I'd say the guys above have covered a lot of it, but let me emphasize this:
Chaz wrote:
On the Florida Bay side you have to be aware of big bull sharks at all times, so most guides don't want you wading.
I'm not generally a shark fearing dude, but it is amazing how shallow you can find bulls in the keys. My buddy and I were grilling up some pompano and Spanish mackerel one afternoon out by the dock and he looks at me and says "Dude, look at that". I turned my head in time to see a six foot bull in about 3 feet of water four feet from the shore. It had been windy that week and the water on the bay side was cloudy. We had definitely been swimming there an hour before. Kinda gave me the heebie jeebies. I'll only get in the water if it's crystal clear after that. I'm pretty white, and still was, even after a week in the keys. I probably looked like a big fat school of poorly swimming lady fish in that cloudy water.
As far as guides go, I really learned a lot from
this guy. I've only ever hired a few guides in my life, but this dude is in a league of his own.
One thing I would recommend, and it isn't exactly fly fishing, but was some of the most fun we had in all our years down there. Try to find some night access (we only stayed on places on the bay side with docks or canals), take a dip net and a flashlight. Shrimp eyes shine like deer. One of us would hunt shrimp (some years there's no hunting at all, they are everywhere, although this turns off a bit around March or April, but there are still some), we would then use our shrimp to catch lady fish. We would toss our lady fish to our heavy rod guy, who had basically a tuna stick and would semi filet the lady fish and drop it in. We hooked a ton of big stuff, although we mostly only landed nurse sharks, some of them were 5-6 feet long. We also lost a decent amount of 50 lb test. We still talk about some of those epic runs into the darkness.
In case you can't tell btw, I'm a bit jealous, as it's been a few years since I've been down. I wish you the best of luck. Please post a report!
Boyer