The contest if there must be one is between the fish and the boat. Your guide or partner will try to help you analyze a shot and suggest a favorable spot to cast your fly. Almost every shot will be somehow different from the last. Retrieves will often be discussed too, faster, slower, stop, there must be some way to fool this fish. Sometimes there isn't.
Strikes are often like random bolts of lightning, suddenly fish move to a fly and it disappears.
The strike may be as violent as a musky eating a duckling or as subtle as a nervous brown sipping a spinner but there will be no mistake when the line comes tight. Be it a bonefish or a tarpon, your rod, your knots, your choice of hooks, and the integrity of your reel will all be tested. Look at your first trip as a learning experience. Five days of fishing may well result in a single tarpon or a couple of bonefish. It is possible to place in most Keys tournaments by catching a fish a day.