Things To Do In Key West: Toast-O-Matic Brings Down The House!  

“Reginald…They told me you were dead!”  Said the mother of the 1/2 dead redneck metro zombie in the opening line of Jolly Benson’s outrageous new comedy, Toast-o-matic.  The Studios of Key West second annual One Night Stand kicked off last Saturday night with a packed house.  Conceived by local artists, this event is a creative and collaborative project that pairs writers with actors, directors and set designers and gives them only 24 hours to produce and preform a short play.  Each team is required to use the same opening line, the same closing line, as well as a common prop.  Everything in between is completely original.  Five plays were preformed by some of Key West’s most notorious stage talent, but in the end no one could deny the gut wrenching humor of zombies, rocking trailers and white trash!  Written by World Angling’s Jolly Benson and Nick Vagnoni, directed by Chris Schultz, set design my Mike Hawkins and starring Quincy Perkins, Shawna Wynd, Mark Crow and Robin Deck, Toast-o-matic brought down the house with it’s unintellectual, raw humor.  Using the common prop, a bag of Atochan gold coins, as a means to cheat death, the zombie hero saves the day as the play’s climax ends in a pool of redneck love electrified!  Sponsored by Bender & Associates, Toast-o-matic will hopefully be preformed this fall as a short at the Red Barn Theatre here in Key West.  People were coming up to me after the play just to say “Will, your brother is one funny dude” and “I laughed so hard I almost cried.”  I couldn’t agree more as I was cheering him on while he and his team won 1st place in all the categories.  I know my bro has talent, and you won’t believe me until you see it, but Toast-o-matic is one funny play and the ending certainly ” isn’t what I had in mind.” 

Tropical Storm Fay: WorldANGLING Gets Whacked

On monday Tropical Storm Fay blew into Key West and dumped an impressive 8” of rain flooding my entire property, tackle room, Rathole Studio and screwing Mike Allen out of yet another scheduled fishing day.  And then…it sucker punched Dave up in Naples.  Not that he’d know as he was passed out after a long day backing up way too much computed crap.  Not to worry because he’s back at it after a quick phone call with me to discuss the entire future of World Angling, and few small things we should do to the website.  So… look for an entirely new homepage and layout sometime before the Drake Film Festival on September 14th.  We are planning on releasing our film on the website right before we head to the theater, so if you can’t make it out to see us in Denver you can certainly catch us right here at www.worldangling.com .
Speaking of catching… lately we’ve been catching up on some well deserved time off. Denny and I went to Chicago to connect with Gannon and see Rage Against The Machine, John Butler Trio, Nine Inch Nails, Gnarles Barkley, G love and lots of others at Lollapalooza.  Since Key West doesn’t really attract those kinds of bands, it was great to get a chance to see them live in concert.  Capt. Bill Houze and I have been heading out spear fishing lately and we are working on putting together a film about what fly fishing guides do on their days off… Head out as far as the little skiffs can go and Kill Fish!   Besides sleeping in, shooting guns, and raging at concerts, I’ve also found some time to squeeze in a bit of the old buggy whipping.  Mike Allen and I stuck our redemption permit on Friday, a hefty 28# fish.  Finally the monkey is off our back as we turn our attention to the redbone.org Superfly and SLAM tourneys where we will be defending our title in the 1 day / 1 fly event, and looking to capture the overall grand championship title using only fly rods.  I had a very relaxing yet ultra productive day fishing with Rick Orcutt on Saturday.  Rick managed to catch his first ever grand slam!  After releasing a 20+ pound permit to complete the slam we both just stood there looking at each other thinking…did we just do that?  It was hard to believe considering that we didn’t see as many fish as you would think.  Congrats Rick!

Grand Bahama Bonefishing: Pesca Enferma A Cualquiera

Recently our friend Carlos Cortez journeyed from Argentina to Grand Bahama to fish with Bernard Bevans.  I guess he got some good weather and fishing as he went way out of his way to send a report.

Thanks Carlos, I look forward to fishing with you soon.

