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.
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
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 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.
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.
Fished with a lovely couple from Pa today, Rob and Rene. We headed east of Key west to do some back country fishing, I hit several channels and the fishing was really slow. I went to another spot that has been working well but we could not get a bite. I chummed a spot for sharks and that did not happen. We went to another spot on our way back to Key west and landed a few blue runners that we used for shark bait. It did not take long and a lemon ate the bait and shook the hook, the next sharks were spinners that cut our line, the last shark was a nice 5ft black tip that we released.
I had a wonderful day of fishing with 2 very cool people from Nashville. Brad and Natalie came down for their honeymoon and decided to spend a 1/2 day of flats fishing. We decided 7am would be the time to leave the dock so we loaded up and headed east in search of Bonefish, Sharks and Permit. I drove about 30 minutes and stopped at a sand bar that I had been finding bonefish, this spot and my next 2 did not produce any fish. The 3rd flat was loaded with sharks and bones, we landed 2 lemon sharks and 4 bonefish in the 2 hours we had left on our fishing trip. The tide started to come in and we went in search of permit, we had 1 shot but all we hooked was a bone that unfortunately got eaten by a shark.
