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What We Leave Behind

Seventh-generation Florida Keys guides Brandon and Jared Cyr on brothers, fatherhood and the water they plan to hand down.

START AT THE VISE

Like many family stories, it starts at the kitchen table, not on a skiff. Brandon coaches his daughter through her first tarpon fly, while everyone is huddled around the recent mini lobster catches for the day. Homemade mini lobster topped pizza is on the menu, a Keys delicacy perfected by Amber, Brandon’s wife.

Brandon and Jared Cyr are seventh-generation Keys anglers and guides. For their family, fishing was never a hobby. It was the business, the calendar and the dinner conversation. Now it’s the thing they’re teaching their own kids to hold onto.

START AT THE VISE-Like many family stories, it starts at the kitchen table, not on a skiff. Brandon coaches his daughter through her first tarpon fly, while everyone is huddled around the recent mini lobster catches for the day. Homemade mini lobster topped pizza is on the menu, a Keys delicacy perfected by Amber, Brandon’s wife. Brandon and Jared Cyr are seventh-generation Keys anglers and guides. For their family, fishing was never a hobby. It was the business, the calendar and the dinner conversation. Now it’s the thing they’re teaching their own kids to hold onto.

CASTING FROM THE DOCK BOX

“My dad’s been a fishing guide my entire life,” Brandon Cyr says. “There wasn’t any part of our day that fishing wasn’t involved.”

On slow days the family sat at the marina trying to book trips. The boys helped in their own way. One would climb on the dock box, cast an imaginary line at passing cars and reel them in so the driver would stop and talk to his dad. They still wonder how many charters that act landed.

The bigger lesson came off the clock. Vacations weren’t about new toys. They were about time on the water, diving and fishing together. “Time is more important than money,” he says. “Everything else is just stuff.”

CASTING FROM THE DOCK BOX-“My dad’s been a fishing guide my entire life,” Brandon Cyr says. “There wasn’t any part of our day that fishing wasn’t involved.” On slow days the family sat at the marina trying to book trips. The boys helped in their own way. One would climb on the dock box, cast an imaginary line at passing cars and reel them in so the driver would stop and talk to his dad. They still wonder how many charters that act landed. The bigger lesson came off the clock. Vacations weren’t about new toys. They were about time on the water, diving and fishing together. “Time is more important than money,” he says. “Everything else is just stuff.”

RIVALS FIRST, THEN PARTNERS

Put the Cyrs on a boat together and they barely talk. They don’t need to. Somebody finds the fish, somebody casts, somebody catches.

That ease was built on years of competition. “They love each other to death,” says their father, Mike Cyr, “but there’s always been a competition.” One brother has the better day. The other answers the next morning.

Brandon, the younger of the two, calls that a gift. “I feel very lucky to be the younger sibling cuz I got to watch Jared do everything,” he says. “That pushed me to be better.”

Jared remembers it from the other side. Some days he wanted his little brother to stay home. Plenty of others, he brought him along. By his count, he was there for Brandon’s first tarpon on fly, his first permit on fly and his first bonefish from a boat on fly.

The rivalry never ended. It just turned into a phone call. “At the end of the day, they’ll call each other and run down their day,” says Amber Cyr. “Fishing’s just always been what ties them together.”

RIVALS FIRST, THEN PARTNERS-Put the Cyrs on a boat together and they barely talk. They don’t need to. Somebody finds the fish, somebody casts, somebody catches. That ease was built on years of competition. “They love each other to death,” says their father, Mike Cyr, “but there’s always been a competition.” One brother has the better day. The other answers the next morning. Brandon, the younger of the two, calls that a gift. “I feel very lucky to be the younger sibling cuz I got to watch Jared do everything,” he says. “That pushed me to be better.” Jared remembers it from the other side. Some days he wanted his little brother to stay home. Plenty of others, he brought him along. By his count, he was there for Brandon’s first tarpon on fly, his first permit on fly and his first bonefish from a boat on fly. The rivalry never ended. It just turned into a phone call. “At the end of the day, they’ll call each other and run down their day,” says Amber Cyr. “Fishing’s just always been what ties them together.”

THE PUSH

When Brandon started guiding, the goal was survival. “If I had $20 in my bank account at the end of the day, it was a great day,” he says. Jared was already running experienced fly anglers. Brandon didn’t think he was ready to take their money.

Jared disagreed. “He was the first person that was like, ‘What are you scared of? Do it. You know how to do this,’” Brandon says. “I owe him a lot for that.”

