Gussy

As anglers we all have bucket list places where we would love to go fishing. Heck, I have several. Salmon fishing in Alaska, lake trout on Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories, maybe peacock bass fishing in Brazil. This past weekend my wife Shelby and I had the opportunity to visit Scott and Nancy Bonnema, our friends from Minnesota, who spend the winter down in the Florida Keys. As far as saltwater fishing goes, the Keys are definitely on that list as well.

The shallow flats around the Florida Keys are some of the most fertile waters in the World and host an amazing variety of life, from the many fish species and marine life to countless birds, most of which are unique to this region.

When we got the invitation to go down for a few days we felt blessed and jumped at the opportunity.

We were already down in Florida getting ready for my first bass tournament of the year next week on the St. Johns River. We left home a little bit earlier than normal to make some time for this trip in addition to getting some time in bass fishing and breaking in my new boat before the season starts.

We got to spend two days fishing in the Keys and were fortunate to catch a bunch of different fish, it was a great adventure. For the most part, the temperatures don’t usually get that cool down there but we experienced one of the cooler weekends of the year so that might have hurt the fishing a little bit but it was still great in my opinion.

We caught a number of snook, one of the more prized shallow water saltwater fish, redfish, some baby goliath grouper, snapper, ladyfish, jack crevelle and some kind of saltwater catfish that we didn’t touch because they had some stinging fins on them. It was pretty steady action.

In addition to all the fish, we also saw a couple groups of dolphins that came close to the boat to check us out, some manatees, a few sharks and a bunch of different birds that we don’t see in Northwest Ontario.

The highlight of the weekend for me was near the end of the second day when I was fighting an eight or nine pound snook and a large bull shark showed up from underneath the boat and completely swallowed my fish and broke the line in about two seconds. It was pretty crazy. Something we don’t see in fresh water.

I’ve fished saltwater a few times in the past and it’s incredible how much life there is and how fast everything moves. There are constantly things happening, from birds diving into schools of bait to big fish chasing smaller fish to fish of all sizes just swimming by the boat.

The Keys are known for incredible tarpon fishing, especially in the coming months as the water starts to warm back up but the cold snap over the weekend kind of turned that bite off.

We did get the opportunity to go to a popular restaurant on the water before we left on Monday morning and feed some resident tarpon that hang out around their docks. It was one of the coolest things that I have ever done. You would hang a dead minnow in the water next to the dock and these 75 to 135 pound tarpon would come up and take them out of your hand with perfect accuracy.

We were so glad we made the drive down to the Keys to experience everything we did over the weekend. I still think we live in one of the most beautiful places in the World, I’m proud to say I’m from Sunset Country, this place was just different and beautiful in its own way. If you ever have the opportunity to take a bucket list trip, go for it!