Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 867 is a conversation with Cedar Key fishing captain Jimbo Keith, who has guided Florida's Nature Coast for decades and built a reputation as one of the area's most knowledgeable guides. Jimbo shares stories from a lifetime on the water, including the 10-pound trout that still stands out in his memory, how the fishery has changed, and what it takes to read tides, wind, and the unique geography of Cedar Key.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · Press play in the player above to watch.
Jimbo Keith is known for his decades of experience guiding anglers in Cedar Key, Florida, and his deep expertise in the Nature Coast fishery. He is recognized for his ability to consistently locate and catch trophy-class fish, particularly large spotted seatrout, and for his comprehensive understanding of the area's tides, geography, and seasonal patterns.
Jimbo has caught 10-pound trout in Cedar Key waters, which represents the upper end of what is possible in that fishery. Fish that size require specific conditions, proper technique, and often significant time on the water to locate consistently, which is exactly what his decades of local experience provide.
Jimbo explains that understanding how tide interacts with wind direction and the area's unique geography is essential for locating fish consistently. Successful anglers adjust their locations and strategies throughout the day based on tidal stage and flow, rather than fishing the same spots regardless of conditions.
Cedar Key sits on Florida's Nature Coast and is one of the state's most productive and unique fisheries. Jimbo, who has guided these waters for decades, describes the back bays, flats, and geography that make the area special and the variety of fish it holds.
Jimbo demonstrates that long-term success requires understanding your fishery intimately, being willing to adjust strategies based on conditions, building lasting relationships with clients, and acting as a steward of the resource. Technical fishing skill is just one component of what makes a guide truly successful over decades.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 867 with Jimbo Keith is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I have a deep respect for guides who have spent their entire lives on one body of water, because that kind of focused experience produces a level of knowledge you simply cannot get any other way. Jimbo Keith is exactly that guy, and Cedar Key is exactly that place.
When Jimbo talks about reading the water, understanding the tides, or what it takes to consistently catch big fish, he is pulling from decades of doing it in one fishery. That is why I wanted him on the show. Press play in the player above to hear it.
There is a difference between fishing a lot of places a little and fishing one place for a lifetime, and Jimbo is the second kind. He has guided Cedar Key for decades, and that focus has given him a read on the water that newcomers spend years chasing. He talks about what that kind of long-term attention teaches you about a fishery. Hear it in the player above.
A 10-pound spotted seatrout is the upper limit of what most anglers will ever see, and Jimbo has caught them in Cedar Key waters. He tells the story of a trophy trout that still stands out to him and what conditions and technique it took to put it in the boat. For anyone who chases big trout, this is the section to hear. Watch it in the player above.
Jimbo's consistency comes from understanding how tide, wind direction, and the unique shape of the Cedar Key area work together to position fish. He explains how he adjusts locations and tactics through the day based on the tidal stage rather than fishing the same spots out of habit. This is the practical core of the conversation. Listen to that breakdown in the episode.
Spending decades in one place means watching it change, and Jimbo has seen plenty. He reflects on how the fishery has evolved over his career, what is different now, and what that means for how he guides today. It is a perspective only someone with his tenure can offer. Press play in the player above for his take.
Jimbo's career shows that being a great guide is about much more than catching fish. It is intimate knowledge of the water, adapting to conditions, building lasting relationships with clients, and acting as a steward of the resource. He talks about the parts of the job that keep people coming back year after year. Listen to the final stretch of the episode.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
Talking to Jimbo was a privilege. This is a guy who has spent his entire life on the water in one place, and that produces a depth of knowledge that is genuinely rare.
The 10-pound trout story is the headline, but the real value is in how he thinks about tides, wind, and conditions, because that is knowledge you can actually carry to your own water.
If you fish the Nature Coast, chase big trout anywhere, or just appreciate a true expert talking about his craft, this one is worth your time. Watch the whole thing.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 867 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Jimbo Keith · Cedar Key, Florida · Nature Coast · Tom Rowland
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Jimbo Keith is a professional fishing captain based in Cedar Key, Florida, where he has spent decades guiding anglers through the Nature Coast's productive flats and back bays. Known for his deep local knowledge and his ability to consistently locate trophy-class fish, particularly large spotted seatrout, he has built a reputation as one of the area's most knowledgeable guides. His expertise centers on reading tides, wind, and the unique geography of Cedar Key, and on the long-term relationships and resource stewardship that have sustained his guiding career.
