The Vieques Angler

What Vieques Can Learn From Belize

2010-03-13T17:38:00.001-08:00

Everyone who lives on Vieques or has an interest in it's future with tourism needs to watch this excellent film on fly fishing in Belize. It's one of the best things I've seen in a long time and I'm amazed at similar paths both locations have in front of them.

Currents Of Belize

Vieques Update

2010-02-24T16:28:00.000-08:00

I've been getting a few e-mail asking why my posts have been so infrequent lately. I'm still up here on Pine Island, Florida and you can keep up with what's happening on my charters by checking out my other blog here.

I will have some more Vieques posts coming soon since I'm extremely upset by a recent CNN story concering contamination on the island. It was yet another ridiculous concoction and I won't link to it since it will only further harm the tourism industry. I'm tracking down some of the people quoted in it and it'll be interesting to pin them down on some of their statements. Stay tuned.

Yellowfin Tuna

2009-12-22T01:15:00.001-08:00

My good friend and Dr. Pedro Watlington sent me these photos of fantastic yellowfin tuna he caught a short time ago while fishing off the main island about 18 miles north of San Juan. The fish weighed 90 pounds and took over an hour to land on 30# line.

Yellowfin are one of the largest of the tunas and can grow to twice that size. They're also one of the best tasting fish in the ocean and highly prized for both sport and commercial fishermen. For a lot of anglers a yellowfin like this is the catch of a lifetime.

Puerto Rico is one of the better places in the Caribbean to chase these big tuna. Our proximity to some seriously deep water and warm currents brings them closer to shore. This is what helped put Pedro, with his 24 foot boat, on such a big fish with only a 20 mile run from home.

Vacation Planning, 2010

2009-12-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

Now that another early and seriously frigid winter is settling in on most of the US, I’m starting to get daily calls and e-mails from folks planning a first trip to Vieques. If you’re one of these people and you’d like to head down in the next few months here’s a few pieces of advice that will make your vacation a bit easier.

The first thing you should do before booking airline tickets or accommodations is call and reserve a rental car on the island. This may sound strange and a bit backwards but trust me on this one. Between Christmas and Easter Week there are rarely enough cars to go around for all the tourists and a decent vehicle, preferably a Jeep, is essential on Vieques. You won’t be able to enjoy our great beaches to the fullest without one.

Reserving a car can be a bit frustrating this time of year since the rental companies are so busy. Don’t even attempt to do this by e-mail. Call them directly and don’t bother leaving a message if you get a machine. Keep calling until you get a live person. If there are no cars available then you might want to alter your travel plans. That’s why I recommend doing this before making any other reservations, such as airlines or hotels, which will be a lot more difficult to change.

If there are no cars available and you can’t move your travel plans you should still move forward with your trip. Deciding on where to stay will now be more important. Esperanza is by far the best choice since so much is within walking distance in this town including several great restaurants and some really nice beaches. Publicos, our local taxis, are available at all hours and many of the drivers live nearby. It’s likely that you’ll find one driver and use him for most of the week. It’s also likely that you’ll meet other travelers who you can bum rides from especially if you hang out at Duffy’s or the Yacht Club during Happy Hour. The Bio Bay trips also depart from Esperanza and the weekends have a street fair atmosphere. It’s definitely a fun town but can be a bit noisy if you’re staying right on the Malecon. Book a place one street back and you won’t have any problems.

As an added convenience, if you’re planning a fishing trip on Vieques both Capts. Franco Gonzalez and J Fergeson depart from the pier at Esperanza. Since I’m going to be staying up here in Florida this coming season those guys will be the only charter fishing boats available. Their schedules are sure to fill up quickly so I’d recommend contacting them soon. Kayak fishing with Vieques Adventures is another option and they’ll also pick you up right there in Esperanza.

Even though I’ll be up here on Pine Island, Florida this coming season, feel free to contact me with any questions you might have about Vieques. With the economy hurting so badly these days, Vieques is still a very affordable place to get away from it all without too much hassle. So if you’re snowed in somewhere in New York right now and could use a little Global Warming, go ahead and make your plans for the island.

Fish Contamination On Vieques

2009-11-03T18:22:00.000-08:00

A lot of people have asked me over the years if the fish on Vieques are safe to eat. Their concerns usually come from what they read on the internet before they get to the island or what they’ve been told by the locals, mainly the gringos they meet at Al’s or Duffy’s, who warn them of toxic fish. This is really unfortunate but there is a bit of truth to some of these concerns that should be addressed.

So let’s start with what is true. There is a serious sickness that can be contracted from some fish on Vieques, as well as other temperate waters, known as ciguatera. Pronounced “sig-wha-TER-ah,” it’s caused by an accumulation of a poison known as ciguatoxin in the flesh of larger fish. This comes from algae that grows on coral and is passed up the food chain from the small reef dwellers that eat it. Throughout much of the Atlantic and Caribbean the most notorious carrier of ciguatera is the barracuda. These fish are so commonly linked with this poisoning that it is actually illegal to sell commercially or serve barracuda in restaurants in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. But ciguatera has also been found in more popular food species such as grouper and some large snapper.

Ciguatera is actually a neurological poisoning that produces several unpleasant symptoms. Most people initially feel a numbness or tingling sensation around their lips or on their fingers and toes. Sometimes this is followed by a reversal in temperature sensation. In other words, cold thing feel hot and hot things feel cold. After that the vomiting and diarrhea occurs and can last for several days, causing extreme dehydration.

Unfortunately there is no antidote for ciguatera once it’s contracted. And even more unfortunate is the fact that there is no simple method for detecting its presence in fish outside of a lab. There are a lot of traditional folk methods employed throughout the world and some are quite bizarre. The most popular one is to lay a nickel on the flesh and watch if it changes color. In the Bahamas they simply wait for flies to land on the fish. If it’s covered with flies it’s safe to eat. (?!) I’ve even heard of feeding a piece of meat to a cat and watching for symptoms. None of these methods actually work and simply cooking the fish also has no effect on the toxin.

Now for some good news: Ciguatera is extremely rare, especially in places with strict food safety regulations such as the U.S. and Puerto Rico. I’ve eaten saltwater fish for most of my life, including the occasional small barracuda, and have never had a single symptom. I personally know only one friend who contracted it from a very large grouper caught in the Keys. Ciguatera is also completely avoidable by simply eating fish that have no danger of carrying it. These are the pelagic or open ocean species such as tuna, mahi-mahi, or wahoo. These deep water fish have practically no chance of accumulating the toxin from their food supply and are completely safe and delicious, too. Even if you do choose to order a locally caught reef dweller such as grouper or snapper, most are usually too small to have enough ciguatoxin built up to cause any sickness.

The other fish poisoning scare on Vieques comes from the alleged threat of man-made contamination caused by the fifty year presence of the U.S. Navy. The internet is still full of articles about toxins such as depleted uranium and mercury in our soil and water coming from the former bombing range on the island’s eastern tip. The majority of these articles are either highly exaggerated or completely false. Without getting into the politics involved, a lot of private “studies” were done by outside entities with the specific intention of scaring the local population and turning them against the Navy. Just about every single news story done about the military on Vieques during the years leading up to their 2003 departure was highly slanted. At the same time a lot of well known people bought into this and came to the island simply to get their faces on TV, giving the anti-Navy side a lot of publicity.

The truth is that there is absolutely no reason for concern about man-made contamination in the Vieques drinking water, the food grown in our soil, or the fish caught off our shores. The bombs detonated on the island’s eastern training range were entirely conventional, meaning non-nuclear or chemical. The primary explosive in these bombs was TNT, a nitrogen based compound very similar to commercial fertilizer. While there were more toxic components contained in some ordinance, it was of such trace amounts that it could never contaminate the local fish population.

Defending the Navy won’t win me any friends on Vieques and I’m personally glad they left back in 2003 because some of the best bonefishing in the Caribbean is right there in the old training site. But it really bothers me when I get a phone call from potential customers who’d like to come to the island but are afraid for the safety of their children, thanks to what they’ve read on the internet.

For the past six years, tourism has been the engine that’s driven Vieques forward and I find it really ironic that the scare tactics used to get rid of the Navy are still at work poisoning this island’s economic future. So if you’re busy Googling Vieques in preparation for a trip ignore the negative articles or read them with a huge dose of skepticism. This is one of the healthiest and most unspoiled ecosystems in all of the Caribbean so come on down. And while you’re here, go ahead and order the seafood paella at Tradewinds.

Google Earth

2009-10-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

Google Earth is a great tool for a self guided angler traveling anywhere. The images they have of Vieques are especially useful and many have been updated last year. They'll allow you to zoom in on any of the beaches and see the best access point to get to the more out of the way places like Laguna Kiani or Puerto Ferro, two of the best tarpon fishing spots on the island.

I've been updating my other website www.better-flats-fishing.com with Google Earth shots of the specific beaches where you can find the most DIY opportunities. It's a good resourse especially if you have a handheld GPS to take with you. I'll be adding more locations and photos in the next few days so check back there if a specific beach isn't included yet.

Underwater Tarpon Fishing

2009-09-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Angler Richard Gill (great last name) sent me this video of he and his brother-in-law flyfishing for tarpon in Belize with out a boat, or a kayak, or a beach. This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. There is bit of bad language in this video but most of it is spoken in Snorkelese.

September Bonefishing

2009-09-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

September is an especially quiet time for tourism on Vieques but it provides for some of the best bonefish action of the year. The best thing about the fall is calmer winds which make casting the these fish much easier for inexperienced anglers. Now that I'm back on Pine Island for the season Capt. Franco Gonzalez (787)450-3744 has the bonefish of Ensenada Honda all to himself. This bay at the southeast end of Vieques has the most consistent flat I've ever seen for shot at tailing bones and Franco has the best boat to take you there.

If he happens to be booked or your budget won't allow a guided trip then the small flat at Encampment Beach is your best bet. I recently fished with angler Matt Kerstang up here on Pine Island and he had just returned from a self-guided trip to Vieques. He reported several hookups of bones at Encampment and even some great snook fishing at Laguna Kiani. Both of these spots are easy to find and for exact directions click here:
www.better-flats-fishing.com/fishing-encampment-beach.html
www.better-flats-fishing.com/laguna-kiani.html

Just remember that there are still no tackle shops on Vieques so pack everything you'll need in advance.

Cars On Vieques

2009-09-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

Cuba is famous for its fleet of pre-1959 American cars. A rolling time capsule of Buicks, Fords, and Cadillacs are part of the scenery of the Castro’s island. These classic examples of Detroit at its finest have been kept running despite a total lack of spare parts, thanks to their ingenious owners and the quality of their original designs.

Here on Vieques you won’t see anything like the Cuban parade of classics. There are a few old muscle cars tooling around, including a ’69 Camaro that belongs on a drag strip and a flawless ’65 Mustang, but these are rare birds that seem way out of place running over the horse dung and iguanas on our narrow roads. Unfortunately, the vehicular complexion of Vieques is a lot less photogenic.

This is an island where the much maligned SUV is king. Sorry Tree Huggers, but we actually need them down here. I own two, and I don’t use them to pick up the kids from soccer practice. My SUVs proudly get driven like they were meant to be driven: abusively and often in four-wheel-drive.

My favorite is a 1989 Jeep Wrangler, the perfect vehicle for Vieques. It’s as indestructible as it is uncomfortable. Old Jeeps are great for their simplicity and mine has a 4.0 liter carbureted engine, manual transmission, and nothing is computerized or electronically controlled. This makes it very easy to work on, and anyone who owns one of these old Jeeps knows that something is usually broken.

My Wrangler is no different and is about as far from showroom condition as it gets. Rust must have been standard equipment in 1980’s Jeeps and the radio, heater, horn, and wipers have never worked either. It has no top or side windows but that’s ok since the rain washes the mud and sand out of the holes in the floorboard. Even the starter usually has issues in the morning but this isn’t too much of a problem since I live on a hill and can roll-start it if necessary.

None of that matters to me. Despite my twenty year old Jeep’s condition, once it’s running nothing can stop it. It has hauled me to the most unspoiled beaches and bonefish flats on Vieques and never left me stuck in the mud. It’s towed both of my boats all over the island during four years of charters and never kept anyone waiting. It’s compact enough to bang its way through the narrow jungle trails or squeeze into a parking space on the jammed up streets of Isabel Segunda on the weekdays. And best of all, I never have to wash or wax it.

Our second vehicle is at the other end of the SUV spectrum; a 1994 Toyota 4-Runner. I bought this for my wife a year after we moved to the island for one reason: this isn’t really an SUV, it’s a tank. The only thing it’s missing is a 120mm turret-mounted cannon. These old school Toyotas are the most indestructible vehicles ever built for everyday road use. This one has automatic everything and could tow a house. Its engine is as reliable as the day is long. With over 150,000 miles on it, the only serious work we’ve ever had done to the 4-Runner is a brake job.

The down side to driving a 4-Runner around Vieques is its size. Unlike a Jeep, it’s a tight fit on some if the island’s roads. My wife once had the front quarter panel kicked in by a wild horse that didn’t like being crowded by the green behemoth. This jammed the driver’s door shut and we crawl over the passenger seat until a friend popped out the dent. Only on Vieques.

There is a benefit to driving a tank-like SUV on a small island and that’s safety. In addition to the horses and other wandering livestock, the real danger on the roads of Vieques is the other drivers. The young men on the island, like young men everywhere, drive like absolute maniacs. I was just as guilty of The Need For Speed myself and I’m amazed that I survived owning a 280Z as a teenager. The kids down here are into the “Tuner” scene, which means basically taking a tiny four-cylinder Honda with the aileron from an F-16 bolted to its trunk and blasting around as fast as possible. Driving defensively on Vieques is crucial and the big Toyota 4-Runner is the only thing we use at night or on the weekends.

Both of our SUVs are gas hogs but fortunately you don’t rack up a lot of miles living on twenty-four mile long Vieques. We’ve probably put no more than 3000 miles a year on each vehicle. And despite the abusive roads, it’s actually easy to keep a well made SUV running for a long time on the island. Like Cuba, there are a handful of mechanical geniuses on Vieques and our neighbor Mr. Henry is the best. It may take him over a week to get to your car but there’s very little he can’t fix. And unlike Cuba, we can get spare parts for anything flown here.

I get a handful of phone calls and e-mails each month from folks moving to Vieques or seriously thinking about it and cars are always a big question. If you’re one of these people I wrote this column for you. Leave the BMW at home and pick up either an easily repaired Jeep or an ultra-reliable Toyota SUV once you’re down here. And one last thing: no matter how many times you see it, or what the other gringos at Al’s or Duffy’s tell you, driving around with an open beer on Vieques IS illegal. And wear your seatbelt, too.

New Skiff From Beavertail

2009-08-31T18:49:00.001-07:00

If you've fished with me either on Vieques or Pine Island over the last two years you know what a fan I am of Beavertail's excellent line of flats skiffs. They've finally introduced their new model, the Vengance, and it looks amazing. You can click on the photos above to see the boat in more detail. They haven't listed a price yet but I'll be talking to them this week and post any details they'll give me. My guess is that this skiff will cost at least several thousand less than a similarly rigged Maverick HPX run rings around it on the water. Stay tuned.

More News From The W Hotel

2009-08-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

I keep hearing from a lot of folks involved with reopening the Martineau Bay as the new W Hotel on Vieques. I was forwarded this article a few days ago:
www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/8/17/02844/6735/hotels/Try_Out_for_W_Vieques_s_Talent_Show_

I'm really happy to hear that 250 jobs will be created on Vieques with the opening of the new resort. At first I was concerned that the company would import many of it's new hires from its existing properties. That would be a quick way to get such a high dollar resort up and running quickly but would have earned it no popularity with the locals. This resort simply won't survive on Vieques unless it has the total support and good will of the folks that have been born and raised here. So far it seems that the management knows this.

At $675 per night, the W Hotel would be way over my budget if I were a tourist. Vieques has always been one of the Caribbean's most affordable islands but we can also have an upscale resort and not loose any of our charm. The new W Hotel is an example of genuine economic stimulus for an island that could really use it in 2009. I hope they pay attention to the needs of the locals and keep themselves part of the community. If the W Hotel becomes something "separate from the masses" they won't succeed.

West Indian Manatees

2009-08-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

My friend Ron Mayhew sent me these photos of a mother manatee and her newborn calf that were exploring his St. James City canal at the southern tip of Pine Island, FL yesterday afternoon. Although they're listed as an endangered species, the west indian manatee is a very common site in this area. It's not uncommon for us to come across dozens of them on a daily basis while we're out fishing the flats. They routinely swim right up the canals in search of a drink of fresh water from a dock hose. Manatees in Florida have no natural predators, and at the same time no fear of people. This is kind of ironic since boat collisions are a common occurrence, even though they're rarely fatal. The large white stripe down the mother's back in the top photo is the result of being run over at one time in her life. In fact, I've never seen an adult manatee in Florida that didn't have some scarring on its back. It's sad to see these wounds but the manatee's elephant-like hide and thick layer of fat protects them quite well. The pristine condition of the baby in these photos shows how extremely young it is.

The west indian manatee can be found throughout a good deal of the Caribbean but they're nowhere near as common as they are in South Florida. We come across a manatee or two about once a month when I'm fishing on Vieques, especially in the former Navy restricted zones. This is also the only place I've ever seen adult manatees without any boat scars whatsoever. Fifty years of keeping people out of these areas sometimes does wonders for the wildlife.

Vieques Hot Spots

2009-08-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

While I'm currently guiding here on Pine Island, FL for the rest of the year, I still get daily calls and e-mails from folks on or heading to Vieques. If you happen to be one of these people and can't book either Capt. Franco (787-450-3744) or Capt. J (787-502-3839) for a fishing charter, you're in luck. I've been working on a website for the past few months that details all of the best spots on Vieques where you can fish from shore. I've posted some of this information on this blog already but I've gone into much more detail on the new site, including driving directions and GPS numbers that you can plug into GoogleEarth. The site is a work in progress that I'll expand to include other locations but most of the Vieques info is complete. Check it out and feel free to send me any thoughts or ways to improve it: http://www.better-flats-fishing.com/

Big Sea Trout In Matlacha Pass

2009-08-03T06:04:00.000-07:00

Lately it's been hard to catch a sea trout that was under the 15 inch size limit. The two pictured here were caught yesterday on a topwater Bagley Mullet just south of the Matlacha drawbridge. The grassfields just east of the island have also been producing a number of keeper size trout and you can easily access these areas with a kayak. I love targeting trout since they're one of the most user-friendly gamefish in all of Florida. Working a topwater lure is easy for anyone and you get great visual strikes. A pair of sea trout like these will easily make a meal for four people and you can release everything else you catch.

The W Hotel, Vieques

2009-07-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of thoughts about this redesigned luxury hotel that will finally open in November. I really hope the W will be a success on Vieques but I've had my doubts for some time. I really hope they prove me wrong and bring high dollar tourism and the jobs that follow to the island. The people of Vieques are capable of providing this level of service and deserve the economic rewards at the same time. I'll post a complete article soon but here's a recent press release from the NY Times about the W's new restaurant and its celebrity chef:

http://www.intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/ducasse-goes-tropical-at-w-vieques/

http://www.wildflycharters.com/

Choosing A Fly Rod, Part 1

2009-07-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

While I was unpacking after moving into our new house last month, I came across a handful of fly fishing gear that I hadn’t used in a long time. One piece of tackle was my 12-weight Sage RPLXi and Tibor Gulfstream reel. Even though this was the most expensive rod and reel that I own, it hasn’t seen the water in almost seven years.

I stopped using it for the tarpon in Key West when I realized that a 10-weight was much easier for my clients to cast and didn’t spook those heavily pressured fish as much. I took it with me when we moved to Puerto Rico but the tarpon on Vieques were all twenty-five pounders, also perfect 10 weight fish. So the big 12 weight stayed in its tube for the next five years. Now that we’re back in Southwest Florida, with a thirty minute boat ride to Boca Grande and the monsters that live there, my old 12-weight and big Tibor reel will see some action once again.

I feel silly for letting a $1200 piece of gear collect dust for several years, and that brings me the subject of this month’s article: Who really needs top of the line fly fishing tackle and how do you justify spending that kind of money?

Let’s start with the easy part. If you’re a beginner at this sport, there is no reason to spend any more than $200 on a fly rod and reel. Many manufacturers such as Cortland, Temple Fork, or Redington offer complete packages for around $150. This will give you a saltwater-ready rod, reel, and line with a lifetime warranty thrown in, too. The advances in graphite manufacturing and computerized machine-tooling have created a revolution in affordable fly fishing gear. Yes, it will be made in Asia, but these outfits are as good as anything the big name American companies were producing ten years ago at almost five times the price.

The high performance and fast action of a $700 rod will be lost on you if you’re a beginner, so don’t even look there. Orvis, Sage, and G.Loomis, the same folks who’ve invented and perfected the $700 fly rod, all offer beginner’s outfits for less than a third of that price. Don’t let a tackle shop or even a friend talk you into anything more expensive for your first fly rod.

