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

Posted under fly fishing news by Will Benson

“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.” 

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

Posted under fly fishing news by Will Benson

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.

Marathon High School Fishing Club: World Angling goes back to school

Posted under fly fishing news by Will Benson

On May 15th Dave, Brian, Mitchell and I packed up every fly rod we owned and headed north back to school. An old buddy of mine from when I played pony-league baseball in Key West, Luis Leal, is a teacher at Marathon High and a cofounder of the Marathon High School Fishing Club. He and another teacher Ben Craig decided to organize an after school club to get youngsters excited about fishing. Most of the time they talk about their latest fishing trip or knots and leaders. Sometimes, they get to take a school sponsored trip and go fishing instead of going to class. That’s always a popular affair. Attendance is usually at an all time high on those days. The problem is, you have to be a member of the fishing club beforehand in order to skip class to go fishing. And being a member includes having to sit through the occasional boring lecture about our great pastime. This day the boring lecture was my responsibility. I tried to keep it short and sweet. I spoke about how I got into fly fishing by cleaning boats at Sugarloaf Marina, how my parents always encouraged me to do what I loved, and how all that turned into a passion for film making. As Dave gave me the international symbol for “cut it off,” I knew that was enough and that really the kids just wanted to see the movie. So we rolled with it. For 45 minutes the kids watched intensely as our film passed from jumping tarpon to giant redfish to tailing permit. Needless to say, they enjoyed the show. We then packed up our fly rods and headed out to the baseball field for some casting lessons. I was amazed by how quickly the kids picked it up; especially the girls. With just a little instruction on how the process of casting works, the kids were soon double hauling and laying out 60′ of fly line with no problem. Then, with a little encouragement from Mitchell and I, the boys were playing mexican standoff and shooting fly lines at each other. The girls shook their heads and dismissed the boys antics as immature attempts to show off. They were probably right. But… boys will be boys, and a bit of male rivalry is common in this neck of the fly fishing world. ?It was great to see kids getting excited about fishing and interested to hear about what we do. I can’t say enough about what Luis and Ben are doing for the sport. It’s great! I think it’s a refreshing approach to reach out to kids and impart knowledge about the sport, conservation, and etiquette. It was great to see the future right in front of us. We hope to get a chance to take the kids out on the water next time. I’m sure they won’t mind missing a day of school to go chase tarpon. I know I wouldn’t. 

Here is a direct link to their side of the story.

Sugarloaf Key Flats Open: Tarpon, Bonefish, Permit, Beer…

Posted under fly fishing news by Dave Teper

UPDATE
Just as the 2008 guide season starts to slow down in South Florida the fishing starts to get good. So good in fact that we thought we should have a tournament. Not the kind of Keys tournament most people are used to, but a fun summer event where the anglers are guides and the guides are anglers. The first annual Sugarloaf Key Flats Open is set to take place at MM17 on August 22-23, 2008. All team members (up to 3 per boat) are encouraged to catch tarpon, bonefish, and permit on fly with prizes being awarded for highest point totals each day as well as an overall points winner. For more information click here.

Golden Fly Tarpon Tournament: I Went Bonefishing

Posted under fly fishing news by Dave Teper

The 2008 Golden Fly Tarpon Tournament has been completed and the champions announced. Congrats go out to Capt. Scott Collins and angler David Dalu as they beat out a group of fine anglers. Included in the field were our friends, Capt. Mark Phillips fishing Doug Behrman, and Capt. George Wood fishing my friend Brian Bavosi. Although all of our friends hung fish, tough fishing prevented any sort of slaughter fest… even for Andy Mill.

Brian and I had been in the Bahamas and the Marquesas for a couple weeks prior to the tournament getting him accustomed to the weather and the fishing, as he has suffered through a long winter with almost 600 inches of snow in Steamboat Springs, CO. The fishing in Grand Bahama with Bernard Bevans was as it always is…awesome! Just when we thought the trip couldn’t get any better we got to Key West, and Will put us on more tarpon than we needed, although we couldn’t get enough.

After Key west, Brian and I headed up to Islamorada so he could fish his fancy little tarpon tournament, and so I could hopefully bum some bow time. The next 2 days I found myself on the front of Capt. Eric Lund’s boat, and scored big with him. An 80lb. tarpon, a 5lb. bonefish, and a 18lb. permit all fell victim to the bright blue boat. The next day I found myself on Jeremy Fisher’s boat, and when he asked what I would like to do, I replied “Dude, everyone is tarpon fishing, lets go stick a pig bonefish”. And we did.