When my brother, Joe suggested a trip to do some salt water fly fishing in the Keys, I was onboard.
Since Joe lives in South Florida near Boca Raton he has been anxious to learn about fishing the salt. So we booked a day with a guide in search of tarpon, bonefish and possibly permit.
To prepare, listening to podcasts seemed the best way to get a hint about the similarities and differences with freshwater (mostly trout) fishing.
It was apparent from the first that the need for a long and accurate cast was critical.
You see, fishing the salt is more similar to lake fishing than stream fishing. The fish cruise around looking for food mostly baitfish or crabs. They don’t hang around one spot for long.
They are spooky and will move away if they sense something is not right. They will bolt if scared. They school in groups of 3-5 and are usually in water less the 3 feet deep.
Once spotted it requires a decent, accurate cast to even get a chance.
The guide motors between spots and poles his way as close as possible. He can help greatly by maneuvering the boat so you are near enough and have the wind at your back.
You basically have one or two casts to get in the area of the fish and strip, strip, strip. After that the fish figure out “something fishy” is going on and you are wasting time or blowing up the spot.
So the day went like this: we met the guide at 7:30 am. His skiff was around 20 feet long with 2 platforms. It had rubber decking which was more conducive to standing barefoot rather than with shoes or sandals. I wanted no part of a severe sunburn and kept sunscreen on the tops of my feet all day. The guide sensibly wore socks.
We motored around until we found a spot near mangrove that held fish. My brother kindly let me go first and I stripped unweighted flies (Black with purple flash) less than 3 inches long on floating line on 8 weight rods. The guide poled us into position and I made a couple casts. The 2nd cast got close enough and I started the strip, strip, strip. The guide yelled “you got him on !” I strip set on the tarpon. < A bass/trout lift set is a huge NO-NO >
To be honest I didn’t feel the take, but I soon felt the fish take off. Having learned to calm down with a fish on, helped in that I quickly got it on the reel and let him run when he wanted. I kept the rod angle at between 45 to 75 degrees and reeled in every chance I got.
The fish jumped and tail walked 3-4 times (we got a video). After tiring out the fish a bit I got him close to the boat and he took off a couple of times. We got him next to the boat and he bolted making a huge circle under the boat.
I got him so close that one time he jumped and actually hit the side of the boat.
Finally I got him next to the boat and the guide reached for and missed the line. The next time the fish got close enough to grab the leader, the fish came unhooked.
We DID get a pretty good look at him. I thought he was between 2 and 3 feet long; the guide estimated he was between 15 and 20 pounds.
My brother Joe fished the same spot and hooked 2 slightly smaller tarpon which both got away, the 2nd one broke the line maybe because of the fish I’d fought so long.
We motored to other areas and an hour or so later my brother hooked, played and landed a respectable sized bonefish. I hooked and briefly played a small shark before he broke me off.
The rest of the day we went to other places and saw some fish. We even got to fish to a few, but didn’t really get close enough to have any bona fide strikes or hook ups. Often our casting was a problem (we were exposed)
To be honest, it’s near impossible to keep from panicking and rushing your cast when you finally spot some fish.
Still, we both were satisfied to have caught fish on our first day flyfishing on the salt.
A couple days later near Boca Raton we met up with another guide for night time dock fishing. This involved motoring around the intercostal channels & canals, approaching docks which have underwater lights that attract baitfish. Large tarpon and snook hang around those spots.
This time we’d use the trolling motor to get within 50 feet and could see the fish cruising. We stripped small 2 inch long unweighted flies with white sparkle flash using an 8 wt rod with floating line. 
My brother caught a snook and a very nice tarpon that night. We also caught several unusual looking fish known as  “look downs”. These fish resemble an aquarium fish and are the size of a dinner plate yet are less than 1/2 “ thick.
We had a great time both days and learned a lot. Although not cheap (guide and boat required) we resolved to do it again soon (after extensive casting practice).