Full transcript of the Tom Rowland Podcast, Episode 867: The King of Cedar Key, with Jimbo Keith.
Tom Rowland: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast today. We have a fantastic guest, Captain Jimbo Keith. He's a second-generation guide and outfitter out of Cedar Key, Florida. Alright, here we go.
Tom Rowland: Jimbo, what's up, man? How are you?
Jimbo Keith: Hey, man. Doing good, bud. How about yourself?
Tom Rowland: I'm doing great. It's nice to meet you and have you on the show. I appreciate you coming.
Jimbo Keith: I appreciate it. Thanks for the invite.
Tom Rowland: So from what I hear, you are the man in Cedar Key.
Jimbo Keith: I try to be.
Tom Rowland: Tell me about Cedar Key. I've always heard about it — it's a legendary place, Old Florida. I know it's beautiful, and I know it's a great place to fish, but I've never been there. Sell me on Cedar Key.
Jimbo Keith: Cedar Key is about an hour kind of west-northwest of Gainesville, Florida, where the Florida Gators are. It's a community all on its own. I didn't grow up in Cedar Key, but I grew up in Gainesville and hunted and fished that direction my whole life — I was raised over there fishing. A lot of the locals will tell you it has changed, but in retrospect it has not changed like down south. It's still the same mom-and-pop stores — the faces might change, but the buildings are all the same. You get some fresh paint, but there's no commercial development. There's no fast food, only one gas station, no red lights — just two stop signs in the whole town, on Highway 24. But it's a neat little place.
Tom Rowland: That sounds like a paradise so far. No fast food.
Jimbo Keith: No fast food. It's all home. I love it. It's got some nice condos and shops, and a couple of really good restaurants right on the water — if you're sitting in the restaurant, you're overlooking the Gulf right there. Awesome fishing.
Tom Rowland: So you grew up there? Is that where you—
Jimbo Keith: I grew up fishing down there, yes, sir. But I grew up in Gainesville — that's where I was born and raised, and I still live right here.
Tom Rowland: And then what's the process to becoming a fishing guide for you?
Jimbo Keith: My dad started our company back in 1985. He started guiding, and in 2006 I came on board with him. I have to step back for a second, because I have a lot of guys come up to me saying, "Man, I love fishing, I want to be a charter boat captain, this is a big dream of mine." And I'm like, well, hang on — because if you love fishing, you need to realize that ain't what it's about. When you're a charter boat captain, you've got to enjoy watching other people fish. It's not about you being the fisherman. It's kind of like a bartender loving to drink — a bartender's got to love mixing drinks and being around people, not necessarily drinking himself.
Tom Rowland: And, actually, probably even not drink — being around a bunch of drunk people, that sounds like super fun. That's how it is being a fishing guide. I've had the same conversation with a lot of super passionate fishermen who think they're going to take that passion and be a great fishing guide. And that's not always the case, because a lot of people can't stand the fact that they've found themselves in a situation they've never personally been in — the biggest school of tailing fish they've ever seen in their life, and here's this person that can't even cast ten feet, and people get upset about that. That's a situation a lot of people aren't expecting when they become a fishing guide. I always had one mindset when I was the angler and a different one when I'm the guide — when you're the guide, it's like, this is all cool, we're here to learn everything, how great is it that we found this opportunity.
Tom Rowland: Did you struggle with that when you first started guiding?
Jimbo Keith: Kind of, but I had a pretty good role model. Unlike a lot of captains nowadays, my dad made me go on the boat with him before he'd let me start taking customers — probably close to a year, year and a half that I was actively with him, but I helped him even before I was old enough to get my captain's license. He'd let me be his mate and watch how he did things. Back then I'd be up there ripping lips, and he'd say, "Hey, look, you've got to wait, let the customer have the first shot, let him catch the fish." That's where I really learned what it's like to be a charter boat captain. Now I can hardly not be the guide — if my family's on the boat, I step back, because I really fell in love with watching other people experience it. As far as getting your captain's license, you go through the Coast Guard, and it takes a certain amount of time. But I've been doing it since 2006, and I can't see myself doing anything else.
Tom Rowland: Do you have other guys working for you, or are you all by yourself?
