‪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.

The past week was fantastic with both the weather and fishing. All my anglers had shots at permit, bone fish, barracudas and sharks. This time of the year is best for barracudas so they dominated the catch this week. Here are some of the best photos of the cudas my anglers caught this week.

The second fish I caught the most on the flats this past week was Bone fish, My anglers caught bones in the shallows and in deeper water muds.

Paul from Tampa landed a very nice Permit. Many of my anglers landed nice sharks also

February is typically the best month for barracuda on the flats of the florida keys. The cooler water bring in this amazing game fish to hunt the shallow waters in search of prey. Cudas favorite meal are any of the thin beaked fish such as needlefish, hound fish or ballyhoo. As anglers we imitate these fish using tube lures and flies that are durable, cast easy, stay on top and we can move very fast. The ideal presentation is a cast slightly past or in front of the fish and a slow retrieve until the cuda starts to show interest, then you want to increase the speed until you get a bight, you can never go to fast. Here are some of the pictures from last month.

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.

For the past 2 days I have been running 4hr trips with with clients who are both new to fishing and flats fishing. With high winds and high clouds I have been taking my clients tarpon fishing to begin with and moving over to sharks, barracudas, permit and bonefish. The tarpon fishing has been incredibly hard for this time of the year and we did not hook any these 2 days. We saw a few bonefish and permit but with the high clouds we did not get any really good shots. The cudas are heading out to deeper water but we did land a very nice one. the shark fishing has been really easy and we have landed many lemon sharks

I had a wonderful 4hr fishing trip with John Fredrick. We had a late morning start leaving my spot in Key west harbor at 9am. I headed east hitting a sand spot in search of bonefish, this flat proved to be the only 1 we would need, John had several shot before we finally land our target. The permit fishing proved to be a little harder and it took us 3 flats before john perfectly landed a crab in a school of tailing permit. Having 2/3rd of the flats slam landed we of course headed out looking for tarpon. Very similar to many of my trips I fell short of the slam once again. We also landed a very nice jack and had several barracudas eat but miss our cuda tube.

Today I fished with newlyweds John and Lauren. We headed out of Key west at 7am trying to get some fishing in before the impending cold front. We hit 2 channels for tarpon and hooked 1 and lost another at boat side. Lauren always wanted to catch a barracuda so we headed east to some spots I have been seeing a lot of cudas. Lauren missed 2 before John finally landed 1.