Florida bonefish and the Keys go together. Enjoy a day bonefishing the flats of the Lower Keys with Capt Billy Rabito Sr.

If someone asked me what my favorite game fish was, with no hesitation my reply would be the Florida bonefish. I sharpened my angling skills as a boy growing up in the Keys. Back then, you could find a bonefish via any shoreline with access onto the flats through the mangroves.

As a kid, I never knew about tide charts or moon phases, but it didn't take me long to figure out that the rise and fall of the water had something to do with the movement of fish. I found an oar that had fallen off a boat and drifted into the mangroves; it had turned upside down and was stuck in the mud. When fishing was good, I would make a mark with my pen knife on the oar handle. It wasn't too long until I learned much more about the feeding patterns of Florida bonefish. The first two hours of the incoming tide is the best time to fish for tailing bonefish. In the rush to get on the flats they push themselves to the limit; their dorsal and tail fin are out of the water, and that's where the term “tailing fish” comes from.

Florida bonefish are year round residents of the Keys. Spring, summer, and fall are my favorite times to fish for bonefish. The winter months can be good too. When the water temperatures falls below seventy degrees, the fish tend to stay out on the edge of the flats in four to six feet of water; they gather there in large numbers to feed. As they do this, they create mud by rooting up the bottom in search of food. It takes a trained eye to see the mud areas for they are very faint at times; however, they can hold large numbers of fish. If there are a few sting rays working there, the fish seem to like it better because the rays stir up the bottom and do some of the work for the bonefish.

Although Florida bonefish will be anywhere in the mud due to always moving, I like to stop one hundred yards up wind from a mud, then pole to the up tide side of it. While this isn't my favorite way to catch bonefish, you can produce catches in the double digits and that makes it well worthwhile. One day I caught and released twenty-seven bonefish using this method. In addition, once you are at the edge of the mud you can cast bucktails tipped with shrimp; this is called blind casting. When using a fly, we call it dredging. The biggest thrill a flats fisherman can get is taking a ten pound tailing bonefish on the fly. Although my first one was many years ago, the experience is still vivid in my mind.