So let’s move up the scale a bit. If you live here in Southwest Florida, have regular boat or kayak access to the shallows, and have learned to cast a fly past fifty feet, then it might be time to consider buying a higher performance rod and reel. This is where you want to look at an 8 or 9-weight from any of the big name companies. It might not be cheap but trust me on one thing; their lifetime warranties really are good for a lifetime. I break at least three or four of my Sage rods a year, (usually on ceiling fans,) and have never had to argue with the home office out in Washington State.

You still don’t need to look at the very top of the price list of fast action saltwater rods. A smooth casting 8-weight from a company like Temple Fork or St. Croix can be picked up at the Bass Pro shop for under $300 and even returned there if you happen to break it. A lot of serious anglers are using these four-piece models as back up rods when they travel since they can be carried on the plane. Considering the nightmare of modern baggage handling, this is a really smart idea.

Saltwater is a harsh environment so you will want to pay a little more attention to the reel you select. Once again there are dozens of great ones out there but you’ll want a reel manufactured from bar stock aluminum with a sealed drag. This will eliminate any corrosion worries and won’t need much maintenance other than a freshwater rinse at the end of the day. Look for that lifetime warranty here, too. Most manufacturers offer it.

So now let’s move back up to the high-dollar stuff and figure out who needs it. As a guide I have to have the best gear possible and clients should expect to see that on any charter boat. That doesn’t mean I buy all new rods and reels every season, far from it. Most of my fly tackle is several years old but as I mentioned earlier, it has a high attrition rate. The lifetime warranty eases the pain of snapping a rod that costs as much as a mortgage payment.

If you’re on the water a lot, have your casting perfected, and can afford it, by all means buy the best rod and reel possible. The latest generation of rods are astounding and definitely worth the money. There’s currently an arms race between the big three manufacturers to produce the lightest rods possible that can still throw a heavy saltwater fly line. The Orvis Helios at $785 is winning right now.

I use Sage rods exclusively and their Xi2’s are my favorites. (Yes, they do give me a guide’s discount.) The reels I prefer are made by Tibor and are totally bulletproof. I’ve have one of their Everglades models that I’ve never once taken apart or cleaned in thirteen years. I use it every time I fish and I know it can handle anything I do to it.

Ask five different guides what the best rod and reel is and you’ll get five different opinions. The good news is that there is a ton of choices out there for every angler and budget, and nearly all of it is quality tackle that didn’t exist a few decades ago. No matter what you spend these days, if you choose properly you’ll have a rod and reel that can last many years or even a lifetime.

Island Dogs

2009-07-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

Here's another photo of Maggie, our Puerto Rican Greyhound, and her boyfriend Gizmo, a Catahoula/Beagle mix. These are the two greatest dogs in the world and they're both mutts. There's nothing better than mixed breed dogs and I don't understand why everyone doesn't own one or two. Maggie was adopted by us as a puppy on Vieques and Gizmo is our neighbor's rescue dog who lives here on Matlacha, Florida.

This brings me once again to asking you folks to check out the Vieques Humane Society at http://www.viequeshs.org/. Summer is a really slow time of year on the island and the stray dogs down at the shelter will still need help despite the lack of tourism and the dollars you bring.

If you're smart enough to be visiting Vieques right now, please swing by the Shelter in Villa Santa Maria. You don't have to take a dog home, but how about dropping off a bag of food or a few bucks to buy them one?

We'll talk about fishing in a day or two. For now I just love trying to raise money for these island dogs. Please click on this address: http://www.viequeshs.org/.

Best Tarpon Fishing Of The Year In Charlotte Harbor, Florida

2009-07-17T12:54:00.001-07:00

These are some of the shots I took over the last two days while tarpon fishing with my dad just north of Pine Island. All I can say is that the tarpon bite has been incredible in the mornings. These are juvenile fish, all in the twenty to forty pound range, but you can't find a better fly rod target anywhere. I've been using my 9-weight Sage and have no problem whipping these tarpon in less than fifteen minutes thanks to the 86 degree water. As an added bonus, the springtime anglers have all cleared out and we have these fish all to ourselves. If you haven't checked it out before, Pine Island, Florida is a great and much more affordable alternative to the Keys. Give me a call or shoot me an e-mail and I'll be happy to give you an up to the minute fishing report.

Pine Island Update

2009-07-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

Summer in Pine Island is a quiet time of year, just like on Vieques. And also like Vieques our fishing doesn't slow down at all. The tarpon are all over the place and we hooked four this morning on fly in Charlotte Harbor. This is very dark water up here compared to the Caribbean and this makes casting to individual fish much more difficult. We simply look for rolling fish at the break of day and hope we don't drill them on the head with the fly.

The redfish and sea trout in the photo are are year round catch in Southwest Florida. They're also excellent eating. The trout are especially easy to catch by floating live shrimp over a shallow grass bed. The reds, which are more common in the fall, have been hanging deep in the mangroves and also hitting shrimp.

Our limits are one redfish and five sea trout per person per day. Bringing back a few fish for the grill is the one thing I do miss when I'm down on the flats of Vieques. Our most common species is the bonefish and they make lousy table fare and should never be killed anyway.

I'm still getting a lot of e-mails from folks heading down to Puerto Rico and the summer is a great time on the island for fishing. I'll be up here for the rest of the season but contact either Capt. Franco at (787)450-3744 or Capt. J at (787)502-3839 to book a flats or offshore trip.

New Website

2009-07-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

I’ve been getting a lot of comments recently about the redesign of my Wildfly Charters website, (http://www.wildflycharters.com/) It’s been a long overdue update and I want to mention the three guys who get the credit for the new look.

The home page photos are courtesy of Dennis Welsh (http://www.denniswelsh.com/,) a professional photographer based in Maine and a regular visitor to Vieques. His work has appeared in dozens of catalogs, from Abercrombie and Fitch to Nike, and numerous outdoor magazines. I first met Dennis two years ago while he was on the island shooting for Patagonia Outfitters. I wore their expensive clothes for a couple of days and let Dennis tag along for the ride. In return I got to use some of his best photos for my site. One of his Vieques shots was just published in this summer’s Patagonia catalog.

The graphics on the homepage are thanks to my brother Randy McKee. Randy is the type of artist who can sketch out a world class logo on a cocktail napkin in less than ten minutes. He’s currently an art teacher in Mansfield, PA but should be making a million dollars a year with a major ad agency. An example of his stuff can be seen here: http://www.cafepress.com/worsttaste/5355268

Finally, the whole www.wildflycharters.com site has been put together by my friend Capt. Don Hare down in Key West, Florida. Don is the owner of Data and Terminal (http://www.dterm.com/,) which provides website design and hosting for any type of business. Don’s been taking care of the site for the past five years and he’s always available to answer my questions or make any changes when I ask for them. He’s been especially valuable to me since I’m basically computer illiterate.

If any of these guys can help out a business or website of yours please feel free to e-mail me and I’ll put you in touch with them.

Beavertail Skiff's Free Test Ride

2009-06-25T05:44:00.000-07:00

This post has been moved to my new site The Pine Island Angler. Click Here to read it. Thanks.

McLaughlin Boys In Vieques

2009-06-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

New Jersey angler Roger McLaughlin and his family were one of my last charters of the season on Vieques. Here are a few of the great photos that they sent me from our trip back in April.

Both boys, Brendan and Owen, scored on strong pulling bar jacks and teamed up on a nice baby tarpon. Dad won the hard luck prize by loosing a couple of mid-size tarpon and breaking my same spinning reel two years in a row.

Fishing with kids is always a great experience, especially when they get to land something special like a tarpon. It's even better when they get a chance to show dad how it's done.

But seriously, Brendan and Owen's dad is actually a very good angler and breaking gear is not uncommon when we're tarpon fishing, especially when we're using light tackle.

The company who's reel Roger broke twice just sent me two brand new models and an admission that their earlier graphite had some flaws. I suspected as much but to hear it from the source was really remarkable and encouraging at the same time. I'll have a full report on this tackle company and their new reels in a few days.

Clouser Minnow 2.0: The Supreme Clouser

2009-06-15T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Clouser Minnow is by far the best all-around fly ever invented. Originally created for the smallmouth bass of my old homewaters on Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River, Bob Clouser's simple little streamer has landed more different species in both fresh and salt water than any other pattern.

The Clouser has traditionally been tied using bucktail which gives the fly just enough bouyancy to slow the sink rate of the dumbell eyes. This combination of materials is what gives the fly its highly effective, bouncing retrieve. The only problem with the bucktail Clouser is that it's not especially durable. It only takes a couple of whacks by hard mouthed species like tarpon or snook to mess up the natural hairs and make the fly unusable.

If you tie your own flies this isn't much of a problem. The Clouser is one of the easiest patterns and can be tied properly in about two minutes. You can spend an hour at the vice and have all you'll need for a trip to Vieques or anywhere else. Even if you're not a tyer, Clousers are usually one of the least expensive patterns at your local fly shop and you can find them online for as little as $2 a piece.

One thing I like to do is tie several Clousers using synthetic Supreme Hair instead of the natural bucktail. This material is inexpensive, easy to work with, and makes the fly very durable. Their action is nearly the same but they sink quicker, which makes them a great choice for blind casting over the reefs and deeper flats. I've had Supreme Clousers stand up to multiple barracuda hits in the Keys and all over the Caribbean. When I'm up in Southwest Florida I use this fly as soon as I find a big school of ladyfish or small sea trout. When the strikes are coming one after the other, a Supreme Clouser will keep you in the action much longer than a natural version.

Beginners

2009-06-14T19:18:00.001-07:00

When I was guiding in Key West our local fly shop used to send me a lot of customers who never touched a fly rod before but wanted to learn the sport. This wasn’t because I was the best instructor available. In fact, I’m a self-taught caster and have no fly fishing certifications whatsoever. I simply had a reputation with the shop’s owner for not yelling at my anglers, even when they’d lobotomize me with a heavily weighted crab pattern or drive a 2/0 Owner hook deep into my calf muscle. Plus I always needed the money so I‘d take anyone they sent my way.

Getting so many unskilled anglers was sometimes tough on the ego, especially during tarpon season. We’d often come back to the dock at the end of the day and see most of the other guides and their customers high-fiving or clinking long-necks together in celebration. They’d be telling and retelling their tarpon stories while I’d look at my anglers and say something like, “Well, you learned a lot today and you‘ll be much better next time.” Then I’d try to not pick at the scabs on my right temple or the back of my calf.

Actually, I really like having beginners on my boat. Most of them are more than willing to listen and they also haven’t taught themselves any bad habits that can be really difficult to break. Just setting the hook on a tarpon with a fly rod is an act of real violence that doesn’t exist anywhere in freshwater fishing. Gently lifting the rod after the fish eats is a serious hurdle for a lot of folks who’ve started out on a trout stream. It can take several missed shots until they stop doing it. In fact, comparing trout fishing to tarpon fishing is like comparing the Tour-de-France to the Daytona 500. They’re both wheeled racing but there’s a bit of difference in horsepower.

I did actually have two different anglers manage to land tarpon without ever casting a fly before. The first beginner simply had a fish that really wanted to be caught. It was a dead calm July morning and the tarpon were rolling everywhere. I had just put the rod in my angler’s hands, explained the basics, and watched him flail away spastically like a typical first-timer. It didn’t matter. The tarpon were swimming right up to us and his fly fell in the middle of the first big school, no more than ten feet from the bow. A seventy pounder inhaled it and made a hard turn, solidly driving the hook right into the corner of its own mouth. All the jumping in the world wasn’t going to dislodge it and I had the rod rigged with a heavy 30# leader. The ninety degree water wasn’t holding a lot of oxygen and the fish wore itself out quickly. It was a miracle tarpon that we wouldn’t duplicate again that day, and my angler’s casting never got any better. At the very least I was convinced he’d become a lifetime client but I didn’t hear from him again. Maybe he figured that fly fishing couldn’t get any better than that so why not quit on a high note.

The other beginner who landed a tarpon with me was a PGA golfer who’s name I didn’t recognize. I remember that he was ranked number sixty-two on the money list at the time. After an hour on the bow he was throwing a very decent fifty foot cast, which is all you need in most situations. I started poling him down the brightest flat in the area and he was getting good shots every fifteen minutes or so. He missed a few takes but two hours later he finally struck one hard enough, cleared his line, and landed the tarpon shortly after that. By the time our trip was over he jumped two more fish and was casting almost as well as I could. It was very impressive to watch but not all that surprising coming from a professional golfer. An ESPN producer once told me that he watched Tiger Woods learn to cast flawlessly in less than five minutes.

So why was I the world’s worst golfer the one time I tried it? Golf and fly fishing are actually very similar disciplines. A good swing or cast both require coordination, timing, and finesse. But the similarities don’t stop there. Golf and fly fishing both give you the opportunity to spend lots of money on some really overpriced gear and experience all the hassles of traveling with it to some very expensive locations. Both sports give you a decent chance of getting struck by lightning. Golfers and fly fishermen also get to spend hours watching their sports on TV while boring the hell out of their non-golfing/fishing spouses. But best of all, you can become completely obsessed with both and still be lousy at them. In this case they provide you with a great excuse to throw your expensive gear down in disgust and start drinking while outdoors.

That’s probably why I never gave golf another try. I’d be dead from liver failure by now.

A Vieques Houseguest

2009-06-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I posted a story about finding a tarantula in my Jeep while I was driving to the beach one morning. Dozens of people have told me that it was their favorite article I’ve written so far, and judging from all the e-mail I got there seems to be a big interest in the creepy-crawly things here on Vieques.

Well, since I don’t have a great Vieques fishing story right now, let's meet another charming resident, the giant brown centipede. The handsome fellow pictured here was a mere six inches long. They get twice that size and those black things near its head in the close-up photo are fangs. Oh yeah, the giant brown centipede, which can grow over a foot long, is also highly venomous. Hooray!

Most websites will tell you that the giant brown centipede’s bite is painful but not dangerous to humans. That’s a load of bull. I personally know two people on Vieques who were sent to the hospital with centipede bites. Our veterinarian even told me he once had to amputate a puppy’s leg after it was bit by one. That’s right, the giant brown centipede also kills puppies! If that’s not proof of how evil these things are just Google “centipede eats bat” and watch the video, but only if you don’t need much sleep tonight.

Unlike my tarantula encounter, there’s nothing really funny about finding a giant brown centipede on the floor of your bedroom. I woke up one morning and there it was, a few feet away from where I was peacefully sleeping. It made the tarantula seem about as threatening as finding a baby panda in my Jeep.

After killing the centipede with two cans of Raid and half a clip of .45 caliber hollow-points, I did what any reasonable homeowner would do and decided to burn my house to the ground. Unfortunately, I live in a typical Vieques home built out of cement block and poured concrete which doesn’t light easily. So I did the next best thing and moved out the following day. I’m writing this from the safety of Pine Island, Florida, where the sharks, cottonmouths, and alligators make me feel like I’m in a petting zoo.

In all serious, and before I cause everyone reading this to cancel their vacation plans to the island, this was the first and only giant centipede I’ve ever found inside my house, and my moving to Florida happens every year at this time. It had nothing to do with the centipede. Our friend Art from AA Exterminators has done a great job of keeping centipedes out over the past five years, but Vieques is in the tropics and these things are part of the landscape. Fortunately, the giant brown centipede is a nocturnal hunter and prefers dark and very moist places. Flip over a bunch of rocks or rotting logs in the jungle down here and you’ll definitely find a few. They rarely come inside occupied homes. If this were an everyday occurrence I wouldn’t be writing about it. In fact I wouldn’t even be living here.

It’s not that I’m squeamish about things that creep and crawl. I adore lizards and snakes and have had dozens as pets over the years. Handling slimy fish is what I get paid to do and just about any wild animal fascinates me. But I draw the line at the giant brown centipede. I mean, it’s not only the most horrifying thing on Earth, but it’s also a venomous, bat eating, puppy killer. Where did this thing possibly come from?

For years now the debate between believers in evolution and believers in creation has focused on the great apes. Did we or didn’t we evolve from them? I think that both sides are looking in the wrong direction and need to focus instead on the existence of the giant brown centipede. There’s plenty to debate here.

How did this thing possibly evolve? Nothing eats it and it doesn’t control the population of anything. It doesn’t even pollinate any plant. So what possible purpose does it serve other than to freak people out? There’s no scientific explanation for its existence that I can possibly think of. At the same time, I believe that God loves us and would never create such a thing as the giant brown centipede on purpose.

So I have a couple theories of my own. Either God stepped out for a few minutes to admire His handiwork and Satan snuck in and came up with it, or it evolved on another planet and a group of aliens dropped it off here since they couldn’t stand having them around either. Both theories make sense to me. If we had the technology we’d beam every giant brown centipede straight to Alpha Centauri tomorrow, and that bat eating video was clearly filmed in Hell. So that’s the giant brown centipede, a trick by the devil or a nasty gift from aliens. Take your pick.

Vieques Update

2009-05-27T19:58:00.001-07:00

I've been slow in my updates this past month thanks to all that's involved with our annual summertime relocation to Florida. I've been getting great updates about the fishing in Vieques, especially from Capt. Franco Gonzalez. I talked to him this afternoon and he reported a good week of bonefishing on the flats in Ensenada Honda. Despite the mostly cloudy conditions, Franco and his anglers landed bones using flyrods over the last three days. If you've read my previous post you'll know that Capt. Franco is the original Vieques bonefish guide and the go-to guy on the island for everything on the flats. Summertime anglers will also have the shallows to themselves which is a rare thing anywhere in the Caribbean. Give Franco a call at (787)450-3744 and he'll point you in the right direction.

Capt. Franco Gonzalez

2009-05-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

I've been back in Southwest Florida for over a week now chasing the tarpon, redfish, and snook of Pine Island. So far they've done their part, which is to simply show up for me. Now I need to do my part and get my act together and actually catch a few. At least the winds have been exceptionally calm in the mornings, quite the opposite of what we've experienced over the past few months down on Vieques. I do miss the place already but I'm always glad to be up here and have the change in scenery.

So once again, Capt. Franco Gonzalez has sole custody of the bonefish on Vieques. For those of you who don’t know him, Capt. Franco was the first, and for several years only, full time fly fishing guide on the island. He started the Caribbean Fly Fishing Co. over ten years ago and introduced the bonefish and permit of Puerto Rico to the angling public. One particular angler he made a big impression on was me.

Back in the summer of 2004 I was just finishing up my ninth tarpon season in Key West and I wasn’t happy. The wind had been blowing a solid twenty knots since New Year’s and didn’t stop until right after my last charter headed home. Just spotting a fish in those churned up conditions was a minor victory on some days. In addition, the number of guides working around Key West had practically tripled from the previous decade. Even if you could find a good spot out of the wind, someone else was usually there already. I wanted out of the Keys and Vieques was the most likely candidate at the time.

I knew I wanted to live on this island before the wheels of the Twin Islander even touched the runway. Mile after mile of shoreline and no other charter boats except Capt. Franco‘s. I envied the hell out of the guy and I hadn’t even spoken to him yet. And truthfully, I was afraid of actually doing that. Franco had something down here that was completely unheard of up in Florida. Absolutely no competition.

When I first got started in Key West there were about twenty five full time guides and some of them welcomed me like the news of a tumor. One notable veteran threatened me with a serious beating after I got too close to him on a big tarpon flat. I apologized profusely back at the dock and then pointed out to this particular vodka-sponge that I was twenty years younger and twenty pounds heavier than he was, and I‘m not a very big guy for starters. We settled on an uneasy truce after that and I never crowded him again. Petty little guide-wars were just another part of the Key West landscape and I quickly got sick of them. But what would it be like down here on Vieques where there was no guide community, and only Franco to contend with?

I got the answer on my second trip to Vieques when I spent a month down here looking at real estate, fishing from shore, and asking everyone who knew him if Franco would tolerate another guide fishing alongside him. I finally worked up the nerve to call him on my next to last day of that trip and book a charter. I decided on the phone to spill my guts and tell Franco that I was another guide hoping to move to Vieques and start running trips in a few months. I braced myself for a barrage of Spanish profanity but instead got a very measured response of, “Well, thanks for telling me that.”

So long story short: Franco took me out the next day, showed me the entire south side of Vieques, including his two most productive tarpon bays, and hooked me into my first Puerto Rican bonefish within five minutes of stepping onto his favorite flat in Ensenada Honda. I put a deposit on a house later that day.

Capt. Franco Gonzalez had the island of Vieques to himself and could have said “No way, Gringo. Don’t even think of stepping on my toes down here.” A lot of other guides would have done exactly that, but Franco didn’t. He did the exact opposite and I can’t thank him enough for it.

Over the next few years we saw a big increase in tourism on Vieques and two boats were a necessity on several occasions when groups of anglers would visit. Our guide services complimented each other for the most part and Amanda and I have really benefited from having Capt. Franco as a friend down here.

So once again I’ve handed my share of our Vieques bonefish back to their original owner. They’ll be in great hands. Capt. Franco Gonzalez is a not only a rock solid fly fishing guide but a true conservationist and the perfect ambassador for the flats of Vieques. If you’re coming to the island anytime soon and want a perfect day on the water just give him a call at (787)450-3744.

