: Key west fishing report

Key west flats fishing report May 1 shark fishing with the Amy’s

May 1st, 2014

I am going to start this fishing report describing a shark fishing trip that I had with 2 of my favorites clients. Both of their names are Amy so I refer to them as Amy squared. Our last trip we caught tarpon and barracudas so they wanted to have a different challenge. We headed east of Key west in search of lady fish, wherever there are lady fish black tip sharks are close by. We found plenty of bait on my third location and we proceeded to catch 1 shark after another. Our total in a 4 hr trip was 3 black tips and 2 lemon. Giles and his farther also had a god day of shark fishing.

After the great day of shark fishing we decide to go barracuda fishing. Once again we headed east of Key west. We landed 5 barracudas, 2 of them were trophy sized. Chris Barbe and his friend Jim also head a good day of cuda fishing.

The Tarpon fishing has been very good lately. Chris Bye jumped 2 and broke 1 off at the boat. Ted and Theo Worthington jumped 1 and landed 1. I had another charter that jumped four tarpon before first light but did not land any.

Last of all I will talk about permit fishing. I had just 1 chance to fish for permit and my client Tim Sherword land a beauty. I did spot a few bonefish while fighting this permit but was not prepared.

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on May 1st, 2014 at 8:20 pm.

Key west weekly flats fishing report 4/9-4/16 Tarpon, tarpon, tarpon

April 17th, 2014

The annual tarpon migration is in full swing down here in Key west. Everyone goes tarpon crazy “both clients and captains”, These fish are truly world class. You can fish them in so many different ways, Fly fish, lure fish, live bait and dead bait. The one thing that is common among all these different methods is that when you hook up you will be battling a fish that will test your strength as well as every part of your equipment. This week I have caught or jumped tarpon on everything but dead bait. Kurt Logan jumped his first fish on fly but the hook broke and the tarpon got away. His 10 year old son Luke jumped one on a pinfish that we lost boat side.

I also had the pleasure of hooking up Randy/Larry Reed and long time client Ted/Theo worthington on tarpon this week. Larry hooked up with a pinfish west of
Key west on an incoming tide. We all fought this 80 pounder before he broke off boat side, Randy asked for a much smaller tarpon but we did not hook up.

Ted and Theo Worthington hooked and landed a very nice 60 pounder.

After looking at my pictures I realize that shark fishing has been very good. I had a wonderful day of fishing with Tim and Ashley Dugan. We caught the top of the tide 4 miles west of Key west. This spot is a large white sand spot right next to and island and we landed 4 large lemon sharks before we went fishing for barracudas. 10 Year old Luke Logan also had a good day land 1 lemon and 1 black tip shark.

The barracuda fishing is starting to slow down as they head back to the deeper water. I did have a bit of success landing smaller cudas, here are pictures of fish caught by Randy Reed and Theo Worrington

The jack fishing remains strong with Tim and Ashley landing several fish while jig fishing off of Boca grande. Luke Logan caught a very nice bar jack while fishing tarpon off of Key west.

I have not been doing much bone fishing or permit fishing but I have found fish the few times I have tried.

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on April 17th, 2014 at 8:56 pm.

Key west flats fishing report 4/7/14 Bonefish, sharks and barracudas

April 7th, 2014

The past few days I have been struggling to catch tarpon , that being said I have been catching plenty of huge Barracuda, sharks and bonefish.

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on April 7th, 2014 at 8:27 pm.

Key west flats fishing report 3/12/14

March 14th, 2014

It was another beautiful day as I departed Key west harbor. My clients were Bill and Jim from Wisconsin. We were in search of tarpon so we headed to a spot that usually hold fish on an incoming tide. I had to move a few times but Bill hooked and landed his first tarpon.

We decide to switch gears and head to the flats in search of Barracudas and permit.Our first spot had a pair of tailing permit but we could not get the crab in the right place. Our second flat both Jim and Bill hooked nice cudas and had shots at permit.

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on March 14th, 2014 at 11:01 am.

Key west flats fishing report 3/4/14

March 4th, 2014

I had a double half today. My first half wanted to fish tarpon in the morning and then just catch fish for his wife. I took them to the main shipping channel off of Key west to see if any migratory fish has shown up. There were no fish there but I did find a school in Key west harbor. We jumped a nice 60-80 pounder but lost it on the first jump. We drifted a few spots with no luck before I tried to just bend some rods. I hit a spot that we had a chance for jack and tarpon. The jacks were all over the place, we had landed 1 after the other before I spotted several schools of tarpon. No luck on the tarpon so I switched and hit another spot for action. This spot had lady fish, sea trout, pompano, snappers and sharks.
My second half, we headed east of Key west to a channel that has been good for large jacks. We hooked up several that got eaten by sharks before we landed a nice 8 pounder. We landed several more nice jacks and a large nurse shark before we headed to another spot. I hit some mullet muds and landed a few lady fish. I switched gears and went barracuda fishing. We missed several nice cudas before we land a very nice barracuda.

