As readers from the early years of this blog know, I used to fish every year with a friend of mine in a flyfishing tournament in the Keys for tarpon, permit and bonefish. With work piling up and a seemingly endless procession of weddings, I haven't made it down there for the last two years. However, as much as busy schedules and constant travel could be blamed for my loss of interest in the tournament, I think one of the biggest reasons was that our guide moved to Vieques, Puerto Rico. Our final year fishing with Capt. McKee was definitely less jovial than others, partially because we were far off the leaderboard, but mostly because we knew that we were never going to win the tournament again. I remember hanging out with Greg that Saturday night after two days on the flats. We toasted the years past - in particular the year we won the tournament - and his last words to me were, "You guys should definitely come down to Vieques once I get set up. There's not a person in sight, and there's more tarpon than you could imagine."
Now, two years later I found myself reading through the New York Times and I saw a picture on the cover of the Travel section that looked very familiar. Upon closer inspection, sure enough, there was Capt. Greg McKee polling through the flats in Vieques. It's a good article about a place that sounds like it deserves a visit from anyone who has ever wanted to catch a tarpon on a fly. And I can tell you flat out that there's not a better guide on any flat than Capt. McKee. Congratulations on the great press Greg. Let's just hope for Greg's sake that Neil Bohannon doesn't read the New York Times!
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