Tight lines, Franco. See you soon.

Heading North

2009-05-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and I'm heading back to Florida for the rest of the year. I usually stay in Puerto Rico until June but the tarpon are showing up early this year on Pine Island and my wife and dog are already up there waiting for me. My phone number and all contact info will be the same. I'll have a full update in the next few days. Talk to you soon.

Laguna Kiani Tarpon

2009-04-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

This is New Jersey angler Pete Rubino wading crotch deep into the murky depths of a crocodile infested creek near Laguna Kiani, just to catch a ten pound tarpon.

This tidal creek was loaded with bait as well as dozens of juvenile tarpon and some really big snook. Every few seconds we'd see a shower of minnows and then a serious bust right at the surface. Pete hooked two tarpon and his buddies also caught a few nice snook in the short time we fished there.

Not many anglers think of Puerto Rico as a tarpon and snook hotspot but it is. The creeks and lagoons surrounding San Juan are loaded with these fish year round and there are several guides on the big island that can almost guarantee you a hook-up, especially using live bait.

The tarpon and snook here on Vieques are not a constant presence and nowhere near as predictable, but when the do show up they'll eat anything you throw at them, just like they were in the Kiani creek for a while yesterday morning.

P.S. I was just joking about the crocodiles, there aren't any here on Vieques. But Pete didn't know that at the time and he still went in there anyway, which makes it just as ballsy. Way to go, Pete.

And yes, the tarpon was released unharmed right after I shut off the camera.

Stuff I Like: The Nauticle Mile

2009-04-15T12:22:00.001-07:00

The Nautical Mile is a great monthly newspaper centered on Pine Island and distributed throughout a good part of Southwest Florida. It's full of terrific information about fishing the waters all around Pine Island and Matlacha, including Boca Grande, Sanibel, Captiva, and Ft. Myers Beach. Every month publisher Jim Griffiths puts out almost fifty pages that contain everything from tide charts to seafood recipies. Of course there are a lot of fishing reports and advice from a stable of twenty local captains and writers, and starting this month I'll be joining their ranks. Best of all, it's free and available to download at http://www.nauticalmileenterprises.com/. You can check out my first article for the paper by clicking here: http://nauticalmileenterprises.com/captgregg.html#may09.

Adopt This Dog, Part 3

2009-04-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I was driving down to launch my boat at Blue Beach and right before I got to the ramp this tiny puppy came running out of the mangroves. Someone had just abandoned her down there that morning. I knew that's what happend since she was totally clean and didn't even have dirty paws. If she was born wild she would have been filthy and covered with fleas. This was totally heartbreaking. I scooped her up off the road and told my anglers that we'd be having an extra passenger on our charter that morning. She drank half a bottle of water and fell asleep under my boat's steering console. She didn't wake up again until we got back to the beach five hours later.

What really drives me crazy is that someone chose to drive this dog down a five mile dirt road and leave it at a beach when they could have drove her down a two mile paved road and left her at the Humane Society instead. I will never understand the mentality of some people.

When I did take her to the shelter later that day, Aleida, the manager, told me that they really didn't have room for her. They're overwhelmed down here with puppies right now. I couldn't keep her since I'm already watching another rescue dog until his owner moves in next month and I'm out of the house for much of the day. At least the dog I'm currently fostering is housebroken. When I brought this little girl home she immediatly peed on my kitchen floor, as most six-week old puppies will do. That's not something I can deal with right now.

My Plan B was simple. I'd hit the bars with her for a few nights and someone will eventually fall in love. I figured I'd be the center of attention for a while, maybe get some drinks bought for me since I had a cute puppy, and I'd find a tourist that would take her home by the weekend. My Happy Hour plan lasted exactly three minutes.

I walked into Al's Mar Azul and the wonderful Kristin, who had just moved to Vieques from Boston, came right over and wanted to hold her for a little while. Done! Instant love at first sight and a happy ending for a dog that was abandoned just that morning. God Bless Kristen and her new baby girl.

Unfortunately, this is the exception, and not the rule down here. No one can resist a helpless puppy. An older dog, maybe needing a little medical attention, is a different story. Those situations almost never end well, especially on small islands in the Caribbean. Fortunately, Vieques is different.

Our stray animals, at least the ones that get to the shelter, are beyond fortunate. They actually have a chance at life thanks to a few underpaid staff and angelic volunteers. The Vieques Humane Society does so much with so little, and if you're coming to the island for a visit, please stop in and see them. Give them a donation, or better yet take a dog home, and I'll give you a free fishing trip.

Kayak Fishing On The Flats, Pine Island, Florida

2009-04-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

The April issue of Kayak Angler Magazine had a short but very good article about fishing the waters of Pine Island, Florida. It got me thinking about how excellent this area is for any angler looking for an easy trip for light tackle fishing in salt water.

Pine Island and Matlacha have been a second home to me for over nine years now and I'm thrilled to be spending the entire 2010 tarpon season up here. After ten years of fighting the crowds in Key West and four years of only hooking twenty pounders on Vieques, the monsters of Pine Island Sound will be a welcome challenge next year and a chance to return my big tackle back into the fight.

This is the only place in all of Florida that rivals the Keys for the sheer amount of shallow water fly fishing opportunities, not just for tarpon but snook, redfish, and trout, too. On top of all that, getting to Pine Island is far less expensive and it's accommodations are a fraction of the cost of Key West's.

My schedule is wide open for tarpon fishing in the spring and summer or great redfish this fall, so feel free to give me a call at 239-565-2960 and we'll talk about booking a trip in this excellent and affordable part of Florida. Or check out my redesigned website at: http://www.wildflycharters.com/

The Tarpon Are Back!

2009-04-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

And it's about time. After several months of getting no respect from the local bonefish population, a welcome push of Springtime tarpon have started crusing through the shallows here on Vieques. The northwestern flats near Green Beach have been the gathering point for several schools of these fish each morning. We're not seeing the same size of tarpon that you'd expect this time of year in the Keys or West Florida, but thirty pound fish are big for Vieques and perfect for the light tackle and fly rods that my anglers prefer.

The tarpon pictured here was caught by Tom Biziorek of Michigan on an 8-weight Sage fly rod casting a Black Death pattern. This is only a ten pound fish but Tom had a quite a few shots at tarpon three to four times this size. Every time we got in range of these bigger tarpon a small cloud would blot out our daylight and the fly would drop on the wrong end of the fish. Very frustrating. This baby tarpon was one of a school of fifty that finally swam right up to us and impaled itself on the 1/0 Owner hook.

When I first moved to Vieques almost five years ago the tarpon fishing was very consistent on the north end of the island. This slowed down a season later and I havn't chased them consistently for quite some time. Tarpon are not a food species and there is absolutely no pressure on them here on Puerto Rico. For whatever reason, the Vieques tarpon migration is back for the time being. If you're lucky enough to be here this week you'll get to experience a little Key's style tarpon fishing the way it used to be.

Vieques Snook

2009-03-31T17:12:00.000-07:00

Here's New Jersey angler Marshall Hespe with a nice snook he caught this week near Laguan Kiani, just off the west end of Vieques. Along with his dad Bill, we fished together for two days in some very tricky conditions, including a torrential downpour on our second morning. In addition to this snook, Marshall also hooked a beautiful thirty pound tarpon by sight casting to it just off Green Beach. Marshall is only eleven years old but he's one of the most focused anglers I've ever had on my boat. He could hit any target that I pointed out quickly and accurately. These are two of the most valuable skills that a fisherman can posess and Marshall had them mastered. He's an avid angler so don't be surprised if you see his name along side some IGFA Junior World Records someday.

Seeing Ghosts

2009-03-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

For a beginner, the simple act of spotting a bonefish on the flats is the biggest hurdle on the way to actually catching one. They’re nicknamed the grey ghost for a very good reason. Bonefish are nearly invisible under the best of circumstances and they can appear and disappear in the blink of an eye. They really are the most ghostly fish in the shallows.

The first step in spotting the bonefish is having the proper eyewear before you hit the flats. Even the most expensive frames are worthless without polarized lenses. My personal favorites are the Costa del Mar Fathoms. These are in the upper price range for quality fishing glasses but they also come with a great warranty, so you won’t feel too stupid when you inevitably sit on them. There are several lens colors available but amber is the by far the best for shallow water. If $180 is too steep of a pair or sunglasses there are several less costly alternatives. Even the $10 cheapo shades you find at the tackle shop counter will work in the end. The polarized coatings on these are prone to scratch easily so handle them with care.

Knowing a bonefish when you see one is a big challenge, especially if you’re fishing on your own without having used a guide before. I’ve lost count of the number of times my anglers have, just by following my directions, cast to and hooked their first bonefish without ever seeing it. You simply can’t count on walking out to a good looking flat and expect the tails to start sticking up. Casting to a school of tailing bones is one of angling’s great thrills but it’s a lot less common than the TV fishing shows lead you to believe. Tailing is caused by several factors, especially a low incoming tide and calm winds. Find these two conditions, which can be rare during the Caribbean winter, and you’ve got a nice chance of spotting tails. The good news is that tailing bones are actively feeding, so you know you’re looking at hungry fish.

In most situations you’ll be looking for cruising fish in water at least a foot deep. Add a good twenty knot breeze to the mix and you’ll really need your eyes and brain working together to spot the bones. Movement is always a big giveaway. The best thing to do at first is simply pick a spot on the flat and stand totally still for at least fifteen minutes. Open your eyes wide and take in all that’s in front of you, don’t just stare at the downwind spot where you hope to cast. Once you get a fix on the terrain of the flat, the rocks, the sand patches, the sponges, and everything else that’s stationary, a moving object will jump right out at you.

On grassy flats like those in the Keys or Puerto Rico, bonefish can look surprisingly dark. Their backs take on a deep olive camo pattern that makes them appear very grey or even black from above. On the bright sand flats of the Bahamas they’re an exceptionally light blue-grey or even pure silver. Again, movement is always the giveaway. However, wind and currents can create a tremendous optical illusion in the water. Throw in a lot of anticipation and after a while everything starts looking like a bonefish. Stay in one spot too long and you’ll eventually be casting at rocks and sea fans. These are your dreaded “Wish Fish.”

One way to make sure you’ve found a moving target is to immediately look for a feature right next to it. Is the gap between the two points widening or closing? If it is then you’ve definitely spotted a fish. Now lock on to it and don’t look away. If you’re on a moving platform like a skiff or kayak don’t even blink. Taking a quick glance behind you to make sure your cast is clear will cause you to loose the fish almost every time.

Your final step before you cast is to positively identify your target as a bonefish. All good flats are home to a host of other species that can look very “bonefishy” from a distance. Barracuda, boxfish, and small sharks are the three most common imposters. (Although those three are great fun to catch on their own.) The one thing to remember is that bonefish are almost never stationary except when they stop to feed. At that point you’ll either see them tailing or kicking up puffs of mud on the bottom.

That brings us to our final giveaway. Any patch of muddy or milky water on an otherwise clear flat is usually something feeding. This could be caused by mullet, a large stingray, or a school of bonefish. Anytime I see a basketball sized or larger puff of mud, I cast into it immediately. Let the fly or bait drop to the bottom and begin a slow retrieve. If it’s bones you’ll get a quick hookup since you’ve found hungry fish that aren’t paying attention to what’s happening above them.

There are a whole lot of other factors that go into catching bonefish on your own. When you finally see and can positively identify them, even if they’re running in terror from your clumsy cast, then you’ll be a whole lot closer to actually landing one.

Stuff I Like: Orvis Saltwater Fly Fishing Kit

2009-03-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

Saltwater flies are way too expensive. Tarpon patterns for example, both online and in shops, sell for around $5 a piece. This is for a hook, some thread, a couple of feathers or strips of rabbit fur, and five minutes of someone's time. Most saltwater patterns are really easy to tie you can save a whole lot of money by making your own. A couple of my anglers brought this Orvis kit down here with them last week and set up a fly tying desk right in their hotel room. This is a well thought out collection of materials and gear and just about covers everything you'll need for all the established flats patterns. I especially liked the instruction book and they should really sell this as a stand alone item. If you've thought about getting started with fly tying this kit is something you'll want to consider. It's well worth the price and you can check it out on the link to the right.

Pescaderia At Isabel Segunda

2009-03-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

The Pescadaria (fish market) in our main town of Isabel Segunda is a really scenic spot around sunset. These are a few shots I took down there the other day just before Happy Hour at Al's and the 6:30 ferry's arrival. I wasn't fishing this night but there were plenty of tarpon cruising under the dock. I'll have a rod with me the next time I head down there. When you hit it at the right time you're almost guaranteed to hook a tarpon off the fishermen's dock.

Adopt This Dog, Part 2

2009-03-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

This is Archie and he needs a new home. He's only a few months old and just two weeks ago he was almost dead from mange. My friend Chef David from Tradewinds found him on a beach here on Vieques, completely hairless and malnourished, and brought him home and gave him all the right meds to stop his illness. He's responded amazingly to his treatment and almost all his hair has grown back over the last few days. He's scheduled to be neutered next week.

Archie is currently staying with me and someone needs to adopt him before I fall completely in love with him. He's the size and shape of a big jack russell without any of the hyperactivity. He's a remarkably quiet dog and I haven't even heard him bark once in the last 48 hours. He loves all people and will get along great with any other dogs. He's already housebroken and by the end of this week Archie will be able to sit and fetch, too.

This will be a great dog for anyone, whether you have a huge yard or a small apartment. All he needs is companionship. He follows me around constantly and I can't blame him, considering how horrible his first months of life must have been. He's a really good boy and he needs a home. Help him out and I'll give you a free fishing trip. Call me at (787)435-4833 or e-mail me at gmckee1@hotmail.com. Thanks.

Why Guide?

2009-03-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

At least once a week, especially during the depths of winter, one of my customers will look around at the stunningly beautiful Caribbean waters off Vieques and say something along the lines of, “Man, you’ve got the best job in the world.” That’s quite a thing to hear someone say to you.

Obviously I agree with that statement or I wouldn’t still be guiding fishermen after all these years. As far as I‘m concerned, the only other jobs I’d rather have would be F-22 pilot or astronaut. Unfortunately for me, both of those occupations require more brain cells than I‘ve ever possessed, even before the rum assault began back in college. The only bandits I’ll ever be calling out are bonefish at twelve o’clock low.

Being told that I have the world’s best job is actually a little embarrassing, mainly because guiding is something that almost any physically fit person can do. Fishing is not rocket science and humans were poling small boats across the shallows and catching fish well before Christ (not a bad fisherman Himself) was born. Being a fishing guide is easy but being a successful fishing guide takes a lot of work.

Believe it or not, there are quite a few of downsides to being a self-employed fisherman. The main one is pure unpredictability. Guiding is as far from a nine-to-five office job as you can get. There is zero job security in this line of work. The weather or economy can make a season highly profitable or truly rotten.

Here on Vieques our season starts just before Christmas and ends around Memorial Day. Last year was great. The economy was strong and people wanted to spend their money, so I was booked almost every day for several months. This season is much slower since the economy is in the toilet. Fortunately (for me) there’s a very cold winter up north. That means I‘m getting a lot of last minute phone calls from folks sick of watching the snow accumulate and their retirement funds shrink. People can only take so much of that before they either go completely nuts or go someplace warm, and Vieques is definitely someplace warm.

My income is also totally dependent on my boat and its engine, a mechanical device that can and will break down on occasion. Two years ago I had brand new Evinrude fall apart on me. The company refused to honor their warranty and I lost a month’s income fighting to get it fixed. The stress alone was worse than my financial loss. Something as simple as a dead battery or flat tire can cost me half a mortgage payment.

There’s also the physical toll of being in the intense sun and pushing nearly a thousand pounds of boat and anglers around all day long. Skin cancer is a serious occupational hazard, despite all the precautions I take. I finally have good health coverage thanks to my wife’s job but for a dozen years I was completely uninsured. If I fell off my boat and broke my leg, I was screwed. By the way, it was my choice to be one of the “Millions of Uninsured Americans” back then. I was young and healthy and didn’t feel like forking over for the coverage. If I got hurt and couldn’t work, the government wouldn’t have owed me squat.

Finally, and this might sound a little silly, there’s an emotional toll that comes with chartering. Good guides are just as ecstatic as their anglers when they catch fish and even more disappointed when they don’t. The guide’s job is to put the angler on the fish and the angler’s job is to get the fly in front of it. When it all comes together there’s nothing better. Watching someone land a prize bonefish is as good as it gets and we‘ll do anything to make that happen. There’s also nothing worse than seeing someone try really hard and walk away empty handed. Even when the trip doesn‘t work out, the vast majority of anglers are very gracious and well aware that a day on the flats is as tough as fishing gets.

The real reason I stick with guiding is that I like and respect my customers. I’m not at all temperamental when someone paying me good money screws up an easy shot, or even three days worth of easy shots. In fact, I’m the exact opposite, and I pride myself on my diplomacy and ability to teach folks something new if they’re willing to learn it. I’ll never claim to be the world’s best fly fishing guide but I know my business well and could write a book on bonefishing. In fact, I’m halfway through writing my book on bonefishing. Look for it in 2010. In the meantime, come on down to Vieques and I’ll show you what I know about this sport and won’t give you a hard time if you blow an easy shot or two. But do your part and you’ll probably go home successful.

Trashing Our Beaches

2009-03-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

OK everyone, please read this carefully. If you’re coming down to Vieques, the water here is perfectly safe to drink. Puerto Rico is not Mexico. Our tap water will not make you sick and you won’t catch any exotic diseases from the food here either.

Yesterday I was out catching bait at Playa Grande when I ran into this group of volunteers doing a beach clean-up for Fish and Wildlife. It was barely noon and they already had the bed of their Dodge Ram pickup overflowing with full trash bags. Playa Grade is one of my favorite beaches on the island and I’ve always bitched about the garbage I find down there. Seeing this was confirmation of a serious problem.

Most of the tourists who visit the island are quick to point out that the locals don’t care about littering, and they’re right, to a degree. Way too many of the folks born and raised here have the habit of tossing their beer or soda cans right on the ground right wherever they finish them. It’s an infuriating sight for those of us who grew up with “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” drilled into our heads as school kids. Thankfully, this is finally making its way into the schools on Vieques and the next generation will start picking up after themselves.

But let’s get back to this picture of Playa Grande for a minute. The trash down there is a different story. Playa Grande beach is too far out of town and not good for swimming so the locals rarely go there. The trash you find at the high tide line is what washes up from the ocean currents, and half of the volume of all those trash bags is empty water bottles. Bottled water is an environmental disaster and an unbelievable scam, and the only people who drink it here on Vieques are the tourists. If you see an empty Heineken bottle you can blame a local, but an empty Evian bottle, which is what you see too much of on our beaches, that’s your fault. And why anyone would pay good money for something that is essentially free is beyond me.

So if you’re headed this way and still afraid of drinking the water then buy yourself a portable Brita or something like that. And if you’re still a little spooked, dump half a bottle of rum in your water, alcohol is great for killing germs.

First Bonefish Of March

2009-03-03T15:03:00.000-08:00

Angler Kevin Ludwig of Massachusetts landed this small but very welcome bonefish while we were poling the shoreline flats of Ensenada Honda this morning. The sky was overcast and the wind was steady at fifteen knots. This fish was feeding in very shallow water and hit a Puglisi crab pattern as it was leaving the flat.

We're currently in a falling tide pattern this week and that makes bonefishing very difficult. Quick and accurate casts are the only way you're going to catch one fish these fish down here right now. Big single bones are never an easy target, and that's what we primarily have on Vieques. Fortunately Kevin was up to the task and was on target when it counted. Practice your casting before you get down here and you won't be disappointed.

Stuff I Like: The Stressbuster. (Capt. Morgan And Coconut Milk)

2009-03-01T15:26:00.000-08:00

Here's the recipe for a drink I call The Stressbuster, and most of you folks need one right about now. I'm probably not the first person to mix this but I beleive it's the greatest drink known to man, since it actually does what the name implies. It's very complicated so take notes. You should also have some Bob Marley or Jimmy Buffett playing in the background before you start.

First, get yourself a bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum. Nothing else will do and don't try to be one of those rum snobs on me. The Captain is great and this is just a simple mixed drink, so save your expensive Cuban contraband for another time. You'll also need at least four real coconuts which you can get at any grocery store these days. Shake them to make sure they're full of milk. Don't even think of buying the canned stuff. It's gross and your drink will suck, so get the real things.

Take everything home and stick the bottle of Captain in the freezer along with a couple of highball glasses or tumblers. Now go grab your most powerful cordless drill so you can punch a hole in each coconut. I use a Ryobi 18 volt and a ¼ inch paddle-bit for this. The drill will cause a good bit of shell material to drop into the liquid so I pour the milk into a large measuring cup and let it settle in the fridge for at least fifteen minutes. Your Stressbuster is almost ready.

