I have been fishing mostly west of Key West for the past week. with the warm weather My clients have been landing sharks, bonefish, barracudas, sharks and jacks. we have had shots at permit with both fly and spin but no hook ups.

‪Patrick and his wife Allyson had a great day flats fishing. We landed barracudas, bar jacks, jack crevelle, horse eye jacks, mutton snappers and groupers.‬

‪I had a day off to go flats fishing. We went west of Key West in search of bonefish permit and barracudas. I fished with Captain Mike Bartlett and Captain Griff Hellwig. We all landed bonefish on fly and had a couple of shots at permit.

Today the flats were pretty slow, last night a north wind dropped the water temp 5 degrees. I fished with Tom and his son Nick form California, we headed west of Key west to an area I have been finding tarpon. We were blind casting Hogey’s and only drew 1 strike and spooked a few others. I moved further west to an area with light bottom. We had several shots at tarpon, barracudas, permit and sharks but we were only able to land 1 cuda. I moved inside the lakes and saw even less fish, we did hook a nice lemon shark but he broke off. I went to 1 last spot and we landed a very nice bonefish to make the day somewhat of a success.

From the 16th to the 24th I have had trout fly fisherman. I would like to explain you can be the best trout fisherman in the world but fail miserably in salt water. Trout fishing requires a delicate presentation and short cast, saltwater fishing requires quick, long and accurate cast. The tarpon fishing has been epic these past few days but my anglers were only able to draw 1 strike out of countless shots. If you are coming to Key west and are going to invest in a guide please do your homework and practice the double haul this will make your transition to salt much easier.

Today I fished with Josh, we headed out with crystal clear skies that change quite rapidly, while the skies were clear we had 3 shots at permit and a shot at a barracuda. After we lost the light we had shots at sharks and more barracudas, we also had several shots at tarpon. Josh landed 1 tarpon and jumped 2 more before we headed back to Key west.

I fished today with long time client Phil and Hugh. We had very heavy storms in the morning so we got a late start. The tide was low east of Key west so we headed to some white sand spots on the gulf side in search of bonefish. My first flat produced only sharks and barracudas but my second and third held bonefish. Phil landed the first fish and Hugh the next 2, we would have landed more but we were battling clouds. We headed towards Key west in search of tarpon and Hugh had a grab and a follow but we did not land any.

Yesterday I had a 4hr trip with Paul from Oregon. He was a beginner fly fisherman, I spent some time with him and quickly got him double hauling 60-70 feet, very impressive. Paul really wanted to catch bonefish so we headed east of Key west to an area I having been finding some fish. The first flat we hit was totally empty but the second one had quite a few bonefish on it. We missed several shots and all of the fish soon disappeared. We hit a 3 more flats before I found a number of fish, just like before we missed several fish but unlike before we finally landed a bonefish.

Today I had a rare day off. My friend Mark who is crazy about bonefish was just about to leave town so I took him fishing. Having bone fished the day before I knew where to start and we found fish at our first flat. The tide was screaming and we were having a hard time getting the fly to the bottom. We were both able to land a fish apiece and miss a few more. I went in search of new water and Mark was able to land 1 more bonefish before we headed home.

The second day with the Duane group the weather changed drastically. The winds were in the middle 20s and we had a lot of clouds. Not being able to sight fish I took to the channels, We hit a few spots west of Key west soaking bait for tarpon but we had no luck. I switched gears in order to bend the rods and went in search of shark and barracuda, we landed a nice black tip and a huge barracuda. Lastly We went in search of bonefish. I had loaded up with shrimp earlier in order to try to bring the fish to us needles to say that did not happen and we only landed a sting ray.

fished with long time client Duane and his friend Lee. We left Key west at 7am and headed west in search of tarpon. We found plenty of tarpon cruising the flat but we could not put the crab in the right place so we came up empty. I tried to make sight fishing easy and went in search of bonefish, unfortunately I could not find any. I hit another flat and got a few shots at both tarpon and permit but just like earlier we could not put the bait in the right spot. I hit another spot for bonefish but once again could not find any so I headed home empty handed.

My clients told their friends at the dock that we had a tough day of flats fishing. My clients had 30 shots at tarpon and permit, that is not a tough day of fishing that is a bad day of angling.

Key west does not look like it is taking part of winter, I am writing this report Christmas day and the temperature outside is 80 and the water is 78. The fish do not really know what to do with this, the most consistent fishing has been permit but the humidity and the overcast skies have made them really difficult to catch. I have tried fishing the backcountry east of Key west but once again we need some strong cold fronts to make this type of fishing happen. My last 2 clients landed very nice lemon sharks on our flats trip.

John Green landed this very nice barracuda west of Key west.