Jimbo Keith: Our business, Saltwater Assassin Fishing Charters, is owned and operated by me, my dad, Captain Jim Keith, and my cousin, Captain Steven Keith. I also have an uncle, Robbie Robertson, who guides part-time with us. The three of us full-time in Cedar Key — we're the biggest charter boat service in town. It's a small town, and there are several new guides coming in along with some old ones that have been there a long time. But sustaining three boats off of one website and one social media presence is pretty awesome for that little town.
Tom Rowland: Especially keeping it in the family like that.
Jimbo Keith: We keep it in the family. We give away some business and swap some with other guys in different areas, but we all fish about two hundred and seventy days a year, each one of us.
Tom Rowland: That's a good understanding — you've got kind of a magic formula when you have weather that allows close to three hundred days of guiding a year, plus enough tourism to support it. A lot of places have the weather and the fishing but not the people. That's what I was always fortunate with in Key West — we had the weather and the people, and then it was a matter of, okay, now I've got three hundred days booked, can I do it, can I stay sane, can I stay married? So, Rob told me you stay in shape too — do you stay in shape so you can fish that many days?
Jimbo Keith: I love it. Some of my other family doesn't stay in shape or work out, but it's become something me and my wife do together, and we both really like it. It's kind of a cross between CrossFit — not really CrossFit, we call it cross-training, using a lot of dumbbells instead of barbells. Our gym here in Gainesville offers it, and we both love it. It's something we do every morning at five.
Tom Rowland: Is that right?
Jimbo Keith: I get up at four, go to the gym at five, and I'm in Cedar Key ready to work by eight.
Tom Rowland: That's great. And seasonally, do you ever start earlier or later at different times of year?
Jimbo Keith: It all depends. If we're doing a four-hour trip, we have a pretty good tide swing in our area — about five feet. Certain times of year it might be a little less or more. This time of year we have real negative tides, which are really good — we might start at noon some days and fish the afternoon, and other days start at daylight. If I do the daylight start, I go to the gym later, which messes up my gym time a little, but you've got to do what you've got to do for work.
Tom Rowland: Do you find staying in shape has helped you maintain that two-hundred-and-seventy-day schedule?
Jimbo Keith: Oh, yeah. It keeps my body a little more flexible, so I think long-term it helps a lot.
Tom Rowland: No doubt about that.
Tom Rowland: Alright, Jimbo, we're going to start the hot seat questions — a series of either-or and quick rapid-fire questions. You ready?
Jimbo Keith: Okay.
Tom Rowland: Fresh or salt?
Jimbo Keith: Salt.
Tom Rowland: Hunting or fishing?
Jimbo Keith: Hunting.
Tom Rowland: Cooking or catching?
Jimbo Keith: Catching, definitely.
Tom Rowland: Drive or fly?
Jimbo Keith: Oh, fly.
Tom Rowland: Chocolate or vanilla?
Jimbo Keith: Vanilla.
Tom Rowland: Text or call?
Jimbo Keith: Text.
Tom Rowland: Favorite social media platform?
Jimbo Keith: Instagram.
Tom Rowland: Do you answer every comment, or do you never look at them?
Jimbo Keith: I try to answer them.
Tom Rowland: A million now or ten million later?
Jimbo Keith: Ten million later.
Tom Rowland: One thing you've learned in the last year that has made you money?
Jimbo Keith: Listen to people that are above you.
Tom Rowland: Good one. Most challenging thing about running an airboat?
Jimbo Keith: They don't steer good on mud.
Tom Rowland: The easiest thing about running an airboat?
Jimbo Keith: The throttle is your friend.
Tom Rowland: One thing you'd change about your fishing career if you could do it over again?
Jimbo Keith: Get into social media a long time ago, as soon as it hit.
Tom Rowland: A movie that makes you laugh.
Jimbo Keith: Elf.
Tom Rowland: Would you have a reptile as a pet?
Jimbo Keith: Nope.
Tom Rowland: A non-fishing destination you'd like to visit?
Jimbo Keith: Wyoming.
Tom Rowland: Top fishing destination on your bucket list?
Jimbo Keith: That's tough for me, because I can do it all in Florida — let's just say South Florida.
Tom Rowland: One accomplishment that comes to mind.
Jimbo Keith: Being able to represent what my dad started.
Tom Rowland: One species you'd like to catch.
Jimbo Keith: Peacock bass.
