BONEFISH, PERMIT, TARPON VORACIOUS AFTER WEATHER
by Capt. Tom Rowland
The weather radio crackled as the voice announced that there would be a mandatory evacuation starting in 24 hours. In addition to the radio, I was monitoring Hurricane Georges on the Internet, the Weather Channel and the local News station. There was no doubt that this storm was going to hit South Florida and it was going to be a big one. Work began immediately as my friend, Doug Kilpatrick helped me ready my house for the storm and I did the same for him.
I packed my family, my fishing tackle and my skiff and we headed for a safer place to spend the next 72 hours. After driving to the west coast of Florida and realizing that the recent change of the storms track was bringing it right to where we were, we drove back across the state of Florida and resided at Doug’s parent’s house in West Palm Beach.
Doug and I stayed by the Weather Channel and watched a monster invade our homes, property and our beloved fishing grounds. Both of us had been fishing hard until the last minute and noticed the fish behavior change. It had been almost 100 years since a hurricane had struck the Key West area so neither of us had any experience with what it would do to our fishing. While watching the weather, we posed the worst-case scenarios and hoped for the best. We returned to see the Keys ravaged and beaten. As I drove south I looked over my bonefish, permit and tarpon spots from the bridges and I could hardly recognize the places that days before I would have bet you that I could find a specific sponge hidden among the turtle grass.
My house survived well and soon everything was cleaned up and I was ready to go back to work. As luck would have it, my customer for the upcoming week, Joe Scuderi, was a Keys resident and possessed a Hurricane Pass that would allow him to travel throughout the Keys. Joe was hell bent on catching a permit on fly and, I could not wait to get out there myself. Beginning at Sugarloaf, we carefully navigated downed trees and trailer home wreckage. Everywhere we went we encountered muddy water until we reached the Marquesa Keys. The inside of the atoll is filled with the healthiest and most extensive turtle grass beds anywhere in the Florida Keys. These vast acres act as a filter and had managed to keep the water clear. On the outgoing tide, the clear water was pushed out to the outside and a crystal halo surrounded the islands.
