Florida Keys Guides told to stay home

...or at least out of National Park waters.  The Miami Herald is reporting that Florida Bay and Biscayne National Park have both been declared off limits to professional guides, due to the Federal government shutdown. Apparently you need the government in order to go into the ocean.

Capt. Barry Hoffman, of Hoffman's Guide Service in Tavernier, said he doesn't rely on National Park Service personnel and rangers when he fishes the bay, so he doesn't see why he can't go there.  "It seems pretty senseless to me because they don't provide a service for us when we're out there," said Hoffman, who has been fishing the backcountry for more than 23 years.

 Read more in the Miami Herald article.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/03/3667165/federal-shutdown-shuts-downs-keys.html#storylink=cpy

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.

South Florida Ditch Fishing

On my recent business trip to South Florida I finally got to make use of the 5 weight travel rod by spending a few minutes at a super secret South Florida urban fishing hole.



It took a few minutes and several missed fish before I got the retrieve just right, but finally I managed a hook up.


My first Peacock bass on the fly.


Me catching hell from some locals who couldn't understand why I was getting my picture made with a such a small fish in front of a drug store. Being dressed business casual while wearing my Reel Pure hat and field testing Panoptx polarized glasses only made matters worse.


Due to a tight schedule I was only able fish for about 20 minutes before it was off to the airport for the flight back to the Carolinas. During that time I caught my first three peacock bass on the fly. I was pretty amazed at how hard they hit the clouser I was fishing. If I wouldn't have had a hard time explaining missing my plane, I would have loved to try some top water poppers on these super aggressive little fish.

Photos: Mark Whitaker
Local Knowledge: The blogger who shall remain nameless.