Tom Rowland: A book you learned something from.
Jimbo Keith: A Land Remembered.
Tom Rowland: Love that book — that's a great book. One thing you've changed your mind on in the last two years?
Jimbo Keith: Airboats.
Tom Rowland: We're going to talk about that. And last one — one piece of advice that has served you well, or that you live by?
Jimbo Keith: Listen to the older folks.
Tom Rowland: That came up twice — listen to the older folks, listen to people above you. How has that served you? Who have you been listening to?
Jimbo Keith: I try to listen to all my peers. Here's a rule I live and die by: the minute somebody thinks they know everything, that's the first time I stop listening to them — I tune them out a little bit. Everybody's got something to learn, and usually somebody older, with a little white hair, has been around this place longer, so they've got a little more to share.
Tom Rowland: Do you learn from your customers?
Jimbo Keith: Oh, yeah. Several times I've had people on the boat say, "Hey, that spot over there looks fishy," and I'm like, I've never fished that before, never caught anything there — and they say, well, let's try it. We pull over, make a couple of casts, jack a couple, and you're like, alright. Or they've shown me a new knot, or told me what they do in North Carolina catching speckled trout and redfish, and I start bringing it into what I do.
Tom Rowland: So many times I've had good conversations with people who taught me things outside of fishing — about business, about relationships. As a fishing guide you're kind of a marriage counselor too — you're twenty-four years old, maybe never been married, and they're telling you everything, "If I get married I'm not gonna do that, I am gonna do that." It seems pretty easy, and meanwhile this guy having a hard time with it is the CEO of a multinational corporation.
Jimbo Keith: Yeah, there you go. Maybe you should add your stuff together.
Tom Rowland: Some of them did, and some of them didn't. I learned a ton through their failures, and others taught me a lot about their success. As a fishing guide you're taking a lot of very successful people out, and I think you'd be pretty naive to believe they couldn't teach you anything.
Jimbo Keith: Oh, yeah. Sometimes we focus on where people are in their life and not where they came from. We see somebody real successful on a charter trip and think, man, that guy's got it together — but you don't see how long they struggled or how many times they failed. Our buddy Rob, for example — he didn't really fail, but he tried a lot, and he's finally nailing things now. You've got to look at the road they traveled.
Tom Rowland: I don't know a single uber-successful person who didn't have a number of failures in their background. That's one thing I noticed as I got more experienced guiding — when I first got my captain's license, I just kind of shut up because I didn't know anything, and tried not to make a fool of myself. Later, once you're more comfortable and fish with people a lot, you can ask them what they did before this, and they tell you the series of failures they had, and then what finally led to the success. And they'll say, "I knew it all the time" — it was about organizing my thoughts, or I got this partner, or something just turned on for them.
Jimbo Keith: It turned everything around.
Tom Rowland: It always gave me hope that anybody could do that.
Jimbo Keith: Oh, yeah, for sure.
Tom Rowland: In your area you run an airboat — do you run it all the time?
Jimbo Keith: No, sir. I run a bay boat probably ninety percent of the time.
Tom Rowland: Tell me about the airboat and when you decided that was something you wanted to run.
Jimbo Keith: It's just like we talked about — tries and failures. I tried to stay away from an airboat. We ran Carolina Skiffs for a while and loved them — my cousin and uncle still run them. This past year, me and my dad moved up to the bay boat world. A couple of years before that, I got a mud boat and tried it in our area, but it just wouldn't do what I wanted — I couldn't get into the places I wanted on the tide I was in, and by the time I got there, airboats were already in wearing the fish out, which frustrated me. Then I got blessed with the chance to get an airboat — very blessed. The guy said, "What boat would you like to have if you could have a new boat?" and I said an airboat. I didn't get a new one, but I got a used one — and I'd never driven one before in my life, even though I'd run boats my whole life. It took about one or two trips to feel comfortable running it, because it is different — there's a learning curve, especially in the mud on dry land. In the water they act just like any other boat, but on dry ground they act different. And it's very addicting to run an airboat.
Tom Rowland: It sounds like there are quite a few people running airboats in that area.
Jimbo Keith: There's a few in our area that guide with them, and a lot more that just run them recreationally. From about December to February, maybe early March, you can stay in an airboat and catch redfish and a speckled trout bite — our two bread-and-butter fish. Trout are a little harder to catch out of an airboat, because the places you're fishing don't get far enough back for them.
