I got back from Florida on wednesday and thought i would share the experience with you all... it was rough.
Left BI around 5am on the 30th headed for SeaTac. Got on our 8am flight to LA and took off. Everything is going well at this point and i am expecting to be in Miami around 11 EST. Well we land in LA to a ringing phone and my dad's secretary calling to inform us that our flight from LA to Miami has been canceled while we were in flight to LA. fantastic! this is where it all goes south.
So we talk to the people at Alaska whom through the trip was booked. Nope, they cant help us, it was an American flight operated as a partner of Alaska so we have to talk to them. As usual no one has any interest in helping us get to FL and we are told by the guys at american that we can get out of LAX 2 days later, but theyt arent going to comp us any rooms or anything. We are supposed to stick around for 2 days and then fly out. Oh and we dont have any flights back to seattle that you can get on so you are stuck here... We finally find out that there is a flight leaving Orange County(about an hour south) that will take us to West Palm Beach via Las Vegas that leaves around 8 that night. It is our only option so we book the tickets.
Then we have to try to find our bags and rods. We are able to find a person that is willing to help us and she helped get 2 of our bags out of the baggage circus, but our rods made the early flight to Miami and are waiting for us there. So with 2 of 3 pieces of luggage we head to O.C. airport to kill 7 hours until our flight leaves. This time is spent eating nachos and drinking margaritas while counting down the hours until happy hour arrives.
Finally we stagger from the bar back to the airport and get on our flight to Vegas. Which passed really quickly it seemed and then i just passed out from Vegas to West Palm where we arrive at 7 the next morning. The exact time we were supposed to meet our guide down in Islamorada. Well we get our rental car( a PT cruiser- what a shitty car) and head for the Miami airport to try to find our fly rods. And as luck would have it, we are able to locate them quickly. So we are finally off to the Keys. 6 airports in 24 hours to get to Florida.
We are able to fish a half day the first day down there and we went and looked for some bonefish. Found a few but couldnt hook up. My dad missed a nice chance as a couple of tailing bones, and i had a couple marginal opportunities. We did see some fish though and atleast we had finally made it. Wind was blowing 15-20 out of the east so all the fishing was on the bay side, and it didnt let up the entire time we were there.
Day two we headed for the backcountry to try to find some redfish. The first flat was loaded with them but the outgoing tide had us stuck off the edge and unable to reach most. I was able to get my first redfish ever. Although i was kinda disapointed that it didnt have any spots. i would call them a glorified carp. We fish back there for about 2 hours and decided to run back to an area by the bridges and try to find tarpon. Tarpon were the fish my dad and i both wanted to catch, but they were very scarce. I got 1 good shot a 90-100 pounder that afternoon, but he followed the fly 10 feet and peeled off. We did see a few permit as well. Maybe saw 6 tarpon and 10 permit for the afternoon but couldnt hook up.
Day 3 we went back to the area from the previous afternoon an tried to find the tarpon, but they didnt show. Not a single fish at that area. So we ran all over the keys looking for tarpon and couldnt find 1. So that afternoon we went looking for some other areas in the backcountry as it was still very choppy on the Ocean side from all the wind. We poled some great looking flats for bonefish, and didnt even see one. We didnt see a fish all morning until about 2 in the afternoon when we started to find some permit. I made a good cast to a group of about 5, had a fish turn on the fly. I made half a strip and the fish spooked and took off in a hurry. They are such finicky little bastards. I didnt get another shot but we found 1 other tailing fish that my dad cast to but he spooked from the boat and we were done for the day.
The last day we went out looking for tarpon and permit again. We were able to make it out to the ocean side, but only could fish a coule spots because of the weather and once again we couldnt find any tarpon. So it was back to the areas from the previous day to look for permit or bonefish. And again we couldnt find any bones, but we did find the permit again. Spotted 1 group and 4 tailing fish. I spotted the group way out and we tried to pole up to them, but they spooked about 100 feet away for some reason and blew out of there. The singles we got a couple shots at, but never could connect.
So we went back to the Lorelie and had a few drinks before it was time to say goodbye to the keys. 1 redfish and a sunburn were all i had to show for it. A rough trip, but i am sure i will be back to try to find some tarpon again.

You should have gone offshore for sails and other pelagics. early spring is usually red hot sailfish action. I am sorry you didn'nt have a great fishing experience. Red fish are much bigger and more numerous in east central Fla. I dont know how selective you were but your guide should have been able to put you on some HUGE atlantic cudas that will tear your SH%%%T up or a permit. Tarpon are very challenging catch on a fly (all of min have been caught on bait) so dont feel too bad about not getting one on your first trip. Florida has a plethora of saltwater fish to chase and being that I have mucho family and friends there and partially grew up there I absolutely love it. It can take a little while to get dialed in to techniques and run timing but there are some fish down there that would pound for pound kick the living crap out of our fish up here. I hope that you have better luck next time.-T

i wish we could have gone off shore, but it was rough.
We saw quite a few cudas, but we just were looking for poon for the most part.
I hooked one the other time i have gone back in 01 but he wrapped me around a coral head after about 5 jumps. We got permit back then, my dad and i, but both of our fish came on tarpon flies out of key west.

I woulda just been happy to have been in Floida after thiks winter

Bummer though when you're stoked up about the fishing!

Were you anywhere near the Everglades? If the size of the tarpon is not critical, you can almost always find small ones back in the mangroves. Also prime snook territory.