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.

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.

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.

Day 4 of my trip with the Duane group. The weather laid down enough for me to fish the Key west harbor, we made 3 drifts for tarpon and broke 1 off boat side, jumped another and missed one more. I hit a spot for permit and we had 2 shots at permit and landed 1. We crossed the north west channel and had several shot at tarpon on the first flat we hit but the fishing slowed as the day progressed. Having landed the tarpon and the permit we went in search of a bonefish for the slam, we had 2 shots at permit but we could not find any bonefish.

Day 3 of fishing with the Duane group. We started out looking for tarpon and once again struck out. We headed east of Key west in search of barracudas and permit. We had several strikes on the first flat that we fished, we saw nothing on the second and landed 2 on the next flat. We headed back towards Key west in search of permit but we only saw sharks.

The past 2 days I have fished for tarpon, sharks, barracuda, permit and a variety of other fish. 77 degree water temp has brought the tarpon into Key west harbor, they were not feeding well but we did manage to get one bite on a pin fish. We had 2 shots at permit today and both fish were feeding high up on the flats. My client made a good cast at the second fish but he did not stop crab at the right time and spooked the permit. Shark fishing has been the easiest and all my clients have landed black tips, spinners and lemon sharks.

The barracuda is finally starting to pick up and we hook quite a few but only got one to the boat.

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.