Jimbo Keith: The one thing the airboat has allowed me to do is not worry about weather. This time of year we get fronts blowing twenty-five, thirty miles an hour, and even without rain it'll blow for three or four days and blow all the water out. When you've got an airboat, that's actually the number-one time to go — a lot of people won't be out there. If I have people booked, the airboat doesn't care: you get up in those creeks and the wind doesn't affect you. I pull in, power-pole down, throw out a live shrimp or a mud minnow, and it's on.
Tom Rowland: So walk me through what that day looks like if you're running your Carolina Skiff or bay boat instead.
Jimbo Keith: If you're outside, it can be horrible.
Tom Rowland: Are there a lot of days that used to be a total cancellation before, and now with the airboat it's a day you actually look forward to?
Jimbo Keith: Yeah, it's a good day — you're like, oh yeah, let's go.
Tom Rowland: That's a dream come true for a fishing guide — looking at the calendar, your back already hurting thinking about the weather coming, and having to cancel on people who saved up all year and drove down, cancel right at the boat ramp. That's terrible.
Jimbo Keith: You know how that is. You've got customers, and it's hard to explain that we can go, but it's not going to be productive, probably going to get wet. And now, when they ask if we're going to be able to go, I say heck yeah, we're going to go crushing. It's pretty amazing.
Tom Rowland: That's really awesome. I always thought I needed a complementary hobby for when it's blowing like that — windsurfing or kite surfing, something that's great when your primary is terrible. I never found that, but the airboat sounds like it.
Jimbo Keith: I've probably canceled one trip this winter when I would have canceled eighty percent of them from December until now — and that one was just because of rain.
Tom Rowland: When the water blows out like that, does it shrink the available area so much that there could be too many airboats out there? Where does that line get crossed?
Jimbo Keith: There's not enough people to cover the amount of water — not everybody can fish during the week. I try not to fish Saturdays or Sundays; Sundays I'm in church, Saturdays I spend with my family since the girls are out of school and my wife's off. So during the week you might have four or five airboats running around, which sounds kind of crazy, but the water shrinkage forces fish into certain places where they can't go anywhere else — it's like catching fish in a barrel. My customers have taken up the phrase: it's cheating. You pull into a little ditch and they can't go out either end — it might be four or five feet deep in there, and that's why the fish go there when the temperature drops: it's a little warmer down at that depth.
Tom Rowland: Redfish are pretty hardy — is that what you're mostly fishing for? Do you have black drum up there too?
Jimbo Keith: We do have some black drum, and this time of year they're small, eating-size ones.
Tom Rowland: When you get a really low tide mixed with real cold — like it recently got up here, and down in The Keys and below Miami, if it gets that cold we get fish kills.
Jimbo Keith: A week or two ago, when it got down into the twenties up here, we did have a fish kill — we lost some snook and a few mullet, but no trout or redfish that we saw. I actually saw a snook today, probably a twenty-eight incher. Most of our snook move to the Suwannee River this time of year and they'll be fine unless it stays that cold for a number of days. My cousin fished the morning after it got that cold and saw forty-degree water — forty and a half. Up in the creeks where I was fishing, it was probably a little warmer. I didn't fish that day, but another airboat captain friend caught one small redfish. I went the following day and hammered them — I don't know if it was just that one day making the difference, or the locations, since we don't fish the exact same areas. But this past week was amazing — I fished this morning and had ten keeper reds and probably thirty shorts. It was a good day.
Tom Rowland: That sounds fantastic. And you're fishing out of the airboat right now?
Jimbo Keith: Yes, sir.
Tom Rowland: How maneuverable is that airboat? You've got power poles — do you have a trolling motor too?
Jimbo Keith: No trolling motor, just power poles. It does okay, but it's not a boat — airboats fish differently than regular boats. They don't drift well because the cage catches wind and it'll want to spin in a circle. But I did fish the flats with it last Thursday up north toward Horseshoe, where Rob likes to fish, and it did alright using the power poles.
Tom Rowland: How does that area look right now after the storm?
