Portfolio manager Cale Smith’s riffs on investing, spoke funds, and Islamorada in the Florida Keys.

Jimmy Buffett will be thrilled. His Landshark Lager made Bruce Owens’ list of “Ten Beers You Must Drink This Summer.” In at number six – Pabst Blue Ribbon. And I think he’s serious.

If you’ve never been to the Keys before, a note on ordering beverages:

Corona is a fine beer, but let’s not confuse it with something that men drink. That would be more like Kalik, brewed in Nassau.

It was once explained to me that Kalik was popular in the Keys because of the Bahamian Conchs who originally settled here, but I suspect it also might be because it’s just an excellent kind-of-local beer. And it’s pronounced Ka-LICK, like the sound an old cowbell makes when it’s rung. (Thus the cowbells in the logo.)

Here’s a great story from a Canadian gentleman desperate for some Kalik.

And stout fans may not know that in the Caribbean there is actually a third type of Guinness – Foreign Extra Stout. To make sure the beer would hold up well when shipped long distances around the world, brewers back in the day added extra hops and brewed it longer. As a consequence, it had a higher alcohol content. Still does, despite modern transport. Read into that whatever you may.

Other Caribbean beers: Piton from St. Lucia, Carib from Trinidad and Tobago, and of course Red Stripe from Jamaica. Aruba makes a local beer called Balashi that is supposed to be pretty good, too.

And ya can’t plug micro brews in Islamorada without mentioning The Trading Post. Across the street, Morada Bay has Stella Artois on tap. And although it’s not actually brewed in the Keys, Key West Sunset Ale isn’t half-bad, either.

See there? Sitting around reading annual reports has other benefits, too…

Florida Keys 360.

Sort of like Google Earth, but just for the Conch Republic. It’s all here, from the Islamorada Sandbar to Hens and Chickens to a Japanese tourist who has confused his beer bottle with a conch shell.

Before all newspapers and magazines go kaput and the Kindle DX makes books obsolete:

For Travelers

The Florida Keys: Laid-back Living With a Touch of Glamour. From The Independent across the pond.

All Keyed Up. The Washington Post.

For Newlyweds

Islamorada is #3 on The Knot’s top honeymoon spots, behind Venice and Paris. Take that, Oahu.

For Vacationers

Deep Blue, Pristine Waters Make This Florida Keys’ Island a Paradise. Video from Good Morning America.

For Subprime Borrowers

The Islamorada Dream Home. From HGTV’s annual contest.

For Recovering Yuppies

Best Places to Live. National Geographic rates Islamorada as #10 in the East. The list looks more rigged than an Iranian election, though. Jersey and Maryland can’t possibly rate that high.

For Conservationists

The Last Days of Florida Bay. By Carl Hiaasen.

For Football Fans

Jimmy Johnson Living in Luxury With Football a Distant Memory. Miami Herald.

For Foodies

Searching Margaritaville for the Perfect Key Lime Pie. NY Times.

Keys Cuisine: Flavors of the Florida Keys. Book. Try the seafood linguine recipe. You’ll pass out.

Keys’ Eats. From one of those magazines in the seat pocket in front of you.

For Colonoscopy Patients

Miami resident Dave Barry at the top of his game. This has nothing to do with Islamorada, but everyone should read it.

For Anglers

Going Fishing with The Kid. Ted Williams in Islamorada.

In the Florida Keys, Bonefish Oblivion. NY Times.

If You Teach a Man to Bonefish…You Can Feed His Soul Forever. Chicago Tribune.

Waiting for Godzilla. From Sports Illustrated.

The Real Thing at Islamorada. Another oldie but goodie from SI.

Guiding Light in The Keys. “Caustic or kind, Florida’s famed light tackle guides are obsessed with leading you to the fish—and you sure better catch them.”

The Bonefish: Ghost of the Shallows. From Sports Illustrated in 1959.

The Tempestuous Tarpon. From 1958. “There is little else to do at Islamorada but swim, bake in the sun and after fishing enjoy an incomparable meal of green turtle soup and stone crabs at the Green Turtle Inn.”

Stu Apte’s Fishing in the Florida Keys and Flamingo. Book. The chart of Stu’s fishing spots alone is worth it.

And lastly, from Man Alone:

It is a rare man who does not sometimes ache to go forth alone and be lost and solitary under the enormous sky—to savor his own uniqueness and make all nature his private vision. So moved, Fishing Guide Jimmie Albright stands in silhouetted battle with a tarpon somewhere between the cloud-veiled afternoon sun and the Florida Keys. His fish did not strike at once.

Hours passed after he shut off his motor, staked out his boat, stood carefully in the silence and made his first intent and rhythmic cast. The sea’s color was lost in glare. Clouds darkened above the horizon. Then, without warning, he found himself in combat with something—a leaping, glittering, savage form—which bespoke all the mysteries, the dangers, the riches of the deep.

For 15 straining minutes Jimmie Albright lived in a wild world of his own. Then he gaffed the tarpon, lifted it high, released it. He mopped his brow, laid down his rod, started his motor and steered for his palm-shaded Islamorada cottage and the world of other men.