THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

The range and quality of the species taken there was phenomenal. And it was out there in the company
of dozens of other small boats that we got caught by that twister.
The day started breathless. But as you looked inland you could see it changing. Then the first hint of
breeze came along. Minutes later, it was so bad that the boat was in danger of going over as the wind
got under the sun canopy. Eventually we got it down, but could hardly breath due to the force of the
rain hitting us on the back and chest.
Then we had to negotiate the narrow buoyed rocky channel which we couldn't properly see for all the
white water. It was a nightmare. How nobody perished in that lot defies understanding. But they didn't,
and some how we all made it back safely.
Two particular drawbacks to this sort of fishing are that despite the areas noted reputation for tarpon
and bonefish, neither were really an option, even from a large self-drive boat.
Unable to stay out after dark, we could go through the motions
of fishing live-baits in the channels by day for tarpon, and
might occasionally even get some interest, plus we could get
as close to the flats as the boat draft would allow to try for
bonefish. But if I'm honest, that was as much to say we'd tried
it as being in with any realistic chance of success.
I did pick up a bonefish on shrimp where two channels met as
they skirted around one of the flats, but that was it. As for the
tarpon – nothing. Nothing that is until we booked a few
evening trips aboard one of the specialist tarpon skiffs 'hubba
hubba' skippered by Kenny Knudsen, a man who wore a sort
of leather flying helmet, face mask and gloves in the daylight
to protect himself from the sun's UV rays, something which
as a skin cancer sufferer myself long after those trips, I
perhaps should have done a bit more of too.
Drifting the channels up to the road bridges, we did eventually
catch tarpon. I had my PB there at one hundred and sixty
pounds. A fish I hooked in the Gulf of Mexico and finally
released in the Atlantic ocean.
Phill Williams, Moray Eel
It sounds good, but all it did was take us under the road bridge
several hundred yards from where it was hooked up on a live
mullet, leaping pretty much all the way with us in measured pursuit.
FLORIDA - KEY WEST
This was my first ever fishing trip abroad. I'd looked at a whole range of options, and while there were
bigger fish and more interesting species to be caught in other parts of the world, all things considered,
such as range of species, range of boating options, and chances of success, Florida got the green light
and would get it again with the same range of factors up for consideration.
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