THE PUSH-When Brandon started guiding, the goal was survival. “If I had $20 in my bank account at the end of the day, it was a great day,” he says. Jared was already running experienced fly anglers. Brandon didn’t think he was ready to take their money. Jared disagreed. “He was the first person that was like, ‘What are you scared of? Do it. You know how to do this,’” Brandon says. “I owe him a lot for that.”

ONE BIG FISH ON WHITE SAND

On the flats the brothers work as one crew. Two generations of the family are on this fish. A school of tarpon slides across white sand: one big female and a handful of smaller males.

“Hit him.” The rod loads. “You got him.”

Then the math sets in. “That is not the fish to have on a seven weight,” someone says. The brothers put her near 80 pounds. Everyone scrambles back into the skiff and the odds of landing her drop by the second.

It’s the kind of moment guides chase for their clients every day. This time it’s theirs.

DAD GUILT

Fatherhood changed the math on long days. “Being a dad, I get dad guilt really bad,” Brandon says. His own father was at every game and every trip. They fished the sandbar, lobstered and spearfished three or four days a week. “Almost every memory I have of my childhood was with him. He was my best friend.”

Jared Cyr feels it too. He’s the one leaving before sunrise. A guiding day can run 10 or 12 hours. “I’m out on the boat before they even wake up,” Jared says. “When I come back, that kid is jacked to see me.” He calls that part of what keeps him going.

The goal at home isn’t a trophy. It’s the small stuff. Watching the kids run the beach brings his own childhood back, down to the fiddler crabs they used to chase. “It ain’t always about that big trophy fish,” he says. “You got to slow down and look at everything that’s around us.”

RESPECT FOR THE RESOURCE

Ask what they most want to pass down and the answer is plain. “Gratitude and respect for the resource,” Brandon Cyr says. “It’s so easy down here when this is your everyday to take it for granted.”

The generation before them saw it differently. For more than 20 years, their father, Mike Cyr, ran about 300 trips a year. “Back then, nobody knew there was an end to it,” he recalls. When the brothers asked about declines, the answer was often that it was too late. Today he credits fisheries management with putting limits on what comes home.

The brothers don’t accept too late. They point to conservation work they’ve seen succeed. Their gear is part of it too. Costa’s Untangled Collection is made with recycled fishing nets, the kind that can end up tangled in the mangroves. “Now we’re at least doing something with it and making something good out of it,” Jared Cyr says.

“We’re aware of the issues. We’re aware that we can fix them,” Brandon Cyr says. “So it’s our responsibility to do the best we can.”

RESPECT FOR THE RESOURCE-Ask what they most want to pass down and the answer is plain. “Gratitude and respect for the resource,” Brandon Cyr says. “It’s so easy down here when this is your everyday to take it for granted.” The generation before them saw it differently. For more than 20 years, their father, Mike Cyr, ran about 300 trips a year. “Back then, nobody knew there was an end to it,” he recalls. When the brothers asked about declines, the answer was often that it was too late. Today he credits fisheries management with putting limits on what comes home. The brothers don’t accept too late. They point to conservation work they’ve seen succeed. Their gear is part of it too. Costa’s Untangled Collection is made with recycled fishing nets, the kind that can end up tangled in the mangroves. “Now we’re at least doing something with it and making something good out of it,” Jared Cyr says. “We’re aware of the issues. We’re aware that we can fix them,” Brandon Cyr says. “So it’s our responsibility to do the best we can.”

WHAT THEY LEAVE BEHIND

In the end every answer comes back to the kids. “Everything I do is for them,” Brandon Cyr says. “I love doing my conservation work. I love fishing. I love teaching.”

What he hopes they keep isn’t a catch count. “You can always buy things. You can always lose things, but those experiences with each other, you never get back,” he says. “Put your phones away, just be in the moment and enjoy this amazing world that we have.”

That’s the inheritance. A vise on the kitchen table. A brother who says do it. A flat worth fishing for the next generation.

WHAT THEY LEAVE BEHIND-In the end every answer comes back to the kids. “Everything I do is for them,” Brandon Cyr says. “I love doing my conservation work. I love fishing. I love teaching.” What he hopes they keep isn’t a catch count. “You can always buy things. You can always lose things, but those experiences with each other, you never get back,” he says. “Put your phones away, just be in the moment and enjoy this amazing world that we have.” That’s the inheritance. A vise on the kitchen table. A brother who says do it. A flat worth fishing for the next generation.

Watch the film: What We Leave Behind #WhatWeLeaveBehind

Costa is proud to stand behind the conservation partners protecting the waters we love, including Captains for Clean Water, the International Game Fish Association, Trout Unlimited through the Costa 5 Rivers program, the Lower Keys Guide Association, The Herman Lucerne Memorial, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and The Billfish Foundation.