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.

‪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.

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.

Fished with long time client Ted Shreck, last year we got the flats grand slam so he has switched from spin fishing to fly fishing. I spent an hour working on his cast and got him double hauling up to 60ft. We then pulled down the flat in search of tarpon. Ted’s 60ft cast diminished quickly whenever a tarpon showed up and after quite a few shots we switched gear and went bone fishing. Ted landed 1 and lost another, we also had a few shots at permit before we put the crab in the right spot and landed a nice permit. After landing 2/3rd of the slam we went in search tarpon. We had several shots at tarpon with the same results so we headed back to Key west.

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.

Key west flats fishing report by Capt Anthony Skinner

Today I started my yearly fishing trip with Carl Knoblock, we headed out at 6am hoping to get an early morning tarpon bite. The winds were up and the morning bite was non existent, however we did get a few jumps out of a 20 to 30 pounder that ate a black fly. We then headed to the Atlantic side for some migratory fish. The spot has been fishing well on the falling tide but today was slow until the tide started to rise and we had shots at string of fish. We did not get any eats and after about 2 hrs the fishing slacked off and we went in search of bonefish. I hit 2 beautiful whit sand spots that were filled up with sharks and a few spooky permit but not a single bone. On our way back in we ran into a very large slow moving school of tarpon. After a few missed shots we did get an eat but had to much slack in the line to get a hook set.