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on March 4th, 2014 at 6:56 pm.

Key west flats fishing report 3/3/2014

March 3rd, 2014

I had a great day of flats fishing with Shane and Tony. These 2 were visiting form South Dakota getting away from the could. We started out fishing Key west harbor for tarpon but they were in no mood to eat. We then got up on the flats in search of barracudas, permit and sharks. Tony started out the fishing and had 4 cudas eat the tube before we hooked and landed a truly massive barracuda. Shane got up next and we had a few shots a tailing permit but we did not hook up. I headed out east and we hit a few channels, both guys landed very nice jacks before we headed out looking for sharks. Shane pulled the hook on the first shark and wrapped around the reel handle and broke off on the first pull. We headed home with a few great memories and some truly trophy fish.

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on March 3rd, 2014 at 9:02 pm.

Key west flats fishing report 2/19/13

February 19th, 2014

Fishing today in Key west started out at 7am. John and I set out looking for tarpon, we spotted a few schools of fast moving fish. We finally found a massive group of slow moving tarpon and we had 1 eat a large pinfish. The fish instantly ran toward some structure and I could not maneuver my boat quickly enough and we broke off. We spent 30 more minutes tarpon fishing before we headed to the flats. I caught the beginning of the incoming in search of permit, sharks and barracudas. We hooked and landed our first cuda but missed a few others before we moved on. I found some warmer water and on john’s first cast he missed a trophy sized barracuda. John missed a few more cudas before we hooked up again, this fish was slightly bigger than the one before. The clouds started to build and I was having a hard time seeing so of course this is the time the permit started tailing. The first 1 tailed in about 2-3ft of water, truly large fish. We waited for it to show itself but no luck. The next few fish followed the same game plan. We did not see another permit for the rest of the day.

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on February 19th, 2014 at 9:05 pm.

Key west flats fishing report 2/10/14

February 19th, 2014

Today i had the pleasure of fishing with 2 of my favorites client, Bill and Terry. We went out today in search of bonefish and permit. I headed to a flat east of Key west that has been good for bonefish. I spotted my first school of bonefish after about 15 minutes. Bill did not hook up on the first few schools but once I changed from a crab to a jig, he hooked up right away. We finished this flat and went in search of permit. I only found 1 before we headed home.

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on February 19th, 2014 at 8:47 pm.

key west flats fishing report 2/4-5/14

February 5th, 2014

Yesterday I fished with Capt Mike Bartlett. We started out fishing for tarpon and found some rolling but we did not get a bite. We went west of Key west in search of the elusive permit. We caught the beginning of the incoming tide and found a good number of permit, he caught this nice permit on fly.

Today I fished with Sue and Dale. We set out of Key west at 7am in search of tarpon. Our first drift Dale hooked and landed a 60-80 pound tarpon. We tried another spot that had a few rolling fish but all we hooked were a few nice jacks. Off to the flats to do some permit and barracuda fishing. Dale once again hooked and land a nice barracuda off of our first and second flat. Our third flat was a bust so we headed home.

My second half was with Terry Hamby. We hit a few spot east of Key west and landed a few barracudas and jacks. We went in search of permit and had a few shot but we did not hook up. We did see several nice sharks and a few dolphin.

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on February 5th, 2014 at 9:22 pm.

Key west flats fishing report 2/13/14

February 3rd, 2014

This past weekend I fished with Tom Schrade for the cuda bowl. We started out great, our 2nd cast we landed a 45 inch cuda. We jumped off 2 fish before we we came solid on a truly huge fish that wrapped around a crab trap and came off. We headed east of Key west and ran into a slow patch. the tide topped out and we landed a 45, 40, and multiple smaller fish.

Day 2 started fast, we had 3 grabs but missed all the fish. I landed the 4th fish at the next flat a very nice 47 inch fish. We missed a few more fish before Tommy landed 4 out of 5. the largest was 40 inches. Our combined fish took 3rd place overall

Posted by Capt. Anthony Skinner, on February 3rd, 2014 at 4:40 pm.

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