By this time the rum will be cold enough to pour in your tumbler over half a dozen ice cubes, just up to the half way mark. Top the rest of the glass off with the coconut milk and just swirl it around for a few seconds. Now dive in and drink at least half of it in one gulp. This part is really important. If you don’t slug it back that quickly your stress will never be properly busted. Just suck half of the damn thing down and forget about the fact that the snow is still falling and the defects in Washington are about to tax you back to the Stone Age. Drink it, for God’s Sake!!! I’m trying to help you out here so get it down quickly!

Alright, that’s better. So now you should feel a lot less stressed. Finish the rest of your drink slowly and make yourself another one. Six ounces of spiced rum is more than enough to fix anyone’s mood. The best thing about drinking a Stressbuster is that it’s actually good for you. Stressbusters are full of complex vitamins that start with a whole bunch of letters that I can’t remember right now, but trust me, they're really good for you. I base this statement on absolutely no scientific data whatsoever. It's sort of like Global Warming, only more fun to believe in, and it has booze in it.

I know that all of this has nothing to do with fishing, but I’ve had a rough week and wanted you to know what I do to cheer myself up after a difficult couple of charters. If this drink works for me after a stressful fishing trip, it will work for you folks out there with real problems. You might even need an extra one, but don't worry. Drinking three of them won't kill you. Cheers.

Tarpon Season, Key West

2009-02-27T15:16:00.000-08:00

Here’s a photo I came across from one of my old Key West files. This was taken six years ago at the height of tarpon season off Key West. That’s me posing with thirty pounds of a sixty pound male tarpon that had a bad day off the Marquesas. The other half of this fish was swimming towards Cuba, safely tucked away in the stomach of a twelve-foot hammerhead.

Every tarpon guide in Florida has photos like this. Shark attacks are part of the game down here, that’s because a struggling tarpon on the end of a fly rod is like a clanging dinner bell out on the flats. The amazing thing about this picture is that this particular tarpon wasn’t even hooked.

My angler, the incomparable tequila-meister, Mr. Jos Arets of Holland, and I were poling on the east end of the Marquesas when we saw a huge commotion about fifty yard off our bow. The tall, yellow fin was slashing back and forth so quickly that I could have water skied behind it. Big hammerheads on the flats are rare for most of the year but tarpon season is a different story. This one had slammed into a school of migrating fish and singled out the weakest one. The tarpon gave it his best for over a minute but the big shark kept pushing him shallower and shallower until it finally snagged his tail.

The final moments were an amazing few seconds of froth, mud, and then a plume of blood, which happened no less than ten yards from my bow. Jos even captured the entire attack on video. The shark tore the tarpon in half and left his front end floating at our feet. I pulled it onboard for a few quick shots, its gills were still moving, and dropped in back in the water so it could feed the rest of the food chain.

That was one of my best memories from my ten tarpon seasons in Key West. I’ve been away from it for the last four years and I’m looking forward to spending a few week back in the fray this coming Spring. If this is something you’d like to try feel free to contact me at a gmckee1@hotmail.com.

Slumpbuster!

2009-02-25T16:09:00.000-08:00

I'll be the first to admit that I've been in a slump with bonefish recently. The damn things have eluded me so much lately that I've started to believe in unholy angling conspiracies. I've fished with great anglers during lousy weather and lousy anglers during great weather this month and I haven't landed a single bonefish in nearly two weeks.

Enough was enough and I finally had a day to myself and hiked down to Encampment Beach this morning. My favorite school of local bones was sitting there waiting for me in the high-tide surf and I hooked this fish on my third cast. He was a real turbocharged example of this species and nearly dumped my Sage 3400 reel of all its backing.

So the good news is that there are still catchable bonefish on Vieques. Fortunately or unfortunately, you might just have to hike down to the beach and go after them on your own.

Wahoo In The Rain

2009-02-22T10:08:00.000-08:00

A rare day of steady rain didn't stop my buddy Capt. J Fergeson of Amity Charters from heading offshore out of Esperanza earlier this week. His group of three anglers from Indiana got into some excellent wahoo action and brought this nice twenty pounder for dinner. Wahoo are one of the best tasting fish in the ocean as well as one of the most exciting to catch. Their speed is unbelievable and I've never seen anything peel line of a reel quicker. Vieques is particularly good for whahoo right now and their cousin the kingfish. Capt. J is running the only dedicated offshore boat on the island so if you're looking to head out to the deep water and bring home something like this give him a call at (787)502-3839.

Key West Tarpon Season, 2009

2009-02-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

Tarpon Season in Key West has always been a Three Ring Circus with the main acts being the fish, the anglers, and the guides. Put them all together for almost four months a year and it was an insanely entertaining and undisciplined time to be on the island. I was in the thick of this for ten years, fishing and guiding from 1995 to 2005, until I finally felt that the insane were overrun by the undisciplined.

When I left Key West for the unspoiled flats of Vieques I swore I’d never look back. Of course, looking back was the very first thing I did, and still do it every day down here. I constantly talk about Key West and compare it to Vieques on almost every single charter that I run. I’ve also been fortunate enough to get back to my old home island in the Keys a couple times each year and catch up with my buddies like Irish Kevin and Capt. Mike Bartlett.

So right now I’m in a position to be in Key West with my new flats boat by early May of this year, which is also the height of tarpon season. As of right now I’m open for guiding on the tarpon flats of Key West for at least five of the best weeks this coming Spring. The annual migration of these fish lasts until early July and most resident guides will be booked up well in advance for this. Since I’ll be booking these trips myself the rates will be $350 for a half day and $475 for a full day.

If anyone is interested in fishing Key West for the coming tarpon season please feel free to either call me at (787)435-4833 or shoot me an e-mail at gmckee1@hotmail.com.

Fifty Feet

2009-02-11T17:52:00.000-08:00

In salt water fly fishing, a lot of folks will tell you that you need to make at least an eighty-foot cast in order to catch anything on the flats. You’ll read this in the magazines and hear it from a lot of saltwater guides. That’s a very demanding and discouraging requirement at the same time, but in my experience it’s simply not the case.

Probably ninety percent of the bonefish, tarpon, and permit I’ve caught over the years were hooked within forty feet of my boat. This is a cast that anyone can make. Even if you’ve never touched a fly rod before, a decent guide or instructor can get you casting out to forty feet within an hour. The trick is to do it quickly and accurately, and this is the part that takes a fair amount of practice.

In most bonefishing situations, from the time your guide first spots the fish until the moment the you’ll start your cast, the average time frame is around ten seconds. You’ll have the first five seconds to spot the target and the next five to get the fly in the water and in front of your fish. This is a really narrow window.

Here’s an exercise I want you to try if you’re thinking of coming down to Vieques or any other saltwater destination with the hopes of catching a bonefish on a fly rod. To do this exercise properly you’ll need a partner, a measuring tape, two paper plates, and a stopwatch.

First, take the paper plates and find an open space, preferably outside, and measure a straight line of fifty feet, placing one plate at each end of this line. String up your 7, 8, or 9 weight fly rod with a small bonefish pattern and stand on one plate. If you’re actually outside, start with the upwind plate and aim downwind.

Next, strip out at least eighty feet of fly line from your reel. Leave a rod’s length fly line, or about nine feet, hanging from the rod tip and hold just the fly in your opposite hand by the eye of its hook.

Have your partner hit the stopwatch and start counting out loud. At the same moment you’ll start your cast, aiming for the downwind plate. When the count hits “Five“ stop your false casting and present your fly.

So how close are you to your downwind target?

If you realistically want to catch a bonefish on a fly, in the conditions you’re going to find in the Caribbean this time of year, you should be within one foot of the plate. If you‘ve reached the plate then you‘re well ahead of the crowd. If not, you’re going to be seriously handicapped when it comes to bonefishing.

So what happens if you’ve been flailing away for hours and still can’t get to the plate in those five seconds? Well then it’s time to stop what you’re doing and get some instruction. This can be as simple as going to your nearest fly shop and asking someone to take a quick look at your cast out in the parking lot.

I’ve seen a lot of self taught anglers who’ve taught themselves some seriously bad habits. If you’re one of these folks you may be totally effective with a light rod on a small trout stream but it just won’t happen on the saltwater flats. After too many years, a weak backcast becomes part of your muscle memory and this is an amazingly hard habit to break. One quick hour of being taught the proper hauling technique, in a field or parking lot, will get you punching forty feet in no time.

This is not saying that saltwater anglers are better fly fishermen. I went out to the high mountain streams of Montana last summer and was a total disaster. Fifteen years on the salt turned me into a strip-striking brute and I broke off all but three fish I hooked that week. Different locations call for different disciplines. I spent a good deal of time that week on trout fishing and came up short. Don’t make the same mistake when you come down here after bonefish. Trust me, they’re much less forgiving. Learn that forty foot/five second cast and you’ll get more than your money’s worth from any Caribbean fly fishing vacation.

Adopt This Dog, Get Free Fishing

2009-02-08T16:22:00.000-08:00

I stopped by our local Humane Society a few days ago to see my buddy Dr. Pedro Watlington, our San Juan based veterinarian who comes over to the island once a week. The Vieques Humane Society is one of the best examples of a bunch of people doing so much with so little. Currently, they’re overrun with puppies like Aleida, the little four-month old girl pictured here.

Every dog at the Vieques Humane Society is a sato, which is the Puerto Rican word for mutt. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no sweeter animal on the face of the Earth. Three years ago Amanda an I found our dog Maggie down here, and I‘ve written about her quite a lot. She’s more beautiful, clever, and loyal than any expensive purebred could ever hope to be, and I can’t even imagine life without her. Right now there are a couple dozen dogs just like her at the shelter and you folks coming down for a visit need to stop by and take a look.

The Vieques Humane Society exists on a shoestring budget. They care for all the lost, abused, and injured animals of this island that are lucky enough to be found in time. They also spay, neuter, and vaccinate every animal that comes to their door. A lot of cats and even some horses find safety here, too.

A couple times a year the island will hold benefits like art auctions or a chili cook-off and I always donate a fishing trip as a prize. Since the shelter is in a tough spot right now I‘m going to make that an open ended offer. If you come down to Vieques and take a dog home with you I’ll throw in a free half day bonefishing trip for two.

I normally charge $300 for a this. If you ask me, this is the ultimate win/win/win situation. You get a great dog and free fishing trip, the dog gets a new home, and I get to spend time on my boat with someone nice enough to come down and adopt one of our shelter’s homeless dogs.

Not much of an angler? No problem. I’ll still take two of you out for a great half-day sightseeing, snorkeling, and beachcombing tour. Some of the most stunning parts of Vieques, like the bay and reefs of Ensenada Honda, are only accessible by boat and I can easily get you to all of them with my flats skiff.

I’m fully aware that adopting a dog is, and should be, a major undertaking. You‘re basically adding a new member to your family. Some of you reading this may want to help but simply have no room for a dog. I understand and appreciate this, and you folks can get a fishing trip, too. Write a check for $500 to the Vieques Humane Society and you’ll get the same free half-day offer. That $500 will go farther than you’ll ever know and it’s also tax-deductible.

Yes, I know that $500 is a lot of money these days, but maybe Bill Gates is reading this. Open your checkbooks and help these animals out a little bit. Let’s face some facts here; no matter how bad things might seem with the recession, no one is going to go hungry, in both the States and here on Vieques. There are piles of money available for people, but these animals will suffer without our help.

We humans created the domestic dog for our own purposes; security, labor, companionship, and pure enjoyment. They do so much for us and all that we owe them in return is a loving home. So right now, Vieques is full of great dogs in need of a loving home. I already have one and will probably take a second pup back to the States later this spring. Do yourselves a favor and stop by the Vieques Humane Society while you’re down here. Say Hi to Dr. Pedro, Emily, or Aleida, and try to come up with a reason not to take one of those animals home with you. You can also go to their website at http://www.viequeshs.org/ and donate right there.

Crime On Vieques

2009-02-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

This is a topic I’ve put off writing about for a while but it needs to be addressed, especially for those of you coming down for the first time. Vieques is just like any small town up in America. Our population is very friendly and welcoming to visitors. It essentially acts like one large, extended family but, like any big family, there are always a few black sheep.

Let’s start with the good news first. Violent crime on Vieques is exceptionally rare. Being mugged at gun or knife point is almost unheard of down here. Compared to the rest of the Caribbean or South Florida, Vieques is very safe. The small handful of criminals down here don’t want confrontations. The use of violence or a weapon will quickly draw the full attention of the police and since this is a small island, our cops know all the usual suspects. What tourists do need to deal with is petty theft.

It’s an established fact that we do have a problem with cars getting broken into, especially while parked at the beaches out in the Wildlife Refuge. Basically, if you leave your new camera on the passenger seat of your rental car while going for a swim, you’re asking for it to get stolen. Rental cars are easy to spot and the small group of thieves down here can pick one out easily. This is no different than any other tourist-heavy beach town. The same thing will happen from Cape Cod to the Florida Keys and it’s totally avoidable.

When I head to the beaches here on Vieques to do some fishing, everything I need, other than my rod and reel, is in my pockets. My driver’s license, cell phone, small digital camera, extra leaders, and a half dozen bonefish flies will all fit into a single zip-lock sandwich bag. A pair of forceps will be clipped to my belt loop and I‘m ready to go. I leave nothing of value in my Jeep, especially since it has no top or windows anyway. In fact, I purposely keep my Jeep full of beach sand and trash. This way the local thieves never know what unpleasant thing they’re going to find if they blindly start groping around under my seats. (Click here for a good story about that: http://www.viequesangler.com/2009/01/vieques-hitchhiker.html.)

Most of the rental cars on the island are some type of hard topped SUV, and even the new canvas top Jeep Wranglers can be fully enclosed. You should never lock these vehicles after you park them at the beaches. Even if you’ve paid attention and left nothing in them, a locked vehicle actually tells a thief is that something good might be in there. The nearest rock is all they need to find out that you were actually smart enough to take your valuables with you. Roll your windows down and leave the doors unlocked anytime you park at a beaches. This way you won’t come back to a smashed window and a $500 charge on your credit card to replace it.

Your rental house is a different story. This should be completely locked up and all of your belongings placed inside every time you leave. Again, this is no different than any other vacation spot up in the States. If you go out at night you should leave several lights on, and if you have a TV or radio leave that playing at a normal volume, too. Make the place look occupied but don’t get your neighbors mad at you while your doing it. Again, the thieves don’t want a confrontation and will avoid any place that looks like someone is home.

With all of that said, every once in a great while a tourist is confronted physically. This happened recently to one of my angler’s girlfriends while she was sitting alone at Sun Bay. From the account he told me, a local junkie threatened her with a screwdriver and made off with a camera and some money, but she wasn’t touched or hurt at all. The police were called and knew exactly who they were looking for and quickly rounded him up. Her belongings were not recovered but the junkie probably got slapped around a bit after they found him. Our cops are good like that.

In that situation down here, I’d recommend fighting back. If you’re confronted at the beach by someone with a screwdriver or anything else, grab a handful of sand and toss it in their face. Then start screaming profanities at the top of your lungs. The one thing to remember is that the vast majority of criminals anywhere, including the ones here on Vieques, are lazy and stupid. If they weren‘t, they’d be out working for a living and making a lot more money. Make it an effort for them to get to your stuff and they won’t bother trying in the first place.

After nearly five years of living down here, this is the first incident with a tourist that I’ve personally been close to. It’s a black eye for Vieques but fortunately this couple didn’t let it ruin their impression of our island. I can’t stress enough that violent crime is exceptionally rare and petty crime is easily avoidable. I won’t be the only person to tell you this but pay attention to it now and you’ll have a perfect vacation down here.

More Big Bonefish

2009-02-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

Angler X is currently hiding from the Mafia in the Witness Protection Program, but that still didn't stop him from coming down to Vieques and landing this beautiful six pound bonefish.

Actually, this is an example of how not to frame a picture, but the fish was really nice so I'm posting it anyway. Most digital cameras, even the cheap ones, have a burst setting that will allow you to to take multiple pictures each second. If you use this when taking photos of anglers and their catch, one shot will usually turn out exactly right. And the real beauty of digital is that you're not wasting film. You can take fifty bad shots and just delete them right in the camera. This way you won't get stuck with photos like the one above.

Return Of The Bonefish

2009-01-31T17:54:00.000-08:00

Finally some great news: the bonefish have returned with a vengeance down here on Vieques. And after spending a week in the way too cold waters of Southwest Florida, this has really been a welcome change. Our big flat in Ensenada Honda has basically been a field of tailing bonefish each morning after sunrise, although only for the first few hours of the day. The fish we’re seeing out there right now are huge, but unfortunately they don’t get huge by being stupid.

The average Vieques bone is a five pounder, and bonefish of this size rarely travel in big numbers down here. We commonly spot them tailing by themselves or along with a similar sized partner. This makes them a more difficult target than the smaller bones that school up by the hundreds in places like the Bahamas. Every once in a while we do come across swarms of two pounders that will eat anything that’s cast near them, but this is the exception, not the rule.

The last few days in Ensenada Honda have not only been full of big tailing bonefish, but the occasional small school of baby tarpon, too. We haven’t landed any of those yet this week but that will happen soon. The tarpon of Vieques are amazingly dumb when you compare them to their cousins in the Florida Keys. They’ll eat anything at any time simply because no one down here fishes for them. I actually get kind of spoiled after tarpon fishing for a few days in Puerto Rico. Coming from a Key West background, it’s amazing to watch these fish eat with such wild abandon.

So to sum everything up for this past week, we’ve had calm winds, tailing bonefish, and brain-dead tarpon. Throw in the occasional permit that wouldn’t eat but still showed up anyway, and we’ve had a few great days on the water. Let me also mention that the average temperature down here on Vieques is about 82 degrees. So if you’re stuck in one of those ice storms but still have power, give me a call.

Pine Island, January 2009

2009-01-28T16:59:00.000-08:00

I jumped on a plane last Wednesday to spend a week with my family up in Florida. I left an 85 degree Vieques and woke up to a 35 degree Pine Island the very next morning. I actually saw frost for the first time in over a decade.

The extreme cold was both a treat and a curse for my week in Florida. A morning of frost is nothing compared to what the rest of the country is experiencing these days. At least we didn’t wake up to a couple feet of snow or a crippling ice storm. Our biggest problem was the quick plunge in water temperatures that turned the flats species of Southwest Florida into lock jawed aggravation.

Despite the cold, the mangrove creeks surrounding Pine Island Sound were loaded with fish. I never saw so many snook, trout, and redfish in one morning as I did last Monday. Unfortunately, every one of them had us figured out before we could get close with a fly. A couple hundred perfect casts under the mangroves resulted in one briefly hooked snook, and even that didn’t last long.

There are really no surprises about this. We were seeing water temperatures in the fifties last week and that’s cold enough to kill some species. A big cold weather fish kill happened last New Year‘s in the Keys. With such a quick plunge, Southwest Florida’s fish will bunch up in the shallows where they’ll warm up quicker while staying aware of any intruders. In last week’s case, the intruders were myself and a friend on a high tech Maverick flats skiff.

On one positive note, the ladyfish were everywhere, despite the weather, and could be caught with abandon. If you don’t mind getting your boat covered in ladyfish goo, the next cold front that will hit Pine Island this weekend will be a gold mine. So get out there and catch something.

The Mighty Bar Jack

2009-01-20T14:21:00.000-08:00

Bar jacks are a common species on the coral reefs of the Caribbean and Atlantic. They get their name from the bright neon-blue bars that run down both sides of their back.

A good size bar jack weighs in around two pounds and the occasional five pounder is not uncommon. Like every other member of the jack family, they're a tremendous fight on light tackle, especially fly rods. On top of being a great looking, strong running catch, bar jacks are delicious. Unlike most other jacks, they have firm white meat and are perfection when lightly grilled with olive oil and Old Bay.

The fish in this picture was caught yesterday in Ensenada Honda by Idaho angler Greg Gibson. We were hopelessly casting to a parade of tailing bonefish and getting rejected by every single one of them. A serious wake came pushing our way, which I assumed was another huge bone, and Greg threw a perfect shot right in front of it. The take was immediate and the fish burned all the fly line and a pile of backing off his classic Fin Nor reel.

It was the perfect bonefish fight until we got on top of Greg's actual catch. I couldn't believe it was a bar jack. It did everything a six pound bonefish should do except look like one. We were both disappointed that it wasn't a bone but I took a handful of pictures anyway.

Looking back, I have no idea why I felt bummed about catching a big bar jack instead of a bonefish. Here on Vieques, I've landed hundreds of bones on the flats over the last few years and only a few bar jacks worthy of a photo. Maybe that makes them a much more rare prize.

Come to think of it, if someone called me and requested a trip to specifically catch bar jacks on the flats, I'd tell them that they've got their work cut out for them. Casting to tailing permit is much more common.

Big bar jacks are a rare fly rod catch on the flats in most locations. They do everything that bonefish do and can make a great meal at the end of the fight. So why aren't they considered part of the elite flats species? This is a good question.

I have a great answer to this and I'll post it later. For now, if you want to catch and eat a great meal, try landing a bar jack like this on a fly rod. It's a hell of a lot tougher than you think.

