Finding a good guide in the Keys is essential. Because most of the flats are unwadeable, a flats boat is required to get on the most productive water. A local guide will be in tune with the tides, and the feeding habits of the bonefish, and be able to silently pole you within casting range.

Ninety percent of the time bonefish in the Florida Keys are found over lush eel grass flats, either traveling quickly, or slowly foraging for food. Once you spot one and get into position to make a cast, you often have current (tidal), but the big difference between casting to a bonefish and casting to most freshwater stream species is that a bonefish is usually moving while hunting something to eat, and its movement coupled with the tidal flow makes presenting the fly as difficult as trying to cast through a hula hoop while it's rolling downhill. In fact, that's about the best casting practice you can do to prepare to hunt a bonefish.

Some of the world's premier bonefish destinations, such as Andros Island in the Bahamas, Christmas Island in the south Pacific, Los Roques in Venezuela, Turneffe Islands in Belize, and others, have bonefish that are plentiful, hungry, and dumb. At those places, even beginning anglers can catch enough bonefish to think they have become experienced bonefish anglers. But catching small school-size bonefish is nothing like casting to the big singles and pairs of bonefish commonly found in the Florida Keys.

Bonefish in the Florida Keys didn't get big because they were stupid, and in the crystal clear waters of the Florida Keys they are constantly weary of anything unusual around them and can often sense a boat when it is 50 to 60 feet away. You must have the ability to put your fly in front of where you think a big bonefish is going. This means long casts are often necessary. How long? Well, in the exotic destinations listed above, you can often get by with 50-foot or shorter casts; in the Florida Keys, however, if you can't cast 70 feet, you're starting with a handicap.

I've only seen a couple of anglers who could cast farther than 60 feet without double-hauling their fly line. If you can't double-haul or cast at least 60 feet to a moving fish quickly and accurately with two false casts, your limitations will be embarrassingly obvious when you make your first cast to a Florida Keys bonefish, and your guide may suggest you use one of his spinning rods. But every bonefishing angler must start someplace, and once you're on a Keys flat and see what I'm talking about, you'll understand why catching a big Keys bonefish is one of fly fishing's greatest accomplishments.

Do-it Yourself Bonefish? Not in the Keys.
I can't emphasize enough that bonefishing in the Keys is difficult for several reasons. It's near impossible to wadefish for them due to the soft bottom in most of the Keys. You can rent boats throughout the Keys, but you can't rent one that will go shallow enough to get onto many of the bonefish flats and you can't rent the special equipment, such as a $500-$600 push pole, needed to silently propel your boat across the shallow water. Also, you need a guide who knows how the tide will affect the various grass flats where bonefish can be found, as many of these flats become dry or nearly dry at low tide.

Thus, unless you have previous Keys bonefish experience, if you go to the Florida Keys on a budget and try to catch a bonefish or two on your own, you'll make a gross error in judgement for several reasons. First, motels in the Keys are for the most part moderately expensive to expensive. Second, there are only a couple of places in the Keys that you can wadefish on your own. Third, if you're lucky enough to find a bonefish on your own, your chances of catching it are close to zero unless you have previous Keys bonefishing experience. Ask anyone who has been there if they would try to catch one on their own or, more importantly, if they have ever caught one on their own.

While hiring a bonefish guide in the Florida Keys can cost $350 to $400 a day (one or two anglers fishing about eight hours), your chances of getting an opportunity to cast to large bonefish increase to around 90 percent with a guide, and if you can cast 60 to 70 feet quickly and accurately and without spooking the fish, your chances of catching one are very good. Ask your guide about lunch and drinks, because some guides do not provide them.

About 80 percent of the bonefish you'll see in the Keys will be on the lush eel grass flats, which can have patches of sand. Once you or your guide spot a moving or tailing (feeding) fish, place your fly where the guide tells you. Usually it is best to drop the fly about six inches in front of or slightly to the side of a tailing bonefish's nose.