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.

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.

Day 2 of fishing with Brian arrived with high winds and perfect skies. The first day we ran into a huge school of busting jacks, Brian broke in my new very light weight St croix spin rod on a healthy Jack. We headed out west in search of permit but the skies clouded up and we headed home. Today the fishing was slow with a handful of permit and barracudas, we did end up landing a trophy permit the 1 fish Brian was in search of.

Key west flats fishing report by Capt Anthony Skinner

I have fished the past 3 days for permit mostly, with a little tarpon to change things up. Day 1 and 2 were the same with high clouds obscuring my vision, the end result saw us spook plenty of both tarpon and permit, with sharks, lady fish, jacks and look downs as the species we could catch. Yesterday I fished with Donald Obryan, we got good visibility around 12. The fist permit we saw was feeding heavily, after a missed shot, the next cast was perfect and we were rewarded with a screaming drag. Donald fought the permit for about 10 minutes before the hook pulled right next to the boat. We fished for a while before we saw are next tailing fish, I anchored the boat and we waded to the fish. We got within 15ft of the fish but donald had difficulty getting the crab in front of the fish. This same scenario played out about 5 more times in the next 30 minutes, before the water got to low for the permit to jump this flat.

Key west flats fishing report by AWS charters

I had 2 half days today, my first trip was with larry and jim from Yester day and my second trip was with chad and pam stelmok. My first trip started at 6, we had a bit of trouble finding tarpon but finally hooked up around 7 with a very large fish that ate a pin fish. Jim was on the rod that got hit, the tarpon dragged us about a mile before it finally jumped, the fish was very large and tired so we saw about half. The tarpon surged again and pulled the hook. Larry was on the bow when I spotted a very large school crossing a shallow bank, we had three tarpon eat a crab before we came up tight. The tarpon ate and ran towards the boats and

when he did jump, he jumped over the bow just barely missing Larry. he finally broke the line after a few more jumps and Larry not “bowing to the king”.

My second trip we had shots at 1 school and a single tarpon but did not place the crab correctly. I headed out for some shark fishing north of Key west. We landed on a white sand spot that sharks rest on during the day, I placed a shot for Pam and she was soon hooked up with a large lemon shark. This shark fought for about 20 minutes before we brought it boat side for some pictures. chad hooked up minutes after the release and also brought in a truly large lemon shark. We had 1 shot at a permit but the water was really heating up so we headed home

Key west flats fishing report by aws charters

Ian Black landed his first tarpon on fly today, we headed out at 5am and our first 2 spots were lifeless. Our 3 spot proved money, when a feisty 30 pounder smashed Ian’s black tarpon fly. We landed this fish after several jumps and a few trips around the boat. The next spot was slow but we did find a large school of milling fish, we jumped 1 and missed 1 before the tarpon decided they had enough of us. I hit an island with a ton of bait and a few fish rolling but no great shots. The last place was where Ian landed his next fish a nice 20 pounder that ate a chartreuse toad, we also had another grab but the tarpon missed the fly.

Permit fishing was next on the agenda, we hit a bank that the permit tail heavy on the falling tide. It did not take long before we spotted our first tailer, we got out of the boat and waded over to the fish but spooked it with the fly line. This happened over and over again but that is permit fishing on a flat calm day.

February Key west fishing report 2012

The fishing in Key west has been fantastic this month mostly due to above average temperatures. My clients have been catching just about everything except Bonefish witch has been very scarce. To start with the Tarpon fishing has been fantastic as of late, i have been catching fish on fly in the backcountry as well as with live bait in Key west harbor. The night fishing along the docks for baby tarpon has been great with multiple hook ups per trips. These juvenile fish can be caught with a shrimp pattern fly or a live shrimp on a 3ot hook. Permit fishing west of Key west has been unbeliveable as they are feeding heavily to prepare for their yearly spawn. My clients have landed many permit on live crabs and unfortunately spooked many with the fly. I am participating in this years March Merkin where I will be guiding capt Mike Bartlett, i will keep you in touch with the results. The Barracuda fishing has finally started to kick in with many of my clients landing multiple fish per day, I know I say this every year but if you have never targeted cuda’s your are really missing out. Jacks are still the easiest species on the fly, these fish will follow sting rays as they follow the rising tide onto the flat. These fish eat everything you throw at them and since they are so focused on feeding they are easy to approach. Fishing for sharks is always easy with warm water temps, I have landed mostly lemon sharks with 1 around 8ft long. March is going to be very similar with the Tarpon fishing becoming more consistent and Permit fishing starting to taper off towards the end of the month.

Key west flats fishing report by Capt Anthony Skinner of AWS charters

Key west flats fishing report by A.W.S charters January
Another January has passed and I would like to thank all my new and repeat clients for a great month of flats fishing. Key west had a very warm month and many of my clients were able to hook up on tarpon. A big hats off to Tom Rosenmayer, Chris Beatty and Mark Thompson for landing silver kings. The permit fishing was steady all month around Key west, I guided many of my anglers to shot at tailing fish but only Tom Rosenmayer landed 1. Toms fish was a very large permit weighing in over 20 pounds. Bonefish were quite scarces this month with only long time client Matt Calcaterra having a shot. Barracuda fishing started slow this month but really starting heating up towards the end of the month. My best day out on the flats was with Tom and Larry, They landed 4 or 5 and had plenty more hits. I tried a new method of shark fishing this month, I had my clients cast a popper with a piece of cut bait trailing. This did not work well but the eats we did have were truly spectacular. Backcountry fishing was fantastic for many of my anglers with catches of jacks, pompano, bluefish, ladyfish, and look downs. My favorite trip is a yearly trip with Chris Beatty and his family, between the 3 of them they landed 5 truly huge jacks.
All and all the flats fishing this month was very good and I expect the same for February so please check out www.keywestflatsfishin.com and book your day.

July Key west flats fishing report

Key west fishing has moved into normal summer patterns. My clients have landed all the major species Bonefish, Tarpon, Permit, Jacks and Sharks. Lets start this fishing report with my Favorite fish Tarpon. During the full moon until the mid moon phase the tides and the winds were perfect and we had crab, shrimp, and guppy hatches. My clients all jumped multiple fish and landed quite a few Tarpon, we landed fish from 10 pounds to 100+ pounds. All and all the Tarpon fishing has been fantastic while the winds were light and very tough during the end of the month when the winds were heavy.

The Bone fishing east of Key west has been the most consistent. Many of my clients caught their first Bonefish this month while others had shots but could not connect. Wether fly fishing or spin fishing the techniques for Bone fishing is the same. The most important aspect is seeing the fish, the next is leading the fish so you don’t spook him.

Permit fishing was epic around the middle of the month. We had the beginning of the incoming tide, flat calm winds, an hour before sunset. I hit a spot where the permit jump a bank and tail heavily into the tide. My clients had tons of shots and on the second day they caught onto my technique of over casting and bringing the crab back to the Permit. They landed a beautiful 20+pounder.

Shark fishing is always the stand by. We have a healthy shark population and I can rely on them to make a day. My technique for catching shark is simply to use a Pin fish, cut off the tail, over shoot the shark and keep the bait on top. The scent and the disturbance on the surface brings the shark up to investigate and then to eat the bait.

A surprise this month has been the Jack fishing. These strong fighters normally show up in big numbers during the winter but this month I have been finding them trailing both Sharks and Sting rays.These fish eat just about anything you throw at them so I like to use my ten pound outfit I use for Bonefish and what I fight.

Fishing report brought to you by 12 year veteran Key west fishing guide Capt Anthony Skinner