Tarpon In A Downpour

2009-01-18T17:42:00.000-08:00

Fishing in the rain is never fun but it's tolerable when it's 80 degrees and the tarpon are biting. This is angler Bill Bruett from New Jersey with a nice fifteen pounder caught on fly on the north shore of Vieques. The rain was really coming down when Bill hooked this fish, but the lack of visiblilty isn't much of a factor with tarpon fishing down here. Most of our tarpon like to hang out in the deeper lagoons where the water is muddy and the bait are thick. So on a day when chasing bonefish would be impossible, catching a nice silver king is always a possibility here on Vieques.

First Bones of 2009

2009-01-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is possible to catch bonefish in twenty-five knot winds, it's just not easy. The fish are here and so is the constant breeze, typical of winter in the Caribbean. These are the first two bonefish we've landed this year after casting to hundreds and loosing a small handful. Conditions are tough right now but the fish are here in good numbers. So if you're on your way to Vieques, practice your double-haul and be ready for some frustration. Also, pinch the barbs down on your flies. They'll be easier to take out of the back of your neck that way.

Stuff I Like: Ask About Fly Fishing's Internet Radio

2009-01-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

This is a really great website I came across that features live weekly interviews with a host of notable fly fishing personalities from both fresh and saltwater. Ask About Fly Fishing broadcasts these ninety minute interviews live on a weekly basis and then makes them available to download within twenty-four hours.

I just finished listening to a great show featuring Capt. Earl Waters of Homosassa, FL. He and host Roger Maves were talking specifically about fishing for the famous giant tarpon of that area. I really enjoyed this interview since I spent a month in Homosassa last summer and got to know Capt. Earl a bit while I was there. We didn't get the chance to fish together that summer but he's the real deal as far as West Florida tarpon guides are concerned.

They concentrate mostly on the how-to and technical aspects of the Homosassa fishery, which makes listening to this show a must if you’re heading that way this season. One of the really cool features of this site is that when you listen live to the broadcasts, you can e-mail in your own questions and have them answered by the guest. My only complaint is that Roger should have spent a second hour and a half just having Capt. Earl tell fishing stories about the Homosassa tarpon fishing back in the Glory Days of the early 1970‘s.

Just click on the Ask About Fly Fishing banner at the top of this post and check them out. They have an extensive archive of all their past interviews and I've already downloaded a few hours worth for my next plane ride back to the States.

The Complete DIY Vieques Flats Fishing Package

2009-01-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

Since Vieques is an excellent destination for the do-it-yourself angler, a lot of folks are e-mailing and calling me with questions about what kind of gear will and won‘t work down here. Since the majority of our visitors are coming from trout or bass fishing locations, many freshwater rods, reels, and flies won’t be the best choice for our bonefish, tarpon, and permit. On top of that, there is absolutely nowhere to buy any fly fishing gear on the island so you’ll need to bring your own.

I’ve decided to set up a link here on this site for those of you who find yourselves empty-handed in the saltwater department and want the gear to hit our flats without breaking your bank account. Click on the green banner below and on the right labeled “Vieques Angler Flats Fishing Store” and you’ll find seven items perfect for heading out on the shallows without a guide.

Starting with an 8 weight rod and reel combo from Wild Water Fly Fishing, you’ll have a great four-piece travel outfit. I first saw these rods last year in Florida and couldn’t believe how well made they were for that price, $235. The reel is machined from 6061 bar stock aluminum and has a carbon disk drag. Ten years ago you would have paid at least $500 for the same technology and capability in a saltwater fly reel. This is a very welcome trend that started a few years ago in fly fishing, the affordable rod and reel. With this combo you’ll also get a matching weight-forward fly line and a 150 yard spool of 30# Dacron backing. On top of all that, their rods come with an unlimited warranty, so don’t worry about breaking it, they’ll send you a new one.

Next you’ll find a box of twelve different proven bonefish and permit flies that will work anywhere these fish are found, especially here on Vieques. At most fly shops you’ll pay around $4 to $5 for some of these saltwater patterns. Here you’ll get them for less than $2 per fly. A tough, pocket size fly box is also shown here and is only $3. These boxes are really handy for a lot more than holding flies.

The leaders I’ve selected are the best available, the Scientific Anglers Mastery Series. You’ll find them in both 9 and 12 foot lengths and I recommend buying the longer of the two. They are tapered to 8, 10, 12, and 16 pound tippets and I recommend the two heaviest for Vieques and the big bonefish you’ll find down here. You’ll want at least two or three of each.

One of the most useful fly fishing tools is also included here and that is the Orvis Micro Scissors/Forceps. These are durable and inexpensive, but most importantly they’re small enough that they can be packed in your carry-on gear and not be confiscated as a deadly weapon by airline security. You are currently allowed scissors blades under three inches and these are shorter. You’ll need them for clipping leaders, removing hooks, and a variety of other uses.

Finally, I’ve included Teva’s Proton Water Shoes in both men’s and women’s sizes. You’ll definitely need some kind of footwear anytime you wade the flats and these are my favorites. I actually own two pair of Water Shoes and wear them constantly, on and off the water. If I’m fishing, I’m wearing my Water Shoes, and if I’m going out to dinner, I’m wearing my dry pair of Water Shoes. Try a pair, you’ll love them. They’re light, comfortable, and a lot better looking than those unattrative Crocs.

So there is everything you’ll need for a Do-It-Yourself bonefishing trip to Vieques or almost anywhere else in the Caribbean. If you pick up all the tackle I recommend above, your total will be $337 before shipping. It’s hard to find a single fly rod in most shops for less than that. You’re also ordering this gear from Amazon.com so you have total security and a quick delivery time. You’ll be in good shape with anything you see on this site, so check out on the green link and feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need some other recommendations.

A Vieques Hitchhiker

2009-01-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

So here I am at the beginning of 2009 on Vieques and I’m in a slump. I have yet to land a bonefish this year and it hasn’t been for lack of opportunities. Our Christmas trade winds died off just before New Year’s Day and the conditions have been outstanding. I should be racking up bones left and right but I’m becoming convinced that the fishing gods are conspiring against me.

Take last Saturday for example. I had a very skilled angler on my boat, a young college student named Kurt who was a real artist with his fly rod. He had great eyes and spotted every fish I pointed out to him. On top of that, he followed every single direction I gave him, starting his casts and presenting his flies exactly when I asked. In other words he was a guide’s dream, and he didn’t catch a damn thing with me.

Kurt had great shots at over a dozen bonefish and actually had two eat his flies, but both came unhooked through sheer bad luck. Sometimes my most deserving anglers are the ones that come home empty handed. So after six hours and nothing but pure frustration, we gave up and headed back to the beach.

I launched my boat that morning at a spot called La Platita, a little clearing in the mangroves out in Ensenada Honda. This is at the end of a five mile dirt road just a few miles short of the old Navy bombing range on the eastern tip of Vieques. After I put in at this spot I’d park my Jeep and trailer way back under the mangroves and go fishing.

When we came back to shore and hauled out the boat I noticed something unusual tucked into a corner of the Jeep’s canvas top. It had a lot of hairy legs and clearly did not belong in my vehicle. I poked at it with my keys, hoping to convince it to leave. But the Giant! Freaking! Spider! had other ideas. It dropped right into the passenger’s foot well and then disappeared. I wasn’t exactly sure what species of spider this was, but it was definitely a member of the I-Really-Don’t-Want-This-Damn-Thing-In-The-Car-With-Me! order of arachnids.

Kurt and I spent a long time poking under the Jeep’s seats hoping to chase the spider out into the open, but it didn’t happen. We finally climbed in and headed down the bumpy dirt road, hoping the monster would stay hidden and not crawl up one of our legs during the next half hour. Talk about a long ride home. When I got back to the house I emptied half a can of Raid under both seats. Goodbye, spider.

So the next morning I decided to head down to Encampment Beach for some wade fishing since I had the day off and really needed to catch a bonefish. I'd forgotten about my troubles from the previous day's trip and was just enjoying a drive through Vieques on a warm January morning. Life was good. Then I looked down and THERE‘S MY BUDDY!

Yes, it was a definitely a tarantula. He was climbing up the steering column and clearly getting ready to do something radical, like drop right down on to my crotch. If I were James Bond driving his special Aston Martin I would have hit the ejection seat right there. Unfortunately, the ‘89 Jeep Wrangler didn’t come with that option so I aimed for the sidewalk and jumped out when the front tire smacked the curb.

Tarantulas are actually common on Vieques but rarely come out in the daytime. I’m not arachnophobic and I’ve gotten quite used to finding them in the dark corners of my garage or laundry room but this was too much. Why can’t they at least chirp like a friendly cricket to let you know they’re coming?

This tarantula avoided the Raid fogging and was clearly trying to make a statement. He crawled to the top of the steering wheel and was staring me down when I finally stepped back towards the Jeep. This was one tenacious spider with a twisted sense of humor, so I decided not to kill him. I snapped his picture to send to my spider-hating friends up in Florida and flung him on to the road with my ball cap.

I could write a whole book on all of the creepy-crawly things I’ve encountered down here in the tropics and tarantulas are far from the worst. They’re totally harmless and their bite is no worse than a bee’s sting. No one has ever died from being bitten by one, but if I'd been careening through traffic in San Juan instead of cruising an empty road on Vieques, I may have become the world’s first tarantula-related fatality. What a humiliating way to go that would be. On top of that fun little incident, I didn’t even catch a fish when I finally got to the beach. That was a really great morning here in Paradise.

First Fish Of 2009

2009-01-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here's our first fish of the year here on Vieques. This five pound mutton snapper came from the flats in Ensenada Honda and hit a root beer colored DOA Shrimp. These big snapper are sometimes common on certain flats down here and make a great sight fishing target. They eat the same things that bonefish and permit feed on and in addition to being great looking, they excellent on the grill. This fish was released unharmed.

Last Fish Of 2008

2008-12-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

This was the last fish we caught this year on Vieques, a twenty pound tarpon that ate a fly in Laguna Kiani. It looks like 2009 is going to start off nicely down here. Our stiff Christmas Winds have finally died down and the morning waters are flat calm. Perfect conditions for tailing bonefish, which is what I'll be chasing for the next several days. Happy New Year.

Christmas In Key West, 2008

2008-12-29T06:43:00.000-08:00

Key West is still on of the best places in the world to chase big permit with fly rods. Pictured here is my buddy Capt. Mike Bartlett with a beautiful twenty pound permit he caught on Christmas morning. Santa definitely didn't put this fish in his stocking, he had to go after it himself with his wife Sandy on the poling platform. Capt. Mike is one of the better permit guides working out of Key West so if you're heading that way give him a call at (305)797-2452 or check out his website at www.keywestflats.net.

Christmas On Vieques, 2008

2008-12-26T16:41:00.000-08:00

Even though the winds are howling again, just like they do every Christmas, we're actually managing to catch some fish here on Vieques. This is angler Chris Martin with a beautiful snook he landed near Laguna Kiani. The muddy water up there is full of bait right now and a sizable school of tarpon having a field day with them at the same time. We've had several in the air but none on the boat lately. Plenty of bent hooks and busted lines, though.

Quit Your Job And Move To Vieques: Part 2, Reason #2762

2008-12-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

It’s getting colder down here on Vieques, too. The water temperature at Encampment Beach today was 79 degrees. This is still in the comfort zone for bonefish and they’re cruising right up in the surf all day long. The fish pictured above is one of three I caught yesterday morning, a nice four pounder which is the average size for this spot on Vieques.

This bones off this beach are best fished with fly rods, especially when the winds are calm, which honestly isn’t very often. My weapon of choice is a is an 8 weight with floating line. I don’t recommend using a freshwater reel here because it may not hold enough backing. Also the sand gets in everything when you wade fish and that can cause havoc with simple click drags. You’ll also want a 9 foot tapered leader with at least a 12 pound tippet. Don’t go any lighter or you’ll get cut off every time. Shrimp flies tied on #6 hooks work almost every time.

The bonefish flat at the end of Encampment Beach is easy to find. You can park under the power lines in Villa Borinquen, about half a mile past the Humane Society, and walk ten minutes down to where the beach ends. If you want to look at this spot on Google Earth then plug in these numbers: Lat: 18° 9'37.79"N, Long: 65°24'57.43"W. And you’re welcome. There aren’t very many fishing guides anywhere who’ll give out the exact geographical coordinates of their favorite bonefish spot. Merry Christmas.

Stuff I Like: Tibor Reels

2008-12-19T16:30:00.000-08:00

Tibor Reels are the best made pieces of fly fishing tackle on earth. I got my first one over twelve years ago as a tip from a customer who owned a fly shop in New England. It was the same black Everglades model pictured above which I spooled up with a 9-weight line, 200 yards of 20# backing, and mounted it to a Sage RPLXi 990. I still have this rig and it’s been my most effective and favorite saltwater combo over the past dozen years. I‘ve used it catch everything from bonefish to blackfin tuna.

Tibor Reels are hand machined out of solid bar-stock aluminum and their shop is located in Delray Beach, FL. These reels come in several different models for rod sizes from 3 to 15 weight. You can chase everything from chalk stream trout to gulf stream marlin with a Tibor.

The most impressive thing about these reels is that they’re totally bulletproof. I’ve never once taken my Everglades apart to clean it, and in fact, I rarely even rinse it off with freshwater after a full day of fishing. A few months ago I landed a nice snook while wading off a west Florida beach and set the rod down right in the surf while I was unhooking the fish. When I picked it back up the reel was full of sand and would barely turn. I simply swished it around in the water and kept moving the handle until the bigger pieces of sand jamming the spool where crunched down enough to free it. It sounded just like a pepper grinder for a few moments and then went right back to clicking away like it was brand new. Even after that I was too lazy to rinse it with freshwater when I got home. I did drop it in the sink with some dishes a few days later just to get rid of the salt crust.

The company doesn’t recommend treating their products like this but it’s nice to know that you can. This kind of quality isn’t cheap. A new Tibor Everglades will cost you $640 at Bass Pro but this is definitely a case getting more than your money’s worth out of a piece of tackle. These reels will honestly last a lifetime and then some. There is very little room for improvement with them so I can’t imagine ever feeling that my Tibors will become obsolete. I currently own three different models and none of them has ever given me a singe problem. They’re some of the best money I’ve ever spent and if you‘re really serious about saltwater fly fishing, you need to own at least one of these reels.

Whale Shark Off Key West

2008-12-17T07:35:00.000-08:00

My buddy Capt. Mike Bartlett sent me this photo of a mid size whale shark he spotted while fishing off Key West. They're rare in those waters but not totally uncommon. Since whale sharks are the ocean's largest fish they have no real predators and are unafraid of humans. They best part about spotting one off the Keys is that they're ususally followed by a school of delicious cobia, which can be caught with ease. Whale sharks are totally protected and even if you had a cargo winch for tackle they only eat plankton. It's really hard to bait a hook with a plankton.

Key West, 2008

2008-12-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

I drove down to Key West last month for a quick visit before I fly back to Vieques for the season. I try to get down there once a year to fish my old stomping grounds, check out what’s new, and remind myself why I don’t live there anymore.

Key West is one of the most unique places in the United States. They call it the American Caribbean even though it’s really located in the North Atlantic. No matter what, it’s still as close as you can get to the real thing without jumping on a boat or plane. The Chamber of Commerce has done an excellent job over the years of selling this island to the party crowd and the once sleepy little fishing village is now a 24/7version of Mardi Gras.

Key West can also be one of the most expensive places you’ll ever visit. It’s nearly impossible to find a decent place to stay for under $100, any time of year. This is one of the reasons that Key West’s tourism is on a serious decline recently.

Five years ago, when real estate prices went through the roof, a lot of hotel owners converted their properties into condos in the hopes of selling these units for huge profits. Unfortunately, the real estate bubble popped loudly and the town found itself with fewer rooms for the tourists that wanted them. Since demand exceeded supply, the places that still had rooms available jacked up their prices beyond what the average Joe could pay. High dollar resorts became the norm for the island even though Key West is far from a destination like Anguilla or St. Barts.

It is still a gorgeous island that needs to be reminded of its deeply seated place in American history; something it should be aggressively promoting. The 18th and 19th century guest houses in Old Town are among the most beautiful in the country. The owners of these places have done a great job preserving them but you’ll pay for the privilege of staying there. Spending at least $200 per night is not uncommon.

The restaurants on Key West are also pricey as hell but some of the best anywhere. If you’re into great food and don’t mind paying for it, a week dining in the Keys won’t be enough. New places are always popping up and most are real prize winners. At the very least, you won’t have any problem finding a perfectly served fillet of grouper or mahi anywhere on Upper Duval Street.

Lower Duval is another story altogether. If you have kids or strong religious convictions, stay as far away from this area, and especially the 200 Block, as possible. When I first moved to Key West I was in my early 20’s, and Duval Street was Heaven on Earth. Back then I had an indestructible liver and no sense of embarrassment. Times have really changed. Now I look at Lower Duval as a perverted zoo where you can’t even get a cheap drink anymore. Even the strippers look ugly to me these days. If you want to pay $4 for a lukewarm beer and hear someone mangle “Brown Eyed Girl,“ you’ll feel right at home.

Despite all of that I still have a big soft spot for Key West. Spending the last few years away from it has made me appreciate and miss the island a little more than I realized. The fishing opportunities in the Keys are still some of the best in the world and booking a great guide like my buddy Capt. Mike Bartlett is the best money you’ll ever spend. A day of bonefishing with him will probably add five years to your life. And hitting the bars on Lower Duval Street for a night isn‘t really all that bad. I look at it like eating a couple of greasy cheeseburgers grilled up on the beach. Not fatal in moderation and better for you than the doctors will ever admit.

I said goodbye to Key West several years ago and don’t regret it for a minute. Vieques had the two things I was most looking for in a new place to live; affordable real estate and miles of uncrowded bonefish flats. Things are much slower these days but the phone is still ringing and the tourists still need to go fishing.

Comparing Vieques and Key West is actually a tough thing to do. They’re at the top of the list of my favorite places on Earth, but they got there in very different ways and for very different reasons. If I had the means (and I definitely don’t,) I’d own homes on both islands. Until that day, I’ll be happy enough as a resident of Vieques and a tourist on Key West.

Quit Your Job And Move To Vieques

2008-12-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

Starting in May of 2009, our fully furnished house on Vieques will be available as a long term rental. The house is located in the Isabel Segunda neighborhood of Mambiche on a very safe and quiet street. This is a very popular part of the island and we’re blessed by many wonderful English speaking neighbors. You’ll be within a ten minute walk to the bank, grocery store, and ferry dock down in the main town.

The house itself is currently set up as a two bedroom, two bath, but the back living room can be turned into a third bedroom or even its own private unit. This back room has a small kitchen and separate entrance. The house was completely remodeled in 2005 with new Kenmore appliances and air conditioners in all the bedrooms. Two satellite TVs and wireless internet are also available. A smaller room connected to the master bedroom makes a great home office.

There are two separate gated driveways and the property is completely fenced. The yard has several native fruit trees such as banana, mango, guava, and cashew and some are productive year round. We also have a huge picnic table and gas grill for outdoor meals. You’ll also have use of my 17 foot canoe for fishing and exploring the Bio-bays.

We’re offering this as a one year lease at $1000 per month plus utilities. We’ll also consider a shorter rental depending on the circumstances. Pets are more than welcome with a small, refundable deposit. If you have any other questions feel free to contact me directly by e-mail at gmckee1@hotmail.com.

Stuff I Like: The Fish Philly

2008-12-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

This is the world’s greatest sandwich. I had one last weekend at Fishbusterz, the small outdoor restaurant located right on the shrimp docks on Stock Island. This place is a little hard to find at first but it’s only a minute north of Key West. Ask directions and look for the signs and you’ll get there eventually.

Calling the sandwich the Fish Philly is a little misleading since it’s actually made with shrimp and lobster, both locally caught and unloaded off the boats right in front of your picnic tables. The lightly grilled crustaceans are covered in a spicy mayo and several slices of melted provolone. That alone would make any sandwich great but what puts this thing over the top is the bread. Fishbusterz actually buys the authentic Philly cheese steak bread from the D’Ambrosia bakery in Philadelphia. Anything else is just a hoagie roll. Our bread tasted like it was baked that morning.

As you can see from the picture, the Philly Fish also comes with a side of lobster potato salad and steak fries. The platter costs around $12. Is it good for you? Hell no. The whole thing is easily about a million calories, but you’ll burn that much after a day of fishing in the hot sun, so quit worrying about it. If you don‘t have a fishing trip scheduled then three weeks of sit-ups should cover it.

If you’re anywhere near the Florida Keys, go to Fishbusterz and order this sandwich as soon as possible. If this isn’t the best thing you’ve ever eaten, there is something seriously wrong with you.

Bonnet Head Sharks, Key West

2008-12-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Catching sharks on a fly is great sport, but it can be a labor intensive effort involving a lot of chum, big bulky flies, and heavy fly rods. Fortunately, there’s one species that’s very user-friendly and can be caught year round throughout South Florida.

