My partner Colby had to cancel on me due to a work emergency. But that was ok I down here to meet new friends and fish a place I've never really fished before. Colby hooked me up with his buddy that guides down there, Captain Mark Phillips. However now I'm going alone. I called a couple people I know that lives in Miami but they couldn't get off work as it was a Thursday. I knew Branden Franklin (Bruce F's son, my partner in the IFA) was to be down here to represent PowerPole so I contacted him and he was in for making the drive down a little early so we could fish.
Though he is sponsored by PowerPole and fish many of the redfish tournament, Branden has never caught a bonefish. He was in for a pleasant surprise. Mark at first tried to find some Tarpon in the open flats but the big front that blew in shuffle the deck a bit so we had to settle for the smaller guys near a canal. Once we got one each we headed for the bone fish. Mark got us on a while sandy flat and we could sight fish the bones coming across.
The bones were not plentiful but we had our shares of great shots. Since both of use were experienced casters we hooked 5 and got 4 to the boat. Needless to say Branden was instantly hooked on bonefish and wanted to bring is dad down next month. We called it day about 3pm and headed in for H/M/P dinner captain's meeting that night.
The next day we fished for permit. Mark put me on some tailing permit early on but the blew 2 of the best shots of the day by over casting one and under casting another.. there' goes my casting skills
Of course it doesn't help that wind was still howling 15-20mph that day.The next day I got an old friend Ladyfish54 to fish with me. Since she now resides in Miami it wasn't too long of trek for her.(BTW: she said hi to everyone) We did some exploring and did find big big bone fish but just couldn't get close enough to them to make a good presentation. We ended up sight casting to sharks and we got 4 to the boat before calling a day.
That night we the big banquet with big primerib dinner, auju, vegies rice potatoes and key lime pie. The guys at H/M/P and Breezy Palms put on a 1st class showing for sure. Oh and did I mention all the free water, sodas and beer you could possibly drink?
The awards were given out and Benzo(Hans) too the prize we a nice run to Flamingo catching big reds on fly. I didn't stay up and party this night as I wanted to fish with Jim Lemke in the am for Tarpon.
4:30am we got on the bridge. I had 3 bites all on bait buster and got one 25-30lb poon to the boat. Unfortunately thats all they wanted and we had no more Bait buster to throw at them. We called it morning about 630am to get back to the hotel for the good bye breakfast.
I packed my bags and my memories and was on the road by 830am. After a stop at the Ft.Myers Bass pro to reload some gear I was home by 4pm and almost went out to fish for Tailers but decided against it.
If the wind will ever die, the keys rocks especially when all the tourist isn't around.
I'll definitely be back to make more memories next year for sure! Well maybe sooner.. 
http://www.saltyshores.com/vids/keybones.html