Despues de ver y leer mucho tiempo sobre Bonefishing decidí ir a probar suerte, doble propósito, darme el gusto y llevar a mi familia a la playa, cosa que por mis preferencias ( flyfishing y snowboarding ) no hago frecuentemente. El lugar elegido fue Grand Bahama, a priori buenas posibilidades de pesca, buenas playas y no tan costoso.
La isla es bastante agreste, mucha naturaleza, poca ( o casi nada… ) vida de ciudad, para mí “el paraíso”. La capital se llama Freeport y si bien tiene cierta oferta hotelera no es un lugar de turismo masivo, ni cerca de ello, poco shopping…
Alquilamos una casa que estaba a 40 minutos del aeropuerto, 30 minutos del supermercado y 30 minutos del lugar donde nos embarcabamos para ir a pescar. Contraté guía para 6 jornadas de medio día de pesca.
El día de pesca empezaba a las 8 am y terminaba a las 13:30 promedio, el guía espectacular, muy conocedor, buen tipo y además nos pescaba “la cena”, de 6 a 8 langostas por día a requerimiento!!!
La pesca del bonefish es como la describen en cuanto material se lee, es un pez que entra a alimentarse en grupos ( schools ) con la marea y siempre está en constante movimiento, pues es cazador y presa a la vez… el guía detecta cuando se está acercando y empieza a dar indicaciones de lanzamiento, la proa se toma como referencia ( 12:00 del reloj ) para guiarnos en el cast poque al principio no los ves ni cuando están a tiro!!!!
Start casting to 9… longer… longer… more to right…. more to right… left… let it fall !!! let it fall !!!
Comienza a castear a las 9… más largo… más largo… más a la derecha… más a la derecha… izquierda… déjala caer… déjala caer… mientras piensa: BURRRROOOOO!!!!! te dije que la dejes caer!!!!!  ANIMAL!!! los espantaste!!!
Como no sabés a que le estás tirando ni donde están, lo más probable es que les castees arriba de la cabeza y salgan como flechas hacia todos lados… y en unos segundos están a 200 mts…otra vez a empezar a buscarlos…
Después de un par de días los empezás a ver ( sólo después que te dice hacia adonde mirar y a que distancia ) y la cosa cambia por completo… tenés que tener  velocidad y precisión en el cast… sólo una o a lo sumo dos oportunidades para tentarlos antes de que se asusten… son muy sensibles… sobre todo si hay tiburones y barracudas cerca…
Cuando lograste hacer un buen cast, el guía ve absolutamente todos los movimientos del pez, entonces también te dice cuando tenés que recoger y cuando parar… y cuando te dice que claves… clavá aunque no sientas ni veas nada… el tipo sabe que tiene la mosca en la boca!!!
La clavada es otra historia, si el débil se te desenganchan en la primer corrida, si es brusca o hacés presión un instante de más de lo debido es corte seguro… un bonefish de 1 kg y monedas te corta tippet de 13lbs de resistencia como si fuera hilo de coser!!!
Ahora, lograste hacer un cast rápido y bastante preciso, lo tentaste y lo clavaste… la primer corrida es impresionante, mínimo 50 o 60 m !!! y si estás cerca de mangroves, seguro que va hacia ellos y empieza a hacer zigzag, en ese momento tenés que aflojar el freno totalmente y cuando para, después de sacarte 40 o 50 mts de backing entre esas plantas, hay que empezar a seguir la línea caminando y ver si te cortó o te enderezó el anzuelo o si se enredo y lográs sacarlo !!!
En algunos momentos, cuando la marea está entrando o saliendo, podés pescarlos en flats más libres de vegetación y la pelea es más limpia.
El promedio en este lugar es de 2 a 4 libras pero vimos de más de 10 libras!!! como siempre, los más grandes se van… tuve 4 piques importantes, 1 me cortó al entrar a los mangroves, 2 me dejaron el anzuelo abierto en los mismos y el otro me lo abrió haciendo el mismo zigzag pero en los arrecifes de los flats oceánicosa…
Pero si todo esto no te sale, no hay que preocuparse, a fin del día te lleva al “mud” o mancha que es el lugar que eligen para comer en tránsito, con más profundidad, de 1 a 2 mts, y los detectás porque levantan sedimento y el agua cambia de color, allí tirás a esta mancha, dejás profundizar y tenés pique seguro… no es muy lindo el proceso de conseguir que pique pero la lucha es igual de entretenida.
Podría seguir escribiendo un par de días más, contando anécdotas y sensaciones, pero no quiero aburrir, sencillamente les aseguro que esta pesca enferma a cualquiera!!!
Abrazo,
Carlos 

Drake Magazine Video Awards 2008: Our Latest Creation, “CONNECTED”

Will and I have just put the wraps on our latest video creation, “Connected”, for the Drake Magazine Video Awards this September in Denver.  This short video starts by punching you in the face and ends with a kick to the grundle highlighting some of this season’s tarpon fishing followed up by some of the sickest permit footage imaginable. Captured and edited in 1080p HD,  we have assembled some stunning footage from on, above, and underwater in an effort to introduce permit fly fishing to the masses without watering it down.  No how-to’s, time lapse shots of clouds,  or boring interviews, just raw fish porn.  We hope you enjoy.

We will be releasing it on the web following the awards.  If you would like to come out and see our footage, as well as the other 9 videos in the Drake’s competition, come out to:

Cervantes Ballroom
Sept. 14, 2008  8:00PM
Denver, CO  

Del Brown Permit Tournament Key West: 3 days, 3 fish

Wow!  What a humbling experience the Del brown Permit Tournament was this year.  Especially after the last several weeks which were terrific.  I felt really confident about our chances this year.  But, that’s the thing about Permit.  Just when you think you’ve cracked the code and feel comfortable with catching them, they prove why they are rightfully the most difficult fish in the world.  The fishing was downright frustrating!  Either there were no fish to be found, or the fish that were there wouldn’t show themselves.  It was miserable.  A total mind fuck!  The first day saw the entire field of anglers fishless as gray weather, rain showers and lightning made it nearly impossible to get a shot.  But we did see some fish.  Day 2 was slick calm with blue hazy skies.  Not great conditions but certainly better than the day before.  There just weren’t any fish. By the end of day 2 Capt Scott Collins and angler Greg Smith had caught one, and Capt. Bryan Holeman and angler Chase Wise put up a slightly smaller fish as well. The rest of the field NOTHING!  Day 3 was again slick calm with clear skies.  Again even fewer fish than the day before.  Only Capt Jeffrey Cardenas and angler Jack Knoll managed a fish.  Only 3 fish were caught during the entire event despite relatively decent weather and tides.  It sounded like everyone had a story about the one that never came tight, and about the numbers of fish sliding and floating around, but not eating.  A three-way tie was decided by length of fish.  Here are the final results.
1st: Capt. Scott Collins            Angler: Greg Smith

2nd: Capt. Jeffery Cardenas     Angler: Jack Knoll

3rd: Capt. Bryan Holeman        Angler: Chase Wise

Congrats to all that fished it and managed to catch a fish, but big props to our boy Bryan and his secret spot that as of last week most of us thought was bullshit.