Jimbo Keith: I was really shocked at Horseshoe. Cedar Key got a lot of publicity during the storm, and so did Steinhatchee, but Horseshoe and Suwannee — kind of in between the two — didn't get as much publicity or help, and Horseshoe is still just destroyed. The houses are coming back, but there's still debris everywhere, a lot of it in the water at the boat ramp. All the city facilities are gone there; they've got two porta-potties instead of a rebuilt bathroom. You come into Cedar Key and it looks like nothing ever happened, but down there, there's still piles of debris in the marsh.
Tom Rowland: What do you think the difference is?
Jimbo Keith: Cedar Key got a pile of help — people showed up because a lot of people like the town, folks came down from Gainesville to help, and FEMA was there since it's a bigger town, so they got more government help. Horseshoe just didn't — when you go there, it's only houses, no businesses besides maybe a fish house or a shrimping operation, so I think they just haven't gotten the publicity to get help the way Cedar Key did. It'll come back, just take a little longer. They do have an awesome fishery up there too.
Tom Rowland: Yeah, I've fished there and loved that old Florida feel — I love that whole area, it's so different.
Jimbo Keith: Tarpon Springs all the way up past Steinhatchee, that coastline will never be built on — it's all federally protected wetlands. The towns there can build, but the marsh will never change, and they're restricted to the property they already have — it's like Cedar Key, an island, a section of islands, it really can't grow.
Tom Rowland: Walk me through your year — you're in the airboat, and then what happens the rest of the year? When and how do you decide to get back in the bay boat?
Jimbo Keith: I'm lucky, I have two other captains running out on the flats, so I'll stay in the airboat as long as I'm catching fish. As it warms up, catfish start taking over up inside, and that's when it's time for me to leave.
Tom Rowland: We have shallow, no-motor zones too, and you'll know it's time to go because of the bugs. In the wintertime they're not bad, but then you go that one day you shouldn't have, and you never make that mistake again.
Jimbo Keith: That's it — you crank up and leave. It got really calm, and we had sand gnats going in your nose and eyes, and I'm like, we've got to go — I don't care how good the fish are biting, I can't stand it.
Tom Rowland: Do you have bugs other times of the year?
Jimbo Keith: Not too bad — sand gnats are around all year, but if you're out on the flats around the islands they're not too bad. Up in the marsh is where they get bad, or in town right at dark and early morning. Levy County sprays for mosquitoes, but it has no effect on sand gnats — I think God himself is the only one who can change that.
Tom Rowland: He's not doing a very good job. These things are really rough — a thousand of them getting up under your eyelids while you're cleaning fish. That's the worst.
Tom Rowland: So you know it's time to get back into the bay boat when you can't catch anything but catfish?
Jimbo Keith: Yeah, when you start getting more catfish than redfish, it's time to go — should be by March. I'll park the airboat then, except to go ride on weekends. But I love the bay boat fishing just as much as the airboat.
Tom Rowland: Is it primarily redfish you're fishing for all year round, or something else?
Jimbo Keith: All inshore species — trout, redfish, snook. We have a pretty decent tripletail bite in the summer, and catch Spanish mackerel and other inshore species. But we get stuck on trout and redfish because most of our customers want to take fish home to eat.
Tom Rowland: Tell me about the trout — Cedar Key's known for the monsters up there.
Jimbo Keith: North of us, in Horseshoe, they have the monsters. We probably have a better crop of fifteen-to-nineteen-inch fish, and they have a way better crop of nineteen-to-thirty-inch fish.
Tom Rowland: Do you have any idea why one area has larger fish than the other?
Jimbo Keith: I personally think it's because their seagrass stays there all year — same as Crystal River, which has a lot of big trout, since the water's real clear and the seagrass holds up through the winter. When it gets really cold, our seagrass dies off and regrows every year, and I think that holds bait on the flats for them longer. Our pinfish leave when it gets cold because there's not enough grass — the water gets cold, so they go offshore into fifteen, twenty feet of water.
Tom Rowland: And I know you have good gag grouper fishing up there too.
Jimbo Keith: Yeah, Crystal River area just south of us is really good — around twenty feet of water for us, but in Crystal River you can catch them in five feet because the bottom contour has way more rock. Right where we are, there's not a lot of rock that comes up — some live bottom or cheese-grater bottom, but down there they almost grow rocks as big as a car.
Tom Rowland: Is that something you put time toward?
Jimbo Keith: I've dabbled in it since I got the bay boat this past year, doing a lot of trolling for them. I'm trying to learn from some of my elders and some younger guys who've been doing it, getting into that shallow-water grouper game as well.
