Snipentology

Recently I ran into to an old high school buddy on facebook. His day job is renting boats and PWC to the turistas in Key West, Florida. While surfing some of his photos I soon discovered that he was leading a double life as the Admrial of the Church of Snipentology.

With temperatures in the teens pretty much everywhere outside of the Conch Republic, you should check out the photos just to get a warm feeling. We especially enjoy the official tee shirt as well as the wisdom through out the congregation's site.

"If I need a coozie to keep my beer cold, it's taking me too long to drink it."

People: Former President George Bush

Via the WPTV website comes word that the elder President Bush recently did rather well on a Florida Keys fishing trip. He boated a 135 pound tarpon. The news story made sure to state that the boat had a legal harvest tag which, as we understand it, is now required if you want to bring a tarpon into the boat with you even if you plan to release it.

Even though the boat had a legal State of Florida harvest tag, a decision was made to release the fish alive and have a reproduction mount commissioned.The fiberglass mount will hang in the Presidential Library at Texas A&M University.

I can think of more than one or two people who would question bringing the monster fish into the boat at all. However, at least we don't see the fish being held vertical by the gill plates.

Origin of the Merkin

The Miami Herald website posts an article that among other things delves into the origins of the aptly named Merkin fly created by Key West guide, Jan Isley.

Isley came up with the idea of a yarn fly roughly in the diamond shape of a wiggle jig, featuring a tail and lead eyes. He had only yellow and dark brown yarn to tie, and he added a couple of rubber legs ``just for kicks.''

The next day, Isley showed his new fly pattern to Del Brown, a permit-obsessed client from California. ''He said, `That's it, ''' Isley said. ``I remember the first fish he threw it at, the fish would go nuts trying to find it.''

The photo of the fly above comes from the web site of FlyFishMagazine.com endorsed Florida fly fishing guide, Captain Justin Rea of Sting Rea Charters. His website includes complete instructions for tying the fly. If you are reading this at work you should probably follow the link to his site rather than searching for Merkins on the Internet. It's just not safe!

Key West Celebrity S.L.A.M.

That is slam as in Southernmost Light-Tackle Anglers Masters with host: Wade Boggs. Link Via Sport Fishing Magazine.

Scheduled Friday through Sunday, Sept. 7-9, the catch-and-release event pits participating anglers against tarpon, permit and bonefish. Releasing all three on the same day is known as a "flats grand slam."

The tournament's celebrity host is to be Major League Baseball Hall of Fame superstar Wade Boggs, lauded for his career with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. Other celebrity anglers include NASA space shuttle astronaut Bruce Melnick, who participated in both the Endeavor and Discovery missions.

The popular S.L.A.M. is the first in an annual Florida Keys autumn trilogy of Mercury Redbone celebrity angling challenges that raise money for the fight against cystic fibrosis.

Smoke on the water...

According to the Chaser Key West Fly Fishing Report Blog, the tarpon, Summer, and smoke from Florida's forest fires, have all arrived in Key West.

"we have some summer weather and Tarpon showing up in the flats and shallows for Fly Rodden.Late but welcome, in spite of forest fire smoke blowing in from Florida to give an unusual eeriness to the early morning hunt."

Fishing the Conch Republic

There is nothing quite like the thrill of seeing a flash of silver as you step off the dock onto a flats skiff and realizing that it was a good sized tarpon rolling pretty much right at your feet. This sort of thing happens all the time in the Florida Keys (although the guides consider the ones around the dock to be pets and it to be bad form to fish for them...don't ask how I know this). Jack Teague has an article about fishing the "Conch Republic" on the Florida Game & Fish website.

"On almost any given day of the year, an angler may have opportunity to catch a bonefish, tarpon, or dolphin in the Florida Keys. But those chances of success improve considerably with the arrival of early summer's weather conditions. At this time of year, these species congregate in peak numbers in the Keys' waters."

Just in case you were curious, the neon sign pictured above resides on Duval Street in Key West, Florida. Feeling a bit stressed at work today? Does your company have a strict policy against Margaritas during work hours? Check out this Duval Street Web Cam (with sound even) located outside of Sloppy Joe's for a mid week fix.

Hunting the Flats

Mark Sampson has written a good look at fly fishing the flats around Key West, Florida. The article from DelmarvaNow.com chronicles the first day of fishing on his recent Key West vacation.

"By the way, our first day of fishing was good in that we explored a flat we've never fished before, caught a fair number of nice-sized barracuda (Charlotte caught the most, but I caught the biggest), we saw a bunch of sharks and other marine life, worked a lot of kinks out of our fishing routine that's gotten a little rusty over the winter, and only broke one $400 fly rod (ouch!)."

Larissa Murdock (my lovely wife) took the photo above on our own Key West adventure. The Ninja subject of the photo is guide Justin Rea of Sting Rea Charters.

Fishing the Keys

February 13th I turned 50 years old in Key West. My brother in law Richard Hulsey was with me for two days of fishing the famous flats in Key West, and we had a great trip. As you can see there are no pictures of fish because we didn't land any. We hooked a few and saw a lot including schools of sharks, some as big as 10 feet. The best advice we got from the guide was don't fall in. While the fishing was not great, we managed to entertain ourselves at Captn. Tony's and Margaritaville. We had to support our hero Jimmy Buffett. We heard he needed the money.

March Merkin Permit Tournament

The second annual March Merkin Permit Tournament will kick off March 13th and run until March 16th in Key West Florida. The event is limited to 25 boats and was booked up until just recently when according to the Midcurrent web site a cancellation has opened two slots for anglers.

We will most likely be pulling for the boat being captained by guide Justin Rea of Sting Rea Charters.