The bonnet head shark is the smallest of the hammerhead family and rarely grows over three feet in length. They’re crustacean eaters and you’ll find them on any shallow flat in the South Florida. The bonnet head is so common and easy to catch that guides often call them the “Poor-man’s Bonefish.”

Toss a live crab or shrimp across the nose of a bonnet head shark and you’ll get an immediate take. Like most sharks, their sense of smell is unreal but their eyesight is rather poor. Getting them to take something that doesn't produce a scent, such as an artificial lure or a fly, is a lot more difficult, unless you’re using the right color.

Years ago I picked up a package of rabbit fur strips dyed in a color called Crawfish Orange. It was a little too unnatural looking for tying bonefish patterns but I thought the tarpon would love it. They didn’t, but one morning I asked an angler cast one of these Crawfish streamers at a cruising bonnet head just for target practice and the shark went nuts attacking the fly. I’d never seen one react that way to anything other than live bait.

Since bonnet heads have small mouths and like to pin their prey to the bottom, I tied up a weighted Crawfish Orange shrimp pattern on #4 hooks and instantly started catching these sharks left and right. I also found out that bonefish love the color just as much, and now this color fly is almost all I use in both the Keys and Puerto Rico.

A standard 7 or 8 weight bonefish outfit is perfect for bonnet head sharks and fifteen pound fluorocarbon is all the tippet you’ll need. Their teeth are sharp but their small mouth usually doesn’t reach the eye of the hook. Just be sure to use a pair of pliers or forceps when unhooking them.

Bonnet heads are not a glamour species, but their “poor-man’s bonefish” nickname is well deserved. You can sight cast to them all year in the Florida Keys, even when it’s too hot or cold for everything else. They don’t spook easily and will tolerate a lot of bad casts. This makes them an excellent species for beginning anglers. Ten pound bonnet heads are not uncommon and they can burn off a lot of fly line in a few seconds once hooked.

You can find these sharks on the shallows everywhere in the Keys, even in places where the crowds and jet skis chased away the bonefish years ago. This is one species that you’ll have a realistic chance of hooking in South Florida without using a guide. Pick a good looking flat on the downwind side of US-1 and look for the light grey dorsal fin cutting through the surface. Drop a Crawfish Orange fly on their nose and you’ll be off to the races.

World Record Tarpon, Boqueron, Puerto Rico

2008-11-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

This story deserves a lot more attention that it’s received over the last two years, so I’m posting it here once again.

The tarpon pictured here was caught back in January, 2007 in the waters off Boquerón, on the main island of Puerto Rico. Capt. Francisco Rosario, on the right, was guiding angler Greg Gibson who hooked and landed the fish with a 10 weight Temple Fork fly rod.

Before releasing the tarpon they measured its length at 78 inches and its girth at 48 inches. Using the established mathematical formula, those measurement show that this tarpon weighed in at 225 pounds. That’s 23 pounds heavier than the current world record.

If they had chosen to kill and weigh this tarpon on an IGFA certified scale, Capt. Francisco and his angler would be able to claim one of fly fishing’s greatest achievements. It also would have put Boquerón on the map as a top destination for chasing huge tarpon on fly. Even without this incredible catch, Capt. Francisco routinely posts reports of days with over a dozen or more tarpon caught on fly. You can read his first hand account at the link below.

http://www.worldwidefishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13055&sid=fbe7be38e2eae734688fccead18b422a

The Keys and west coast of Florida are already well established as tarpon fishing hotspots. If you’re looking for somewhere off the beaten path but still accessible to Stateside anglers, give Boquerón, Puerto Rico some serious thought.

Snook Fly Fishing, Lovers Key, Florida

2008-11-20T14:41:00.001-08:00

Snook are probably the most popular game fish on the entire Gulf coast of Florida. When the temps start to drop in November, it can be a great time to look for them around the Lovers Key State Park area. This is a great area for fly anglers in the fall. For starters, the beaches are practically empty. You won’t have to worry about snagging a drunk spring breaker with your backcast in the fall.

Lovers Key State Park is located just south of Ft. Myers Beach on Estero Blvd. It’s unbelievably pristine and you can easily spend and entire day fishing its shoreline and mangroves. Lovers Key is also where you’ll find Dog Beach, which is located just before the bridge that takes you to Bonita Beach. This is one of the very few off leash areas for dogs on this coast and very popular on the weekends. Even if you don’t have a dog with you, stop by and watch. It’s incredibly entertaining.

The snook in these photos were caught off Dog Beach on a very low, incoming tide. They were stacked up right where the shallows drop off into the current and were hitting Clouser Minnows, one after the other. The water temps were in the lower 70’s and the waters had just started rising. There were no obvious bait schools but a good amount of bird activity indicated that something was happening under the surface. None of the snook I saw landed were keepers but they were perfect size for an 8 weight fly rod.

Vieques In November

2008-11-17T16:48:00.000-08:00

I made a quick trip down to the island last week to get things ready for the upcoming season. It was good to get back after spending the last four months Stateside. The one thing that always strikes me the most about Vieques this time of year is how perfect the weather is and how few people are there to enjoy it. The winds were flat calm every morning and this means perfect tailing conditions for bonefish. I caught the fish pictured above on my favorite flat at the end of Encampment Beach. I hiked down to this spot four different times last week and saw bones each time. Anyone with a light fly rod and a few Crazy Charlies could have caught them just like I did.

That same morning, after catching this bonefish I drove down to Blue Beach on the other side of the island and landed this baby tarpon. That was two-thirds of a Grand Slam within an hour on the exact same fly. Once again, I was the only person on the beach. I tried looking for a permit but gave up after a few minutes. That was something I just knew wasn't going to be in the cards that morning.

If you live near a major airport on the east coast, a weekend fishing trip to Vieques is only two plane rides away and prices are actually dropping. What a shame this is considered the off-season.

Blue Marlin Off Vieques

2008-11-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

If you jump off the pier in Esperanza and swim out two miles, the water will be over your head. In fact, you‘ll need to swim about 1500 feet straight down in order to touch the bottom. This is where some truly big stuff lives.

Since all my fishing on Vieques is done in the ankle-deep bonefish flats, I’ll jump at any chance to head offshore and try the Hemmingway thing. I got the chance last week when my buddy Dr. Pedro Watlington, our San Juan based vet and avid angler, ran his twenty two foot Robalo over to the island from his marina in Fajardo.

Pedro brought along his father-in-law Luis, who has spend a lot of time fishing the famous striper grounds off Montauk on his own boat. Rounding out the crew was Capt. J Fergeson , our offshore expert who runs Amity Charters right here on Vieques. Since we had a lot of blue water experience on the boat that morning, I was pretty confident that we’d be able to hook something interesting.

Pedro picked J and I up in Esperanza at 8AM and we had baits in the water thirty minutes later. We were running about three miles from shore to avoid some rain showers when we spotted a flock of diving birds. This is a sure sign of feeding fish under the surface and we could see some impressive splashes from a few hundred yards away.

Just before we reached the feeding zone, J spotted an incredibly fast rooster tail of water slicing across the surface. I couldn’t see what was causing this but the speed was amazing. Luis swung the helm to the right to get in front of the wake but the fin shot ahead of us before it could see the bait spread. In that quick moment I hung myself over the bow to get a better look. The unmistakable shape and glowing stripes of a seven foot blue marlin shot past us like a torpedo. I’ve never seen anything move so fast under the water.

We were trolling at seven knots but the birds and bait kept moving to the west a few knots quicker than that. J and Pedro decided to pull in the baits and run down sea at speed to cut them off. We started cranking in the four rods for the short, full throttle run when the water exploded about fifty feet behind our stern, right beneath the skipping ballyhoo that J was cranking in at full speed. He instantly threw the big Penn reel into free-spool and let the bait fall back. A split second later, J was pumping the short rod furiously, setting the hook into something solid. The same blue marlin launched itself through the surface right in our wake, now firmly attached to the thirty pound line.

J quickly handed the rod off to Pedro, who would fight the fish. As the most experienced marlin angler onboard, J would need his hands free to manage the line and leader once the big fish was close to the boat. Unhooking something with a yard long dagger for a nose can incredibly dangerous, and screw ups have killed people. Luis stayed at the helm and I stayed out of the way, snapping photos every few seconds.

In this part of the Caribbean, blue marlin can grow to over 1000 pounds and several of these “Granders,” as they’re called, have been landed off Puerto Rico in the last few decades. Fighting something like that can take hours on the heaviest of lines. The fish that Pedro was attached to was much smaller but still a handful on thirty pound stand-up gear.

Luis kept the boat right behind the fish as Pedro fought it from the bow. Unlike most marlin, this one wasn’t a jumper, which meant that it was saving a lot of energy and might not tire quickly. Fortunately, we were on a smaller boat that could chase the marlin and not let it rest. Within half an hour, Pedro was able to reel the mono leader up to the surface. J grabbed this heavy length of line which made the catch official. Just as he started sliding his gloved hand down the leader to get control of the fish and remove the lure, the hook pulled loose on its own. This was a perfect release and we watched the seven foot, 175 pound marlin swim away unharmed.

Blue marlin are the most beautiful and exciting offshore species in the world and catching them usually means hiring big yachts and spending big money. There really aren’t many places in the world where a small boat can run a few miles offshore and tangle with one like we did here on Vieques.

Stuff I Like: "Tarpon" The Movie

2008-11-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

Director Guy de la Valdene's “Tarpon” is by far the best movie ever made about saltwater fly fishing. It was shot in Key West in 1973 and captures the town on film as is existed back then the same way that Jimmy Buffett did on his albums of that era. And if the movie’s instrumental soundtrack sounds familiar, that’s Buffett’s work there, too.

“Tarpon” follows a handful of guides and anglers, including author Tom McGuane, chasing these giant fish off Key West well before the rest of the world discovered the sport. It’s fascinating to see how much things have evolved since those days of thick fiberglass rods and flats boats with wood trim. And the sheer numbers of tarpon that these guys practically had to themselves is jaw-dropping. The slow-motion footage here has never been topped.

While the fishing scenes are stunning, my favorite thing about the movie is that it serves as a time capsule for a Key West that no longer exists. The island was my home for over a decade but I arrived too late to see it like this. Duval Street of the early 70’s was a place were you could sit in an open air bar and shoot the breeze for hours at night with your fishing buddies, hammering out the plan of attack for the next morning over cheap long necks while the hippy in the corner sang songs about Nashville. That Key West is so far gone these days that I almost get choked up when I see it in its natural state here in this movie.

The real payoff when you watch “Tarpon” for the first time is its perfect portrayal of fly fishing as a sport for conservationists. In one single scene it drives that message home better than anything that’s ever been written or filmed. I won’t give it away, but when that scene comes, without any narration, you’ll be stunned at the subtle brilliance of it all. It’s the movies entire focus and foundation delivered in one quiet moment.

After it was filmed, “Tarpon” went into limbo. It was shown a few times on TV and then went into Valdene’s vault. Somehow, a primitive video tape was made and started getting passed around by guides and fishermen. Over the last three decades “Tarpon” gained a cult following in the Keys and we used to play a grainy, pirated copy all day long in the fly shop where I occasionally worked. We were pretty sad the day the VCR finally ate the worn out tape. When I heard last March that a remastered version would be released on DVD, I was thrilled. Seeing it for the first time in its original state makes Guy’s achievement even more brilliant than I ever realized.

If you’re a tarpon fisherman, or want to be, owning this movie is a must. This is the “Citizen Kane” of fishing documentaries. If you’re a Jimmy Buffett fan then you’ll also need a copy. Jimmy’s instrumental soundtrack with the early Coral Reefers gives the movie a perfect atmosphere of the Key West that he knew in the 70‘s. If you just appreciate good filmmaking, then pick up a copy, too. Watching it never gets old and you can’t wear out a DVD.

Vieques Humane Society

2008-11-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

I spent this morning fishing for marlin here on Vieques with my good friend and veterinarian Dr. Pedro Watlington. I’ll have a lot more to say about the fishing trip later, but hanging out with Pedro reminded me of all the great work they do down at the Vieques Humane Society. Stray dogs and cats are a serious problem on almost every Caribbean island, and we’re really lucky to have a small but dedicated group to care for them here on Vieques. Our Humane Society runs on a shoe string budget and most of their support comes through individual donations and semi-annual fundraisers. If you’re coming down to the island this season, do yourself a favor and stop by to see them. Amanda and I did three years ago and adopted our beloved dog Maggie. We can't imagine life without her these days. A lot of visitors have come to Vieques and gone home with a new best friend. Maybe you’ll be one of them. Check out this page for some great stories: http://www.viequeshs.org/Success%20Stories.htm.

Maverick Mirage For Sale

2008-11-06T16:12:00.000-08:00

Click here for the full details. The boat is in Key West, FL.

Getting to Vieques, Part 2

2008-11-04T11:04:00.000-08:00

In Part 1 we dealt with taking the ferry to Vieques, the most economical way for a group of three or more people to get to the island from San Juan. For one or two travelers, flying is less of a hassle and will cost nearly the same depending on which airline you choose.

Vieques is serviced by several commuter airlines but my favorite is Vieques Air Link or VAL. You can download their schedule here: http://www.vieques-island.com/val/Schedule.htm. You’ll see that VAL flies out of three different airports but Isla Grande airport offers the most flights from San Juan to Vieques. Flying from Isla Grande is just over half the cost of the same flight from San Juan international. I just paid $92 for a round trip ticket.

If you choose Isla Grande you’ll want to pick a flight that departs for Vieques at least an hour after you arrival in San Juan from the States. Isla Grande is a $20 cab ride from the International airport. The cab stand is right out the door from International’s baggage claim. Depending on traffic the ride should take no more than twenty terrifying minutes.

Isla Grande has a very small terminal and the VAL counter is right inside the door. This is a very low key operation but be sure you have your ID and confirmation number with you. It’s always a good idea to call them a day or two beforehand to double check that they still have your reservation. I’m not sure they actually have a computer for their scheduling. I always see them rooting through a box of 3x5 cards to find my info each time I fly with them. You’ll need to check in thirty minutes before takeoff.

You’re allowed twenty five pounds of baggage and will be charged for anything over that. The VAL agent will also ask for your weight. Don’t lie about this. Smaller aircraft must be properly balanced. You’ll be seated according to where you fit best with the rest of the payload, so don’t magically shave off a few pounds when they ask.

The terminal has very greasy but inexpensive café that serves surprisingly good food and beer. VAL runs a fleet of three different aircraft; very old British Islanders and Trilanders, and new Cessna Caravans. If you’re flying on a Trilander, you’ll want a beer or two. These are not the most comfortable aircraft, they’re actually very loud, but their three engines make them exceptionally safe. The newer Caravans are much quieter and just as safe.

VAL rarely leaves on time but they’re usually in the air within thirty minutes of the scheduled departure. The trip from Isla Grande takes about twenty minutes depending on the headwinds. They fly at 1500 feet and it’s an absolutely beautiful flight along the northeast cost of Puerto Rico. You’ll pass the famous El Yunque rainforest flying just below it’s cloud covered peak.

The airport on Vieques is also small and located two miles from the town of Isabel Segunda. There are several publico vans parked right outside the terminal that will take you to your guesthouse or car rental locations for just a few dollars.

VAL is a great little airline and I’ve never been disappointed with them. For the extra effort of getting to Isla Grande in San Juan, this is my favorite and most cost effective way to travel back and forth from the island.

Getting to Vieques, Part 1

2008-10-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

Getting to Vieques from the States can be easy and reasonably inexpensive. It’s no more difficult than flying to the Florida Keys and less hassle than traveling to almost any other Caribbean island. Here’s a couple of tips on how I do it when I travel back and forth.

For starters, Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth and American citizens currently do not need a passport to enter or exit. This will eventually change but we’ll deal with that later. No matter where you’re flying from in the States you’ll book a flight to San Juan International Airport (SJU). Almost every major east coast city has direct flights to San Juan several times a day and it’s serviced by half a dozen airlines, including American and United.

Book the earliest possible flight into San Juan. If you’re coming from an east coast city like New York or D.C. you can easily arrive before noon. This will give you plenty of time and options to for getting to Vieques that same afternoon.

You have two ways of getting to the island, flying or taking the ferry. Let’s start with the latter. The Vieques ferry is located in the town of Fajardo which is about thirty five miles from San Juan. It departs several times per day and you can download a schedule here: http://www.elenas-vieques.com/ferry.html. From the San Juan Airport you’ll take a taxi van, called a publico, to Fajardo. There is a publico stand just outside the airport’s baggage claim area. The ride currently costs $80 and takes between forty five minutes to an hour depending on traffic. One quick note here: San Juan taxi drivers can be insane. If you’re a soldier coming home from convoy duty in Iraq you’ll be quite comfortable with the trip. For the rest of you, take a Valium and hang on. The cabbies do speak English and you should tip them. I give an extra $20 if we don’t kill anyone on the way.

Once you get to Fajardo you’ll be dropped off at the ferry terminal. You’ll want to buy your tickets immediately. The ticket agents are in the smaller building directly across the street from the main terminal. This can be a very chaotic scene on a small street so get your cabbie to point out where to go.

The ferry costs only $2 per person one way but you may be charged for an extra ticket if your luggage is exceptionally big. Keep your bags with you at all times. Theft is actually rare here and the terminal always seems to have several cops hanging around, but don’t tempt the occasional idiot. If you have a large group and a pile of bags, send one person up to buy tickets for everyone, but point out the group to the agents. They’ll determine if you need extra tickets for your bags. Don’t try to sneak huge luggage on without paying. It won’t work and you’ll probably miss the boat because of it.

Plan on being in the terminal and in line at least an hour before your departure time. The ferry is first come, first serve and once it’s full they leave. Getting on the boat is chaotic at best and the locals will shove their way in front of you to be on first. Don’t get insulted by this. The ferry is the lifeline for Vieques. Many locals work in Fajardo, not to mention go to school, the doctor, and shop on the main island. They all want to get home to their families and they’re not shoving just because you’re a gringo tourist. Keep a smile on your face but be persistent and you’ll get your seat.

The ferries rarely leave on time but usually are usually underway within half an hour of their schedule. If you are prone to seasickness sit on the top deck in the fresh air. The main cabin is air conditioned like a meat locker and in rough water you’ll want your eyes on the horizon. The ride usually takes an hour depending on the sea state. You’ll arrive at the terminal in Isabel Segunda on the north side of Vieques. If you need a taxi to your guesthouse you’ll find several publicos parked off to your right.

Using the ferry puts a lot more effort and uncertainty in your trip to Vieques, but at $2 per person it’s a steal. If you have a party of four you’ll spend around $25 per person, including your cab ride from San Juan. If you take a plane you’ll spend at least $90. I’ll go over some tips on flying in Part 2.

When Sharks Arrive, Part 2

2008-10-29T06:08:00.001-07:00

In Part 1 we gave a brief overview of some common sharks on the flats and how anglers are likely to encounter them. But what happens should you actually find yourself standing in the water with one?

This situation is most likely for anglers wading in calf-deep water for bonefish. It’s happened to me dozens of times and in areas like the Bahamas, seeing sharks is the rule, not the exception. Once the bones start getting hooked, their main predators will inevitably become quite active. A struggling bonefish on the end of a fly line is dead meat once a blacktip or lemon shark gets on its tail. This is also when a wading angler can definitely be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The most obvious thing to do is to break off the bonefish by slamming your palm against the reel to stop the spool. If the bone is not too exhausted it will actually have a fighting chance.

If the shark does succeed, and they often do, you’ll wind up landing what the Bahamian guides call “a nice bonehead, Mon,“ and have a tasty plume of blood in the water. Inevitably, more sharks are going to show up quickly. At this point, if the bonefish are still around, you’d be wise to consider not casting for a while. Each hooked fish will have a very short lifespan when a several of three foot blacktips are on the scene.

In my experience, sharks are just as quick to leave the scene once the scent trail has dispersed. Depending on the flat and its currents this could only take a couple minutes. If they insist on hanging around, the boat or shore is where you want to be for a while.

In rare cases, a shark will start paying a little too much attention to a wading angler, even if it can’t find a struggling bonefish. Just like they tell you to do with bears in the woods, don’t run. Splashing is not a good thing at this point. Stand your ground and keep your eyes glued to the fish. They do not see you as a food source. If they’re calmly swimming circles around your spot they are merely investigating you as an unknown object and will soon move away. If the shark’s body language is rather erratic, quick zigzags and changes of direction, that’s a more ominous sign. Should they come within a rod’s length then it’s time to react. A quick slap on the shark’s nose is almost always enough to send them fleeing. If that doesn’t work, use the butt end of the rod and reel and jam down hard on the shark’s head. I’ve personally had to resort to this on one occasion with a four foot lemon shark and that was all it took. At the time this happened I was covered in bonefish slime and made myself a confusing target to the fish.

Realistically, an angler’s chances of getting attacked by a shark are so slim it’s barely worth considering. Heatstroke is a far more serious threat while fishing on a tropical flat but not nearly as much fun to read about. Sharks on the flats are a sign of a healthy ecosystem and should be appreciated, not feared. At the same time, giving them the respect they deserve will prevent the one-in-a-million chance that your calf muscle will become part of the food chain.

