25
Apr 17

120 Days – Beautiful Short Film about Florida Tarpon

Man… this hurts a little bit, but in a good way. My Florida trip would be starting soon, but my Florida trip isn’t happening now. The fish are going to be showing up… the big migratory fish, the 100+ pound fish. They’ll be taking the same routes they’ve been taking for thousands of years. This is what a lot of guys live for. I wish I was going to be there, but I’m not.

This little short film by YETI and Felt Soul is simply wonderful. You need to see this. If it doesn’t make you ache a little bit for Florida, I’d check your pulse.

 


28
Mar 17

It is always sunny in Florida

Just a reminder… the idea we hold in our head of a thing does mean that thing is actually going to be like that.

Here’s to low expectations.

This is June in Florida.

 

 

RUN!


21
Feb 17

Silver Kings, Season 3, Episode 8, because… Florida.

For your viewing pleasure.

I’d be OK with this.

One of the anglers is Mark Richens. I got to meet him and stayed at his place back on my first FL tarpon trip. His home on Upper Matecumbe Key was once owned by Ted Williams. It is on the market and can be yours for only $4.2M.


15
Jan 17

Let’s look at Florida

I like Florida… but Florida is in trouble. Captains for Clean Water is trying to help.


02
Nov 16

Master Guide of Biscayne Bay passes at 91

Bill Curtis was a guide and pivotal figure in bonefishing and the development of salt water fly fishing. He passed at 91. Here’s a story about his passing from the Miami paper.

“Man was born to hunt, fight and make love. Anything else is just a complication,” he once said.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article112149762.html#storylink=cpy


12
Oct 16

Matthew Aftermath

It looks like Matthew was bad, but not as bad as it could have been. Still lots of destruction to go around.

Looking for news about the Bahamas in the US press is kind of useless, but you can go to Bahamian sites to see what the impact of the storm was like.

Here’s Tribune 242’s story about Andros.

And about Grand Bahama.

$400M price tag for recovery.

The news from many of the lodges is good. Abaco Lodge, Bair’s, East End Lodge all report very minor damage. Andros was particularly hard hit and I don’t know how many of the outfits made out.

Could have been worse. Florida was largely spared as well. I heard a little jog to the East may have prevented a 5X multiplier to the damage seen there.

So, bad… but not as bad as it could have been. So, at least there is that.


05
Oct 16

When the weather tries to kill you

I was just thinking today, out here in the SF Bay Area, that the weather seldom tries to kill you here. Sure, we have earthquakes, but those are sudden and unannounced and it isn’t the weather. Our weather is pretty benign.

Watching Hurricane Matthew proceed to deliberately try to destroy whole countries, and I’m thinking it might just be fine to be so far from bonefish.

Matthew looks as if it might rage through the Bahamas, hit Florida, right around Miami, rake up the East Coast of Florida and then pop out into the Atlantic and then… HEAD SOUTH, back to the Bahamas again to run over Grand Bahama and Abaco not once, not twice, but maybe three times.

https://t.co/HxUIUbWrUV

We don’t have killer weather here.

In the high country we have dry lightning which starts fires which burn areas larger than some countries and there is certainly damage caused and lives are sometimes lost, but very few, and the forests don’t extend into the major cities. The risks are small, overall.

The Bahamas are flat. The highest point is only 206 feet tall, a hill, really, on Cat Island. There’s nothing much to slow down Matthew, nothing to disrupt his winds. They just have to stay there and take it and watch their livelihoods be washed or blown away.

My thoughts are with all those in the Bahamas and in Florida as Matthew tries his darnedest to destroy places we love.


21
Jul 16

Andy Mills in Garden and Gun

I was born in 1974, so I missed the peak of Andy Mills’ skiing career and I tend to think of him as a tarpon angler first.

Monte Burke (a real writer, not a hack like me) wrote up a great piece about Andy in Garden & Gun, which is the weirdest title for a magazine that I actually want to read.

This has me thinking about tarpon, one of the other fish I share some brain space with. Tarpon. Mostly, tarpon have kicked my ass. I’ve landed one adult tarpon and three juveniles. I’ve broken a rod on a lost fish, probably jumped 5, fed 20 and nearly wet myself on several more. My interest in tarpon is in direct contrast to my success in angling for them.

Next May I have a conference in Ft. Lauderdale and I’m going to tack on a few days on the back end to try to add another to the tally. My most haunting failures in angling are pretty much all tarpon related.

I envy Andy Mills his talent and his success. I won’t be Andy Mills. I won’t be Nick Mills. I don’t need a thousand fish to the boat, but I would like to hold one more by the lower jaw and look into that massive saucer-sized eye.

Martin tells me they also come in Men's sizes.

Martin tells me they also come in Men’s sizes.

 


07
May 16

Thinking of Florida

It is tarpon time in the Keys. The migratory ocean-siders are doing their thing, pausing at the bridges and moving with the tides and the hopeful are waiting and searching for them.

It seems I now do this about every two years. A trend that looks like it will continue in 2017. Last year I got the Keys Beat Down and went 5 fishless days before a small act of redemption in the Glades. Somehow, I’m still up for trying again.

Next year it looks like a conference I’ll be attending will be held in Ft. Lauderdale right about this time. That means I’ll be able to wrap up the conference and slide a couple hours south to complete my biennial tarpon hunting.

I have to say… I’m already a bit excited about it, even after the demoralizing smack downs the Keys have dished out. There is just something about being there and seeing those fish sliding through the water, prehistoric, massive, sleek and powerful.

I’ll be planning this trip from now until I get on the deck of whatever skiff I’ll end up on.

Adrienne got the photo. I got the photo of the photo.

The only pic I have of a fish I broke a rod on in 2013.


25
Feb 16

Clip it… Clip it really good… for SCIENCE!

BTT is running a Fin Clip Challenge, sponsored by YETI from March 1st to March 23rd. Collect as many fin clips as you can from South Florida to support YETI’s Bonefish Genetics Program. You get the most and you get the YETI Hopper Cooler with art by Jorge Martinez. Looks pretty dope.

More details about the contest on the BTT blog.

I doubt I’d be much help since I live in California and my only bonefish was caught accidentally and was likely the smallest fly-caught bonefish in Florida in that year.

The bonefish