Outdoor Academy

Embarking on a flats fishing adventure in the beautiful Florida Keys requires the right gear to maximize your chances of success. Whether you're targeting bonefish, tarpon, permit, snook, or other coveted species, having the proper equipment is essential. From reels and lines to lures and clothing, our comprehensive gear guide covers everything you need to know to conquer the flats with confidence. Discover the best gear recommendations and expert tips to enhance your flats fishing experience and make the most of your time on the water.

Improving your guide business should be easy, with the right tools at your disposal.

Innovative solutions for the guiding community should be streamlined and simple.

Ritual surrounds the consumption of coffee, argues Matt Igoe, pictured below bowing to the great blue yonder. Coffee is the great motivator — the catalyst that cracks the curse of the snooze button and gets journeys underway. It’s gas in the motor, lifeblood — feeding the muscle fibers of your forearms as you pole your skiff into a relentless onshore wind. It’s the dream to see coffee sustain rather than drip dry the rainforests and communities of El Salvador that produce this daily staple of our lives — a dream that, for Matt Igoe, blossomed into Afuera.

Here at AnyCreek, we’re hellbent on streamlining and improving our product — and the overall process of searching for and securing a guided experience. We saw that guides’ greatest strengths — understanding the outdoors through consistent time afield — also present a major weakness when it comes to efficiently running a business. Booking trips can’t happen when guides are beyond the reach of cell service, but that’s exactly where they need to be to take you on your next great adventure. When they’re not outdoors scouting out your world-class experience, they’ve got to prepare for the next trip — and that’s far easier said than done. With all the hard work guides put into making your trips memorable, we here at AnyCreek thought we’d lighten their load to help get your next adventure underway as smoothly and quickly as possible.

Snook are a long-time favorite for light tackle anglers in Florida. Known for their epic eats, relentless fights, aerial acrobatics, and expertise in ambushing prey, snook are a highly prized catch for many inshore anglers. Snook are habitual in much of their behavior. Learning what makes these game fish tick will significantly up your chances of success on the water. Before jetting off on your fishing adventure, here are a few best practices and things to keep in mind to make the most of your snook fishing escapade.

Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus), also known as the “Silver King,” is one of the most prized catches in saltwater fly fishing. As one of Florida’s premier game fish, they are adaptable, intelligent, and long-lived, foraging and migrating along Florida’s coastline with regionally distinct resident populations. Fishing with an IGFA (International Game Fish Association) leader keeps you in contention with these wiley fish, while also ensuring your angling experience is sporting — and record-eligible in case you land that fish of a lifetime.

This article will cover all you need to know about fishing for permit on your next trip to the Florida Keys. We’ll discuss their behavior, the best times to permit fish, prime permit fishing conditions, preferred flies and tackle for permit, permit fishing tactics, and regulations. In addition, we’ll give you all the resources to book your guided permit fishing trip with a world-class fishing guide. We work with some of the top permit fishing guides on the planet who are experts at coaching you through both the physical and mental challenges of permit fishing in the Florida Keys.

Those who have done some sight fishing may know that putting your fly on the fish’s proverbial “dinner plate” is one of the keys to enticing a fish to eat your fly. The best casts present the fly as both natural and irresistible. Thus, it’s well worth investing some time into improving your cast before your next fishing trip. The balance of timing, technique, and control while casting can be challenging for both beginner and experienced anglers. However, the beauty of fly casting lies in its continuous potential for improvement. With dedication and practice, you can fine-tune your casting skills to achieve greater accuracy, distance, and success on the water. While the fly cast as a whole is complex, breaking it down into simple parts is a great way to quickly improve. Make sure you dedicate time to mastering each element of the cast before putting it all together. Practicing one or two skills at home will yield better results than trying to apply them all at once on the water. Here are a handful of areas to focus on before your next outing that will improve your performance on your next big fishing trip.

Learn about how to find guides and fish the waters on the millions of acres of U.S. public land for your next adventure.