Advice From Capt. Chris Goldmark

2008-10-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a great bit of advice about getting ready for a bonefishing trip from my friend Capt. Chris Goldmark over on our sister island of Culebra. This is one of the most interesting and creative tips about practicing your fly casting and something I would never have thought to try. Read it here: http://www.culebraflyfishing.com/fishing-report.php

When Sharks Arrive, Part 1

2008-10-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Sooner or later every saltwater angler is going to come across a big shark. They’re one of the most exciting and sought after game fish in the ocean, but if your target that day are tarpon or bonefish, that unmistakable shape can be an incoming disaster.

Every flats guide has a bunch of good shark stories. The picture above was taken in the Marquesas five years ago. This was the end result of an eleven foot hammerhead meeting a six foot tarpon. The tarpon wasn’t even hooked by my angler in the photo, it was cut off from its school and pushed onto the flats by the shark. When the hammerhead finally nailed it they were less than twenty feet from my bow and in three feet of water. The chase lasted for over a minute and after one bite it was game over. The big hammerhead simply swallowed the tarpon’s back end and swam off the flat. From the bow of my skiff it was as exciting to see as a pro football game. If I was standing in the water at the time I may have felt differently.

When fishing from a boat you’re a spectator to Mother Nature’s drama. Step into the water and you can become an unwilling participant. This has happened to me several times while wade fishing for bonefish and other species. Sharks are a fact of life on all the world’s tropical flats and a struggling fish at the end of a fly line sounds like a clanging dinner bell to them.

The flats of the Bahamas are the best wading grounds in this hemisphere for bonefish and notorious for sharks. Talk to anyone who’s spent time in that area and they’ll have at least one close call with a prowling shark. I personally set the vertical leap world record when a baby lemon shark brushed my ankle on a flat in Eleuthra. The little two-footer was smaller than the bonefish I was hunting but came closer to killing me than any other wild animal ever has. Cardiac arrest is a serious threat when you’re fishing alone.

The most common species you’re likely to spot on a typical flat are nurse, lemon, and blacktip sharks. They’re all easily distinguished from each other and only the lemon and blacktip pose any threat for biting an angler. The slow moving nurse shark is a crustacean eater looking for conch or lobster. They get quite large but are actually a good sign of life on the flats. The lemon shark is a prime flats hunter and are notorious for attacking hooked bonefish. They’re identified by their yellowish-grey color and twin dorsal fins. I’ve seen these fish over eight feet in length. The blacktips have the classic fighter-plane shape and are beautifully colored. Their speed is astonishing and their leaps when hooked put tarpon to shame.

Only the smallest minority of wading anglers are ever bitten by a shark but when it does happen it inevitably makes the news. I consider stepping on a sea urchin a much more serious danger while I’m out bonefishing but a shark should be taken serious if you find yourself in the water with them. There are a few quick things to do if this happens and I’ll cover those in Part 2.

Booking a Guide for Beginners, Part 2

2008-10-20T05:37:00.000-07:00

Read Part 1 here: http://www.viequesangler.com/2008/10/booking-guide-for-beginners-part-1.html

So you’ve booked your beginner-friendly guide, practiced your casting for a few weeks, and are finally touching down the day before your first saltwater fly fishing trip. Here’s what should happen next.

Once you’ve unpacked, call to check in with your guide. Ask if all is on schedule and double check what you’ve been expected to bring. Remind him if you have a partner, fishing or non-fishing. Write down the directions to where you’ll meet and the exact time you’re expected there. Chances are it will be early in the morning which means one thing: get some sleep. If you’ve got a Key West tarpon trip at leaving at 6 AM, stay off Duval Street the night before. Fishing with a hangover in the hot sun is pure hell and you should avoid it like the plague. Trust me on this one.

Set your alarm clock early and be at the dock on time. Being late means you’re loosing valuable time on the water and guides never like to be kept waiting. Have all your gear with you and completely organized. Let the guide stow everything for you don’t step on the boat until you asked to do so. Your shoes should never have dark soles since these will mark the deck. Most guides are very meticulous about their boats so think about what you may have walked through in the parking lot. Offer to take off your shoes if necessary.

If you have a full day scheduled be sure to have your lunch packed the night before. You won’t be expected to bring food for the guide. Years ago that was the tradition but this has fallen by the wayside. If you do happened to pack an extra sandwich it will be considered a nice gesture and will get eaten. Most guides have extra water but bring more than you think you’ll need for yourself.

Alcohol should be kept to a minimum. Keep in mind that it will actually dehydrate you over the long run and dull your reflexes in the heat. No decent guide will tolerate a drunk angler. This is the ultimate liability and can cost a boat owner dearly. I allow my two anglers to spit a six pack. If you bring beer, don’t offer any to your guide. The Coast Guard considers it highly illegal for a charter captain to drink on the job. Even worse, nothing tastes better than a cold Corona on a hot day. It’s kind of cruel to drink a beer while your guide is working and sweating and can’t have one. Save an extra for back at the dock.

If you brought your own tackle let the guide double check everything. I personally like people to bring their own rods, reels, and flies. I’m a gear junkie and love seeing the new stuff in action. I also like seeing hand tied flies, even if the anger has never been to the salt water before. You never know where the next killer pattern will come from these days. At the same time, be prepared to use whatever the guide tells you. Even if you’ve spent the last month at the vise perfecting your patterns, your guide has been on the water even longer and knows what the tarpon will be eating that day. Always go with local knowledge.

When you finally reach your fishing spot you’ll be asked to make several practice casts. The main reason for this is to allow the guide to size up your abilities in the given conditions. Since you are a beginner, be prepared for a short period of instruction after this. I find this is necessary with nine out of ten first time anglers on my boat. I’ve had guys who were presidents of their Trout Unlimited chapters back home turn into absolute basket cases when faced with a twenty knot wind on a bonefish flat. Freshwater and saltwater can be wildly different, but a decent angler can almost always adjust. The most important thing to do is keep your ears open in order to hear and act on what your guide is saying.

Since Part One of this article has helped you pick out a beginner-friendly and laid back guide, all of your mistakes should be corrected in a calm and constructive manner. The best guides never make a new angler feel bad about missing an easy shot. Your first time in the salt should be considered a learning experience above everything else. It should always be a good time and if your guide does start to slip and get a little too intense, let them know it. As a guide we sometimes forget who we’re working for and can loose our focus. It’s happened to me on both calm and windy days when the fish are everywhere but always three feet further than my anglers can cast. As a guide, your success is my success and sometimes it hurts to see an easy fish swim away. But that’s never an excuse to start yelling at a newcomer. Loosing your temper while guiding actually accomplishes the opposite effect of what you’re trying to do.

At the same time, we really want you to land that fish. Seeing someone with their first tarpon or bonefish is every bit as good as the money you‘re paying us. Keep in mind that saltwater fly fishing depends as much on the angler as the guide on most days. Once the fish is spotted and the boat positioned, all the pressure is on the angler’s shoulders at that point.

With most fly trips you should not expect to keep anything you catch, unless you’re fishing offshore. All the great flats species are strictly catch and release, so keep a camera handy to record your hero shots. If you have a sophisticated digital model go over it’s operation with your guide in advance. Most of us are pretty good with cameras but we can’t keep up with everything. The beauty of digital is the ability to take dozens of shots without wasting film If you have a multi-shot or burst setting on your camera then use it.

Your day should end at the agreed time and not before unless weather is a factor. If the have to head in early to dodge thunderstorms a decent guide will offer a partial refund. If you decide to quit early because you’ve had enough don’t expect much or any of a refund. People rarely get sea sick on the flats and the offshore boats consider it a known hazard for the customer.

You’ll settle up back at the dock in the manner and amount agreed to beforehand. This is when you should think about tipping. There have been several very good articles written about tipping guides but I have a few of my own thoughts. If you book an offshore boat you will and should tip the mate. He’s the one working the hardest for the least money. The same goes for any guide working someone else’s boat or working for a fly shop. Some of my colleagues will be upset by this but owner/operators should not always expect a tip. As sole owner of my boat and business I charge $450 for a full day on the water and that’s what I think my time and effort is worth. If you want to toss me an extra $50 for a great catch or great experience I won’t turn it down. You won’t make me angry if you don’t. If I absolutely had to have $500 or my day is ruined then that’s what I’d charge. None of us are getting rich in this business and expenses are going through the roof. If a young, single guide is boasting 300 days a year on the water, he’s not starving. Tip what you can afford. If you’re a nice person we’ll always welcome you back.

One thing that I feel is worth more than a tip these days is a nice follow-up online. I love getting e-mails from happy customers and really appreciate a good write-up on Trip Advisor or one of the dedicated fly fishing forums like www.reel-time.com or www.itinerantangler.com. This sends instant business our way and is worth far more than an extra $50 and keeping your experience to yourself. Since you used the internet to find your guide, use it to sell him to others.

Hurricane Omar

2008-10-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

This storm passed quickly over Vieques yesterday with minimum damage. The eye of the Hurricane stayed mostly to the east so the island received winds less than 75 mph. If you have travel plans in the next few days there should be no major problems. Gas could be had to get in the mean time since high seas severely affect the ferry service. Call ahead and check with your rental car company or guest house about this. Trip Advisor has an excellent Vieques forum with a couple people reporting every few hours about the what's happening on the island. Log on over there if you have some specific questions and they'll get a quick answer.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g147326-i649-Isla_de_Vieques_Puerto_Rico.html

Booking a Guide for Beginners, Part 1

2008-10-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

So you’re heading to a warm, sub-tropic location for the first time and you have the funds for exactly one day of guided saltwater fly fishing. The outdoor shows and magazines have filled your head with dreams of linebacker sized tarpon at the end of your fly rod, but your fishing experience begins and ends at the local bluegill pond.

You’ve also heard the horror stories of folks booking expensive guides who looked so professional on their websites but then turned short tempered and rude with amateurs like yourself out on the water. It does happen, and forking over $500 to get yelled at all day will both ruin your vacation and keep you away from the sport forever. Here’s how to avoid this.

First the good news. Most charter captains these days are decent people. We’ll use my former home of Key West and an example here. When I started guiding fifteen years ago there were probably thirty or so full time flats guides on the island. I knew almost all of them by name and reputation and would have gladly fished with the majority. But there were some notable exceptions. These “guides” I’m talking about, and there were only a couple, were egotistical, f-word screaming defects. One of them was almost always hung-over, too. I wouldn’t wish them on an Al-Qaida member and would cringe when I saw a nice young couple stepping on one of their boats, totally unaware of what they had coming. (And no, I will not name any names here because I still go back to Key West occasionally.)

Even though the screamers are a rare breed, there's simply too much competition and word get around quickly these days, not every guide is receptive to beginners. Some guides simply don’t want the hassle and that’s fine. Plenty of captains are happy to welcome someone to the sport and deal with your mistakes. To make the most of your time and money you need to book someone who’s going to be both a guide and a teacher.

The best place to start is right here on the internet. This is an amazing tool for planning everything on your vacation. A quick Google search of your location and the words “Fly Fishing Guides” will turn up numerous hits. To save time you’ll need to fine tune your search so add the names of the fish you’re hoping to catch, such as tarpon, bonefish, snook, etc. Be sure to check out some online forums. You’ll find a lot of firsthand reports from other anglers written there and you can simply make a post asking for a recommendation.

Now you should start clicking on the guide’s websites. Their sites should tell you all of the basics. The rates, species available, type of gear and boat used, and the exact location the trip departs from are some of the first things you should learn. A page full of hero pictures is always nice and another page of testimonials from happy customers is a real bonus. Most importantly you should look for the words “Beginners Welcome.”

Since you are beginner a this sport you’ll still have some more questions that the websites might not answer. Write these questions down then pick up the phone. Most folk would send an e-mail at this point but I don’t recommend that for someone booking their first charter. Get the guide’s cell number and call them instead. After 4 PM is the best time since they should be off the water but not yet sitting down for dinner. Having a direct conversation with a guide will reveal a lot about the person you’re hoping to hire. If they’re abrupt, impatient, or even slightly rude with your questions on the phone then they’re probably going to be the exact same way with you on the water. Remember, you’re a beginner at this and you shouldn‘t know everything. Don’t be afraid to ask what seem like dumb questions. To help keep the guide’s cell minutes to a minimum, here’s some of the things you should go over on the phone:

- Let them know that you’re a beginner and will need some coaching. Their first words should be “No problem.”

- Ask what you’ll be targeting on your trip and what you can do to prepare for it. Saltwater fly fishing requires longer casts so be honest about your abilities.

-Decide on the length of your charter. Most guides offer four, six, and eight hour trips. Your trip starts the minute you set foot on the boat so find out how much actual fishing time you’re going to get.

- Ask what you’ll be expected to bring. Polarized sunglasses are at the top of this list.

- Go over the deposit, payment, and cancellation policy. That last item is important. You’ll need to know exactly what happens if you have to change your plans. It should be fair to both parties. Also ask about a the guide’s weather cancellation policy. You should not have to go fishing in a thunderstorm.

- If you bought a new rod just for this trip, that’s great. Let them know what it is. You should not hear “What a piece of junk.” If what you have isn’t appropriate for what your targeting they should explain why.

- If you’ll be using the guide’s tackle ask if the fly reels are left or right hand retrieve. For some anglers this is an issue.

- If you have a non-fishing partner that would like to come along ask if they’ll be welcome. If the guide has room on the skiff the answer again should be “No problem.”

The best guides will always make time to answer your questions. Some of my buddies used to gripe about returning calls at the end of the day from people who didn’t e-mail them first. Yes, pushing a boat around in the sun all day is exhausting, but I’d always point out that you’re exhausted from fishing. We weren’t in an O.R. for the last eight hours separating conjoined twins. No matter how wiped out or stressed I am at the end of the day I can always cheer up and talk fishing for a few minutes with someone who wants to hire me.

If your questions are all answered and you feel comfortable with the person on the other end of the phone then book the trip. The guide should not pressure you book immediately but keep in mind that open days go quickly in prime seasons. If you’re hoping for a Key West tarpon next June make sure to get on someone’s schedule by Christmas.

Follow up your conversation with an e-mail confirming your dates. It doesn’t happen often but guides sometimes accidentally double book. Answering the phone at happy hour is usually the cause of that. I’ve double booked charters a couple times and it’s embarrassing and sometimes difficult to fix. A follow up e-mail helps to avoid this.

Once you’re set then grab a rod and start casting. If it’s snowing then find an empty basketball court. You’ll need the practice and your guide will appreciate the effort. And remember, no matter where you’re headed, the wind is always blowing.

In part two we’ll go over what to do on the day of your charter.

Bonefish Caught in Charlotte Harbor

2008-10-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

This is a really interesting fishing report from Southwest Florida. Capt. Van Hubbard of Let’s Go Fishin’ Charters managed to land all three species of the Keys Slam while fishing in Charlotte Harbor, 150 miles from the Keys. His first fish was a tarpon which are very common throughout most of Florida, especially during the fall around Charlotte Harbor. The next catch was a couple of small permit, also a common species over the deeper wrecks and reef of Southwest Florida. He completed the slam by landing a small bonefish, his second one this week.

The two bonefish are the real story here. Both were caught on pompano jigs in about ten feet of water. As you can see in the photo they’re rather small specimens compared to the average Lower Keys bonefish. This is an exceptionally rare species in these waters. They’re commonly caught from Biscayne Bay south and almost nowhere else in the continental U.S. The fact that two bones were caught on the same boat in the past week may point to something interesting. I’m in no way a marine biologist but this might mean that we have an unknown bonefish nursery in or around Charlotte Harbor. This is a species that has only been well researched over the past decade, especially through tagging and census count from groups like Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited.

News of two small bonefish won’t, and shouldn’t, bring a flood of anglers to Charlotte Harbor in search of the grey ghost of the flats. I’ve been fishing these waters on a regular basis for seven years and have never seen or heard of one being caught here before. Stranger things have happened but this is one of the rarest of the rare. Hopefully these catches will bring even more attention to this area that a lot of people consider one of the country’s best fisheries.

Click here to contact Capt. Van: http://www.captvan.com/

Spotted Sea Trout: Florida's Easiest Game Fish

2008-10-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

In Florida, spotted sea trout are flat fishing’s version of the bluegill pond. They’re found everywhere on both coasts year round. They only get a little scarce down in the Lower Keys. As a shallow water fish, anyone can access them with or without a boat. Here on the west coast simply wading from shore is one of the most popular way of fishing for sea trout. Hop into a kayak and you’re even more effective.

The other reason I call them Florida’s easiest game fish is their eagerness to hit almost anything. Toss a live shrimp under a cork and it’s gone within seconds on a good grass flat. Since fly fishing is my preferred method, I use a seven weight rod with a variety of streamer patterns. Here around Pine Island a green and white Clouser minnow can get a strike on every cast in many places. Two days ago I landed thirty trout in just over an hour. Only one of them was over fifteen inches, the minimum legal size, but I wasn’t out there looking for records. Constant action in stead of quality is what I’m looking for some days.

Sea trout are the perfect target for an angler with absolutely no saltwater experience or gear. A five or six weight fly rod will cast a #4 Clouser with no problem. Your click-drag freshwater reel rigged with floating line is more than enough for any sea trout you’re likely to find in Florida. With a tapered twelve pound leader you can strip these fish in by hand. Sea trout have a great strike but are not a strong running fish. They spend most of their energy thrashing on the surface and I’ve never had one get into the backing on my reel.

In case you’re worried about freshwater gear in the salt, don’t be. Any rod or reel made in the last ten years can handle a saltwater environment as long as it’s cleaned at the end of the day. Drop the reel, line and all, into a sink filled with warm water and dish soap for a few minutes and that will dissolve any salt crystals.

Fly Fishing Back Then...

2008-10-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

As a history buff I’m especially fond of fishing stories from the 1940s and 50s. This was a time when salt water fly fishing was still in its infancy. Back then there were maybe two dozen guides in all of the Florida Keys who specialized in catching tarpon and bonefish. They were a unique group of captains who, along with their intrepid anglers, where actually inventing the sport with each new fish they caught.

This was the post-war era and the many of these men were military veterans. From their time in the service they learned that the best way to stop someone from screwing up was to scream loudly. They ran their charters in the same manner. If they worked hard to pole you within fifty feet of a laid up tarpon, your fly was going to land exactly where they wanted it RIGHT NOW, and you better not miss. Or else.

The most well known member of this group was Capt Stu Apte. A jet pilot by trade, Apte flew fighters over Korea and later, 747s for Pan Am. For several years between those gigs he became the most sought after flats guide in the Keys. His world record tarpon catches are legendary and so was his intensity on the water. Stu demanded perfection from his anglers and their equipment. He was famous for meeting customers well before a charter to check their gear, and wouldn’t hesitate to tear fly lines and leaders apart if they weren’t rigged to his standards. Considering some of the primitive tackle back then this isn’t surprising. Apte’s time on the water was extremely valuable and he wouldn’t allow a possible world record to be lost by an angler’s lack of preparation.

Years ago I fished with an older gentleman who chartered Stu Apte in the 1960s. He talked about an unbelievable morning when the fish were rolling everywhere but he just couldn‘t get his act together. Apte put him on tarpon after tarpon but he blew every cast. Apte’s constant berating became so intense that the angler actually started having chest pains. He called it a day at that point but was back in the hot seat the next morning.

Most anglers today wonder why anyone in their right mind, especially a wealthy CEO, would put up with such treatment, let alone pay good money for it. I asked the same thing and his answer was obvious. Stu Apte was both an unforgiving taskmaster and the best tarpon guide anywhere. If you did what he said to do, when he said to do it, you would catch a tarpon on a fly rod. At a time when that was a rare feat, you truly something to brag about. Every morning on the water back then was a chance to make angling history and an open spot on Apte‘s schedule wasn‘t wasted because of some minor chest pains.

Apte’s impact on the sport went far beyond a his years as a charter captain. His work on TV in 1970s, especially with ABC’s American Sportsman series, really exposed the sport to the world. Seeing some of that old footage today, you can’t help but be impressed by how much they did with so little. Fiberglass rods, heavy boats, and huge cameras that used something called film made that aspect of Apte’s career even more fascinating.

Times have really changed over the past forty years. There are hundreds of fly fishing guides in the Keys today and very, very few of them are ex-fighter pilots. The competition for charters is fierce and anglers won’t pay $500 to be screamed at all morning. During my time in Key West I knew a couple guides who used that tactic but none of them were even close to Apte’s caliber on the water. These guys lost their tempers when clients failed but would then credit their own guiding skills when they succeeded. Ego and bragging rites at the dock were more important than teaching a novice or advancing the sport. Those are things that men like Apte had already done for us.

I’ve met Stu Apte briefly on a couple different occasions, both of them charity tournaments and he was extremely personable, especially to the younger guides who often act like little-leaguers meeting Derek Jeter. I’ve never fished with him but friends have told me that all his intensity is still there. It would have been an incredible experience to be on the water with Apte in the early 60’s. To see the undeveloped Keys and waves of tarpon unaffected by a gauntlet other boats has always been a dream of mine, even if it meant some serious chest pains every time I blow a cast.

