal scene.  I was greatly relieved when I eventually stepped off the plane in Miami into bright sunshine and a temp of 76 degrees.  Bill's plane landed soon after mine and we were off to Marathon, with a pleasant stop for margaritas and fish sandwiches at Wahoos.

The good thing about fly-fishing in February in the Keys is that you may encounter a warm front and find that permit and tarpon are showing up on and near the flats in strong numbers for the first time in the year.  That's what happened to us.  The bad thing is that it's still early and a little cool for these prime sportfish to be completely eager to eat flies.  Permit especially are hard to catch on flies in the best of circumstances - the conditions in early February are challenging.  Bill and I were fortunate to get numerous good shots at both species and at a random school of bonefish, but for a variety of reasons we were never perfectly aligned to hook one our principal targets.  Several close calls produced plenty of heat palpitations and a few curses, and we bent our rods on some bluefish, ladyfish and pompano, so all was not lost.  We had a great time on the water and we were warm.  I shot some video but frankly, without a cameo by a large fish, the video isn't that exciting.  Still, if you're interested in what I look like these days, check out the following link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3NnGkFdMYE&feature=BF&list=ULd2ggyDQOcgs&index=3.  And if you'd like to see some really exciting video from other recent jaunts to the Keys with Bill and Eric, fly-fishing for tarpon, check this one out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3NnGkFdMYE.

Here's a suggestion for you if you're in the vicinity of Big Pine Key and you're hungry for a quality dinner:  the Square Grouper restaurant on Summerland Key.  Fantastic fresh seafood!

Happy Valentine's Day!