Tom Rowland: That's definitely exciting.
Jimbo Keith: It's fun — those fish slam a plug. I had a couple pull me into the rocks this year that I'd like to see again.
Tom Rowland: So you stay in the bay boat until it starts to cool off?
Jimbo Keith: Yeah. This was the first year I've really had the bay boat and been able to run it — I got it in late December, so I'll probably get in it again around December next year. I've had a lot of customer requests since I got it — I've been flooded, and I'd almost love for us to get another one, since quite a few people have gotten interested in that different experience.
Tom Rowland: I was thinking that sounds like something I'd like to bring my daughter to do, since she's never been in an airboat, and I haven't spent much time in one either.
Jimbo Keith: It's not the same as riding one in the Everglades — totally different. I've had people who've done Everglades tours say that.
Tom Rowland: What's different?
Jimbo Keith: You're in the mud, and there's basically no water — dry ground with patches of water and little creeks. I posted a video on my Instagram of what I was running in today, and it's just a ditch as wide as the boat, and you're literally rolling through it. It's crazy, but neat.
Tom Rowland: That kind of makes my heart skip a beat — I'm thinking that would be the most stuck I've ever been in my life. But to have that freedom to go and do that—
Jimbo Keith: The only thing that will stop you is sand. If it's white sand, you do not try to go across it.
Tom Rowland: Did you learn that the hard way?
Jimbo Keith: Fortunately I learned from other people's mistakes. The one time I actually hit sand that stopped me, I'd slowed way down because I thought it might happen — I didn't have enough water on it, and it just stopped, boom, like that. I've heard of people getting thrown out of the boat when that happens — it doesn't skid, it just stops.
Tom Rowland: That's something to watch out for.
Tom Rowland: With every boat I've ever owned, from a thirty-six Yellowfin down to the tiniest skiff, everybody gets excited about souping them up — more speed, better weight distribution, floating shallower. What about airboats? I've seen some at gas stations that look like somebody's pride and joy — waxed, huge engines. That seems like a world I don't know anything about.
Jimbo Keith: It's a whole new world to me too — I wouldn't say I'm obsessed, but I'm close. I've learned that if you see one all waxed and pretty, he probably runs it on the lake or tools around the trails, doesn't beat it up in the saltwater. But, man, you can do so much with them — it's like having a race car. When they crank up, you hear that sucker camming. The one I run has a three-eighty-three stroker motor, a small-block three-fifty that's been stroked out, with a gear-reduction box on the back — your motor's only turning three thousand RPMs, but the prop's turning eight thousand. That makes the motor last longer, but it's got straight headers with little mufflers on the back — it's loud, you wear earmuffs.
Tom Rowland: How much does the actual propeller matter, the way it does on a boat or an airplane?
Jimbo Keith: Oh, yeah, same kind of deal.
Tom Rowland: Have you had yours long enough to think you need a new propeller?
Jimbo Keith: It was set up the way I bought it, and I have no complaints — it's done exactly what I needed. I talked to several people about the hull too — you can get fiberglass or aluminum. I think aluminum is better for durability — you hit a rock, it might ding and dent instead of putting a hole in it.
Tom Rowland: Do you have any kind of lining underneath, like a starboard material?
Jimbo Keith: Yep, they call it polymer — about a half-inch on the bottom, plus up the sides a bit, so if you slide and bump a rock it protects you some. But they're not indestructible.
Tom Rowland: You've got to learn how to drive the thing and watch out for the sand — I didn't know anything about that. It sounds like you've been in a boat your whole life, but with the airboat you're basically starting over and relearning how to navigate.
Jimbo Keith: Exactly. It's very exciting. Stepping from our Carolina Skiff — this past August I got a twenty-three Skeeter, and that was a whole new world for me too, hauling more bait, having rod lockers. And now moving to the airboat, it's like I'm a kid again. I expected the fuel mileage to be way worse than it is, but it does pretty decent — I'm burning eight to ten gallons a trip, about what I'd burn in the Skeeter on a four-hour run. We're lucky we don't have to run far. It's just as fun, too — people's eyes light up seeing the birds and the fish, it's really neat.
Tom Rowland: How many people can you take in that boat?
Jimbo Keith: Three, plus me — three fishermen is about all I want, two is more comfortable. You could ride five, but fishing room is limited.
