Florida Keys Tarpon & Bonefishing Guide Capt. Billy Rabito Sr. brings A1A Sportfishing clients 40 years of flats fishing expertise.

Whether it’s fishing the flats for bonefish and permit, or reeling in a trophy-sized tarpon, I’d be proud to be your Florida Keys fishing guide. I fish from Marathon through Key West. Anyone can take you onto the water, but A1A Sportfishing makes you feel that you’ve entered a very special world.

I arrived in Marathon in the early 1950’s, the heart of the Florida Keys and home to the top bonefish and tarpon sport fishing charters. No matter where you looked, you had an open view of the water. My aunt was an avid fisherwoman whose first love was wading the flats around Marathon and Grassy Key for bonefish. Thanks to her, I was lucky enough to live my dream.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw a school of tailing bonefish working the flats; I got a rush the first time I stepped in the warm, crystal clear water and entered that magical place that is governed by the rise and fall of the tide. And I still get it today being a Florida Keys fishing guide.

As in most sports today, there are trophy hunters who judge the success on how many or how big of a fish they caught to determine if they had a good day or not. However, one of the most important things a Florida Keys fishing guide should teach clients is to take it all in – watch the birds along the shoreline, the eagle ray gliding across the flats, the barracuda lying still against the mangroves waiting for a needle fish to swim into his striking range, seeing the beautiful permit fish floating on the surface, or just to stop and look up at that beautiful blue sky. It only takes a moment, but man, it will make you feel glad to be alive; it does for me, and I do it every day I’m on the flats.

I have been a Florida Keys fishing guide since 1967; in that time I have welcomed movie stars, governors, celebrities, and a countless amount of good people aboard my sport fishing charters who have not only remained my clients, but have become my best friends.

I have also fished and placed first in bonefishing, sailfish, and tarpon fishing tournaments around the Florida Keys. In fact, I was one of the founders of the forty year old ladies' tarpon tournament; I won it six times with six different anglers. The one I’m most proud of was winning the ladies' tournament with my fifteen year old daughter, Kim, who twenty plus years later recently had twin boys. I can’t wait to teach them fly casting.

Come on down and spend a day fishing the flats with me. As a certain CMA Entertainer of the Year recently put it — “it’s time well wasted.” Your Captain, Billy Rabito Sr.