Vieques News: The Esperanza Inn

2008-10-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

Here's some great news for anyone coming down to Vieques and looking to stay in the Esperanza area. My good friends Capt. J and Lisa Fergeson bought the venerable Ted's guesthouse and have reopened it as the Esperanza Inn. The place has been given a top to bottom remodel which has made it much more comfortable and modern while keeping all of its Vieques character. The Inn is located just steps off of the Malecon which puts you within walking distance of the docks where J and Capt. Franco Gonzales both launch their charters. An added bonus is being right in the middle of the party scene that happens each weekend on the Malecon without having to worry about driving anywhere after a few Medallas. Check their link out on the right side of this page.

Stuff I Like: Beavertail Skiffs

2008-10-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

I retired my well used 1993 Maverick Mirage for a new Beavertail B-2 last year. For the type of fishing I do on Vieques the Beavertail was the perfect boat. I can launch it from the sand at Blue beach, run safely across three foot seas with two anglers, and silently pole the bonefish flats of Ensenada Honda in six inches of water. With my 50 horsepower Yamaha outboard I can usually fish all morning and use less than two gallons of gas. The best feature of all was the price. The entire package cost half of what the more well known competition has to offer. Beavertail has come out with a new model this year, the BTX. The website http://www.microskiff.com/ has an excellent review of the new skiff here: http://www.microskiff.com/reviews/boats/beavertail-BTX.html. I plan of ordering one of these to use for my summer and fall seasons in Pine Island. A highly recommended boat for anyone serious about fly fishing.

Pine Island News

2008-10-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

Linked below is a good article about Pine Island from Miami Herald writer Sue Cocking. After spending the entire summer on the water up here I've really come to feel that this is one of the best fly fishing destinations in the country. It's very easy to get to Southwest Florida and staying here is much less expensive than the Keys. October is known for its great tailing redfish action and I see them every day a low tide. They can be as hard as bonefish to catch with a fly but the added bonus is that you can take one home and eat it.

http://www.keysnet.com/fishing/story/27227.html

More Vieques News

2008-10-02T13:29:00.001-07:00

This is the time of year when a lot of folks are making their plans to come down to Vieques for a winter vacation. It’s a good idea to plan early and be sure to book a rental car even before you book your accommodations. My fishing schedule is starting to fill up a bit and as of right now I plan on flying back to Vieques in early December. I’ll be available until the beginning of May, 2009. Even though gas prices have gone up quite a bit my rates will stay the same as last year: $300 for a half day and $450 for a full day for one or two anglers. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at gmckee1@hotmail.com or call me at (787)435-4833. Hope to see you down there.

The Best Bonefish I Ever Caught

2008-10-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons I moved to Vieques was its bonefish population. This is my favorite species to chase and Vieques is the best place I’ve ever fished for them. This isn't saying that Vieques is the best place on Earth to fish for them. From what I’ve been told and read, that title would probably go to the Seychelles or Christmas Island, two exotic locales that are half a world and about $10,000 away from me right now. But I have a home right here on Vieques, and we have a handful of flats where I can catch tailing bonefish any day of the year. That’s what makes Vieques my favorite bonefishing destination so far. But my favorite bonefish came from somewhere else.

A customer asked me about this a while ago when we were chasing fish across the incredible flats of Ensenada Honda. “What was the best bonefish you ever caught?” It was kind of a tough question but after rattling off the stories of a few memorable catches, he was surprised at what the answer finally was.

My biggest bonefish was a ten and a half pounder that I landed about eight years ago near Key West. That was a memorable fish. I actually thought it was a barracuda at first, sitting dead still over a sandy patch on the flats. My buddy and I were looking for bones at the time but not seeing any. I decided to hit the fish with my shrimp fly just for target practice. I wasn’t too surprised when it shot forward and ate because barracuda are prone to do that when you don‘t want them to. What did surprise me was my line not being sliced a few seconds into the first run. Then the fish never jumped, which is something cuda do frequently when hooked. That’s when I thought, “We might have a big bonefish here,” and it was.

Ten and a half pounds is impressive but Florida bones get bigger. Up in Islamorada, the bonefish capital of the Keys, a fish that size will get you some high-fives but not much more. You need to beat the twelve pound mark to get in the sports page and the current fly rod record is just under sixteen pounds.

So that was the best bonefish I ever caught until two years ago. This changed when were on our honeymoon down in Grenada, an island with almost no bonefishing opportunities due to its lack of flats. Grenada wasn’t my first choice but when you fish for a living it’s hard to sell a fishing trip as a honeymoon to a non-fishing wife. The island was fantastic anyway, and I still packed my fly rod to use at the numerous beaches, but had little luck for the first few days.

Amanda and I decided to take an overnight trip to the smaller island of Carriacou, an hour’s ferry ride north. Carriacou is like Grenada’s version of Vieques, smaller and sparsely populated but with fantastic beaches. Once again, no one knew much about finding macabi, as bonefish are called throughout the region, but I hit the beach below our guest house anyway, casting a little Clouser into the surf, hoping to bend a rod on something.

My line came tight after a few casts and I was relieved that something finally picked up the fly. I got a two second run and then some quick tugs that told me I hooked a snapper or small jack. I hand-stripped the line in and my catch floated in with a wave at my feet. It was a tiny bonefish, less than ten inches long and weighing maybe half a pound. It was the smallest one I’d every seen.

Amanda started walking over to get a picture of my ridiculous but very satisfying catch when the beach behind me erupted with noise. A half dozen school kids in their swimming trunks came running down the sand towards me. They surrounded us and were jumping up and down pointing at my fish, jabbering questions in their heavily accented Patois, an island version of English that I could barely understand. These kids had never seen a fly rod before, let alone somebody use one to catch something, and I had never seen anyone so excited over a half pound bonefish.

The oldest boy finally asked me in Tourist English if they could keep it. Even though I’ve always released them, bonefish are popular throughout the Caribbean for fish stew. This one would go home as their contribution to the evening meal. When I handed it over they actually broke out into a song right there on the beach. It was in the same heavy Patois but I understood the meaning. It was their “Thanks for the Fish” song and was one of the best parts of our honeymoon. That’s what made the smallest bonefish I ever caught the best bonefish I ever caught.

Stuff I Like: Mitzi Skiffs

2008-09-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Mitzi Skiffs are a great little flats boat made in Jacksonville, Florida. I bought a used 16 footer a few days after we came back to the States for the summer and I’ve really enjoyed it. The one I’ve got is a 2003 hull rigged with a Mercury 40 HP 4-stroke outboard. I’m a dedicated Yamaha guide nowadays but this has been a fine motor and really sips gas. I can go fishing all afternoon and burn about two gallons of gas. At $3.75 a gallon, that’s really important.

This boat isn’t as sophisticated as my excellent Beavertail B-2 that I use for charters down on Vieques but that’s not what I was looking for. My budget allowed for a used boat and this fit the bill perfectly. The Mitzi is best for two anglers in smooth water. It’s a bit tippy so you have to move around the deck carefully, but it poles in less than six inches and is dead quiet in the water. I’ve caught some impressive fish off of it and didn’t have to spend five figures. Brand new this boat would have cost about $16,000.

That seems like a lot of money for a 16 foot boat but compare it to some of the competition. A new Maverick Mirage HPX will cost around $35,000. The Maverick is a more complete fishing machine which is why they’re so popular with guides and I still own a very old one. For a weekend angler they’re ridiculously overpriced. A Maverick will get you where you want to go a lot faster and look prettier once you’re there, but the little Mitzi will pole up to the same flat a little while later and fish right alongside any carbon fiber wonder machine.

But the real reason I wrote this short review is that my Mitzi is now for sale. I’ll be heading back to Vieques in two months and will be ordering a new Beavertail when I come back up to Pine Island next year. So if you’re looking for a fun and very economical little fly fishing boat in excellent condition, shoot me an e-mail. I’m asking $8500 and that’s as cheap as you’ll find one of these boats anywhere in Florida.

Flies for Vieques

2008-09-29T09:43:00.001-07:00

The inshore waters of Vieques can be effectively fished with only a small handful of flies. Since the island doesn’t have a fly shop, you’ll need to bring your own bugs and this can be quite a pain considering the security situation with the airlines. The good news is that four different patterns will work for every species on the flats down here.

The first and most important fly is the Clouser Minnow. I’ve posted before that there are very few game fish that won’t eat a Clouser. You could come down here with a dozen of these and catch just about everything that swims near or off our shoreline. This pattern is exceptionally easy to tie in endless color combinations. They can also be purchased at any fly shop or online and rarely cost more than $3 a piece, depending on their size. My personal choice is white and green on a #2 hook. Tarpon, snook, jacks, and snapper eat these anytime of day.

Since Vieques is a prime bonefish destination, shrimp patterns are a must. The one pictured here is my own creation but it’s also a close variation of many commercial flies. Crosscut rabbit strips are my favorite material and give a terrific lifelike movement to any fly. The two best bonefish colors are tan or crawfish orange. The dumbbell eyes make it run point up so it won’t snag the coral. These are also easy to tie and I prefer a #4 hook. A similar commercial pattern to buy would be the Borski Fur Shrimp or Redbone Fluff. This is the best fly for our big tailing bonefish and I’ve had plenty of small tarpon and a few permit eat it, too.

Speaking of the ever elusive permit, we have them on Vieques but unlike Belize or the Lower Keys, you won’t get many shots. It’s important to make the ones you do get count so that means a crab fly. We go back to the basics here with the classic Merkin pattern. Del Brown’s hunk of rug yarn is still the best artificial to throw at this sometimes infuriating fish. A lot of guides, especially up in the Keys, now claim to have top-secret permit flies, and they’re landing some really impressive numbers these days. If you do get to peek into their highly classified boxes what you’ll see are turbocharged versions of the standard Merkin body. The one pictured here is my example. It features longer knotted legs and rabbit strips instead of hackles for claws. The store bought Merkins still work but are now considered old fashioned, the legs are generally too short. The Puglisi crabs are a good but pricey alternative. Buy or tie these on #2 or 1/0 hooks. Bonefish and almost everything else will eat them, too.

Lastly we have a dedicated tarpon fly. The three patterns already mentioned will catch the average twenty pound Vieques tarpon all day long, but every once in a while we get some real prize winners off the north shore, not to mention the potential world records that regularly cruise the waters of San Juan or Boquerón on the main island. For these triple-digit fish you’ll need one of the many dozens of patterns tied on tarpon size hooks. Most of them work the great if the presentation is right but again I go with rabbit fur for its underwater action and ease of tying. This is the red and black version of the Apte Too created by the legendary Stu Apte for Keys tarpon. It works everywhere. These are effortless to tie and available in multiple colors. I love the red and black because I can see it so well underwater and always know where it is in relation to the fish. I tie these on 1/0 or 2/0 Owner hooks which are the sharpest ones available.

So that covers it. Bring a box full of these patterns down and you’ve got the ammo for any shallow water fish that swims around Vieques or all of Puerto Rico, for that matter. Of course, if you hire a guide then tie on whatever they tell you at first, even if it‘s nothing mentioned here. We all have different opinions about what’s best and none of us are ever wrong.

Pine Island Jacks, Late September

2008-09-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

Early fall is probably the most perfect time to be on the water in Southwest Florida. The constant wall of humidity has broken and the morning temperatures are so pleasant that you can't imagine not catching something great each day.

The real star of the show lately has been the big schools of jack crevalles that have been hanging near the shoreline of Matlacha Pass. Pound for pound, jacks are the strongest fish in the ocean. The one pictured here weighed only five pounds and took as many minutes to land on thirty pound line.

If these jacks got as big as tarpon, people would be afraid to go in the water around here, and actually they do get almost that big. Forty pound jack crevalles have been caught throughout Florida and the world record is currently fifty-seven pounds. That's a fish you could water ski behind and I can't imagine the fight.

I had an angler on Vieques earlier this year hook a ten pounder on fly and we fought it for half an hour. I even had to chase it with the motor running to stop it from spooling us twice. Jacks are ugly and taste like crap but I'd burn a tank full of gas to catch a good one. Fortunately, we can do that just outside our back door this time of year.

Some Vieques News

2008-09-24T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've been on the phone with several folks on this island this week. It seems the latest Tropical Depression to form over Puerto Rico last weekend dumped and enormous amount of rain, causing a lot of flooding and landslides. As a result, the DSL service to a good part of Vieques has been out for several days. I also suspect that cell phone service for certain customers or on some parts of the island is down for now. This is the time of year that we start getting calls and e-mails from people booking for next season. It's a good idea to firm up your travel plans to Vieques right now, but don't be discouraged if the people down there are a little slow responding this week. I plan on heading back to the island in December but both Capt. J Fergeson and Franco Gonzalez are still running trips. If you're trying to book Capt. J or Franco and can't get through, feel free to call me at (787)435-4833 and I'll do my best to get in touch with them.

Mullet on the Fly

2008-09-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

The flats around Pine Island are covered with huge schools of mullet. Everywhere you look, especially at low tide, you'll see them launching themselves out of the water like small tarpon. No one is exactly sure why they do this but it makes them an ulikely but inviting target for a fly rod. The only problem is that they're strict vegetarians.

The trick is to tie a fly that looks like a hunk of algae. This isn't very tough but it requires small hooks and a material called Krystal Dub. Wrapping a thumbnail sized piece around a dry fly hook will be convincing enough. The technique is to simply cast into a feeding school and wait for the fly to mistakenly get inhaled. Once hooked they put on a great fight, especially on a 6 weight or lighter rod.

Mullet are great to eat when smoked or fried. They were once commercially caught by the ton throughout Florida with huge gill nets. This practice was banned in 1995 and since then the mullet populations have exploded. You can't go anywere on the shallows of this coast without seeing them by the hundreds. Even better news is that all of the really prized fly rod targets, such as snook, trout, reds, and tarpon, feed heavily on mullet. By finding the prey, you'll usually find the predators. And if the predators can't be hooked, you can try fishing for the prey.

Fly Rod Slam

2008-09-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

Today I landed my first Gulf Coast Slam caught entirely on flies. For those unfamiliar with the term, a Slam means catching a snook, sea trout, and redfish during the same trip. Landing all three with a fly rod is more difficult than using lures or live bait. Even though I did land this Slam with a fly, it was much harder than it should have been.

It started out as a quick boat ride to check out a low-tide flat just two miles south of our rental house here on Matlacha. When I throttled the skiff off plane the flat was teeming with mullet and tailing redfish. I dropped the anchor in less than a foot of water and walked about fifty feet from the boat, casting into the nearest boil that looked like feeding reds. My #4 shrimp pattern was instantly eaten and a five pound redfish was on the reel and pulling line into the backing. A legal size red and an 8 weight fly rod are made for each other. The fight was a beautiful thing to behold and when it was done I tossed this fish into the live well for dinner.

A few double hauls later and my fly line came tight on another fish, but this one jumped as soon as I set the hook. Fish #2 for the morning was a three pound snook, around seven inches less than legal but a blast to catch on the fly. After the photo I realized I had a problem. I'd caught two of the three Slam species on fly in less than a half hour. The only one I needed now was a sea trout, probably the easiest fish of all to find in Matlacha Pass. "No problem." I told my sunburning wife, "We'll get one right away at this next spot."

Three and a half hours of "Next Spots" later, I still didn't have my trout. And here's where things got really messed up with this Slam. Sea trout are the most common species around these waters right now. On a normal morning in late September I can catch dozens of them on almost any bait, especially the flies I was throwing. That wasn't happening today. I needed one lousy trout to complete my Slam and where the hell was he? I caught a redfish and snook in a half hour without trying and couldn't rent a sea trout anywhere in all of Florida. That made me very sad and angry at the same time.

The trout did finally show up just north of Matlacha, about four hours after we left our dock. Amanda caught one on a spinning rod to get us the Boat Slam, but it didn't quite count. We caught all three at that point but I needed one on a fly to make my personal effort official. Twenty minutes later I eventually got one close to the boat that threw the hook and sent my blood pressure into orbit. This was worse than catching nothing. Why the hell is a Slam so hard?

I kept tossing flies for another hour. My shoulder and neck were killing me by then from blind casting, but my line finally came tight on a big fish. It thrashed around at the surface and I knew I had my keeper trout. A minute later it was boatside and now I was beyond thrilled. This was a legal fish, just over twenty inches.

The usually easiest of the three to catch caused me the most trouble. It was a beautiful metallic colored trout, close to twenty-two inches long. A fish like that has "Fine Meal" written all over it, but I let it go. I wanted it to swim away as a reward despite all my trouble. He won't be so lucky the next time.

More Giant Black Drum

2008-09-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

We finally landed one of these huge fish this morning. I posted a report and photos of the massive school of drum we found last week, but I never got one into the boat until today. I hooked it off the bottom while fishing with my dad near McCardle Island, just a few miles south of Matlacha.

This is an impressive looking catch in the photos but it didn't require any angling skill. Unlike their close cousin the redfish, black drum of this size fight like a bag of cement, and taste like one, too.

The most exciting part was seeing hundreds of his schoolmates tailing all around us on a two-foot deep oyster bar earlier that morning. The acre sized school was a ignoring everything we tossed their way and was totally indifferent to us driving all over them. They had no fear of my boat and if shanking a black drum with a bow and arrow was legal in Florida, then I could have fed our entire island for a week.

This particular thirty pounder finally sucked up the wrong bait. I caught it in ten feet of water while I was casting at some beautiful rolling tarpon. I had it to the boat in less than ten minutes and released him right after these photos. So after a week of trying, I finally got my picture taken with one of the ugliest fish that swims around Pine Island. Mission accomplished for now and I'll be back to the reds and snook for the rest of the year.

Hurricane Season

2008-09-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

September is here and it’s obvious that we’re in for a very active Hurricane Season. So far up here in West Florida we’ve felt the effects of two storms, Fay and Gustav, and are currently keeping an eye on two more systems out in the Atlantic while waiting to see where Hurricane Ike will turn. After what was essentially a two year hiatus, the tropics are going to be much more temperamental this fall.

Compared to the States, Vieques has had it very easy for the past several years. Since I moved to the island back in 2005, we’ve never once had to secure our house for an oncoming storm. In fact, the last hurricane to seriously affect Puerto Rico was Georges back in 1998. This same storm would later bull’s-eye Key West while I was living there, smashing a boat I was building at the time and leaving me flat broke for months. After that, I never went to another hurricane party. There’s really nothing fun about these storms.

In the Keys we had an escape route with US-1, the famous Overseas Highway. It gets plenty of use during Hurricane Season as Monroe County evacuates at the drop of a hat. Most of the time these evacuations are controversial false alarms. I tended to stay put during the storms. I feared getting caught in a traffic jam on the Seven Mile Bridge when the winds hit more than anything that could happen by staying.

But Vieques doesn’t have the luxury of a bridge to anywhere. We have to depend on a sometimes reliable government run ferry to get us off the island, which is one of the reasons that we now move Stateside during the season. If I have to be caught in another tropical storm or hurricane, and I’ve been through several, I want it to happen up here.

Our physical safety isn’t what I worry about. Our house on Vieques, like almost everyone else’s, is solid block construction. It has a flat, poured cement roof and sits 90 feet above sea level. It’s not going anywhere no matter how strong the storm and my Jeep and flats boat fit inside the carport, well out of harm‘s way. What I do worry about is the aftermath.

When Hurricane Georges hit us in the Keys, I went without power for five days, which wasn‘t such a big deal. I had friends who didn’t have electricity for two weeks. When the power finally came back on there were mosquitoes hatching from my carpet and I was trading my beer to the National Guardsmen for the MREs they didn‘t want. I learned to love freeze-dried chicken loaf for a few days that month. October is no time to be without electricity in this climate. Things were much worse for the folks down on Vieques. Many went without power for over a month.

The electricity often comes back quickly in Florida and the Guard is on scene before the winds even hit. That probably won’t be the case for Vieques. When the Navy left back in 2003 a lot of post-storm infrastructure left with it. Getting aid to the island may be a little slower the next time but as part of a U.S. territory, Vieques will still fare much better than places like Cuba and Haiti. Fortunately, the island hasn’t been tested during its past half decade without the military and I hope it won’t be anytime soon.

With all of these considerations, a lot of people simply don’t travel to the Caribbean this time of year. September is officially the dead season on Vieques and a lot of tourist based businesses, including my own, close up shop until winter. The good news is that the bars and restaurants that do stay open are never crowded and many guesthouses lower their rates. For the few anglers that do visit, Captains Franco and J’s schedules are wide open and they’ll be eager to go fishing.

Perhaps the most ironic thing about Hurricane Season on Vieques is the weather, which is usually wonderful. The winds, which seem to constantly be howling when I’m down there guiding fly fishermen in the winter and spring, are often just a gentle breeze this time of year. The flats become glassy calm and you can spot huge schools bonefish tailing from a quarter mile away. It’s fly fishing at its best, but hardly anyone comes down to enjoy it. So now I leave the perfect flats of Vieques in the fall for South Florida, where I’m probably going to get hit by a hurricane. Go figure.