Tom Rowland: When you get into places you've never been before, what has surprised you most about where redfish go? I'd imagine you've seen them in almost no water.
Jimbo Keith: It's unbelievable how they'll be sitting right there with bait all around them — mullet and mud minnows everywhere — and they're just laying there, not feeding on any of it. But you throw a shrimp in, and they eat it. It's also amazing how you can go to the same place every day, behind other boats, and there'll still be so many fish — mind-blowing. You catch them and catch them, and go back and do it again the next day.
Tom Rowland: What about shallow situations — have you seen them in shallower water than you ever expected?
Jimbo Keith: I think that'll come more later in the year — right now they're back in those holes and don't come out. Later, once I'm running the flats, I've seen them with their backs out of the water. A friend of mine was fly fishing the other day and saw a couple hundred fish tailing on the flats — couldn't get them to eat, but they were in a foot of water or less. Most of the time those fish just don't have much pressure on them.
Tom Rowland: How many guides do you think are operating in that area?
Jimbo Keith: Cedar Key is probably about twenty-four or twenty-five guides total, but only about fourteen that are hardcore and go pretty regularly.
Tom Rowland: And of those, four are family.
Jimbo Keith: Four are family, and there's only about eight total I'd say, hey, you need to go with them if you can't go with me.
Tom Rowland: Where do your anglers stay? I'd like to bring my daughter down there.
Jimbo Keith: We have several very nice condo-style hotels — mostly privately owned, all decorated differently, with booking agencies handling reservations. Some are right on the water, and most have trailer parking for boats, though it's not the most fisherman-friendly town for parking since it's pretty compact. But it's an awesome place, nowhere near the pressure south of us gets.
Tom Rowland: Where do people book you and get information on your service?
Jimbo Keith: Right through our website, fishcedarkey.com — you can email me directly from there, which is the best way to reach me. I can also point people to the right lodging, tell them which places to go to and which to avoid.
Tom Rowland: That's awesome, that sounds fun. I want to come down and fish with you — I haven't fished out of an airboat like that, I think it'd be a blast.
Jimbo Keith: Let's do it. I promise, if you come up here to Cedar Key, you'll be back. Some of the other guys who've been on your show — Carter Andrews — came once and now comes every year.
Tom Rowland: Is that right? Did you fish him out of an airboat?
Jimbo Keith: Not yet. He's done some snook fishing and fly fishing up here with friends of mine — I haven't had him on my boat yet, but we've had some long conversations, and I'd love to get him on the airboat.
Tom Rowland: He's a good dude, man. Me and Carter go way back — we're both from Tennessee, and we both ended up in Jackson, Wyoming at the same time, working for two different outfitters. Our paths have crossed a bunch over the years — fished tournaments together, did the Redbone with him and his wife, the Mad Fin tournament too. Carter's a hardcore fisherman, man, he definitely likes getting it done.
Tom Rowland: Alright, Jimbo, I definitely want to come down and fish with you, and I'll see if I can get my daughter — she's at Auburn.
Jimbo Keith: Oh, nice. Get her to come down and you come up.
Tom Rowland: That's exactly right. Alright, what's your social media, Jimbo?
Jimbo Keith: Captain Jimbo Keith on Instagram, and just regular old Jimbo Keith on Facebook, or Saltwater Assassin Fishing Charters.
Tom Rowland: That's a good way to find him, along with YouTube — he's all over. Go check it out. And if you want to see some old Florida—
Jimbo Keith: Oh, yeah.
Tom Rowland: Old Florida, that's where it is, man. It still looks like the book we talked about, A Land Remembered — what an incredible book. If you haven't read it, especially if you're into Florida history, it's truly amazing — Florida was a rough place.
Jimbo Keith: Rough place.
Tom Rowland: Bears, wolves, all the stuff they had to deal with, and that family doing it with just him, his wife, and his son — unbelievable. Highly recommended, and it's actually in the book club at tomrowlandpodcast.com. I liked it on audiobook myself — listened to it with my wife on a long drive, and she was into it just like I was.
Tom Rowland: Alright, so go check out Jimbo, check out A Land Remembered, and go see what's left of that old Florida feel around Cedar Key. That'd be awesome.
Jimbo Keith: Awesome, man.
Tom Rowland: Thanks, Jimbo, we'll see you soon.
Jimbo Keith: See you.
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