Show up in Islamorada in a t-shirt and you will be the only one. Keys guides fish in hoods, long sleeves and gaiters in the middle of summer, and it is not caution. It is what a hundred and fifty days a year on a white skiff deck teaches you.
Latitude does most of it
The Keys sit further south than anywhere else you can drive to in the lower forty eight. The sun gets higher in the sky, which means the light travels through less atmosphere on the way to you, which means more of the ultraviolet survives the trip.
There is no low UV month here. Winter is high season because the weather is the best in the country, and a February bonefish day on Islamorada flats will still burn you.
A white deck is a second sun
A flats skiff is a long, pale, flat surface angled up at you. Add the water and a white sand bottom on the bay side and you have light arriving from above, off the surface, off the bottom and off the boat.
That is why the coverage extends to the neck and the face here rather than stopping at the sleeves. A gaiter is not a fashion decision on a skiff.
Multi-day trips change the maths
A single day of pink skin is uncomfortable. Three consecutive days is a trip that ends early. Guides wear full coverage because they cannot afford to be out for a week, and the same logic applies to anyone who booked four days and wants to fish all four.
Burn accumulates. Day two starts from wherever day one left you, and sunscreen alone does not hold that line across a week.
Two sides, one wardrobe
Flats on the bay side, reef and blue water on the ocean side, and often both in a day. The offshore leg is windier and feels cooler, which is the same trap it is everywhere on the Gulf. Dress for the flat and you are covered for the reef.
The short version
- Full sleeves and a hood, even in winter.
- Cover the neck and face on a light coloured deck.
- Plan coverage across the whole trip, not one day.
- Rinse and dry daily, salt here is constant.
Gear for it. Have a look at the Florida Keys, the hooded performance shirt or hats and beanies.
