Key West Fly Fishing

We are currently being battered by some strong winds in the lower keys. After some nice weather, the breeze, really the wind, picked up last Thursday during the day. It hasn’t really stopped for the past three and a half days either. It has blown between 20 and 30 knots causing a lot of tarpon to move off the flats and take shelter somewhere that we really can’t sight fish. Luckily, if you put in the effort there are some fish to be found. The old adage, “If you pole long enough the fish find you” is definitely very much a truism in these kind of conditions. Perseverance and constantly being ready are the keys to having any measure of success when the fishing is tough.

Before this weather moved in I had some good days fishing with Dan Schaeffer of Bozeman, Montana. We alternated between backcountry edges and the oceanside having success on both sides of the highway. In fact, last wednesday was one of those incredibly beautiful days - cloudless for the most part, low humidity, temps in the low 80’s and a light breeze. That day we found huge schools and strings moving along the ocean as well as the smaller pods and strings that we had encountered earlier this month. It was one of those memorable days with a lot of shots and some cooperative fish.

Jacob spent the past week with Howard Davis of Montana. They had some great days on the water really getting into some fish on Thursday. Jacob got most of the action captured on the video camera and quickly edited the piece and uploaded it to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3iZTYRsmVs

Hopefully the wind begins to settle a bit this week. The forecast doesn’t look too promising but the National Weather Service doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to predictions, so we are taking hope in that. Maybe, just maybe, the weather gods will smile upon the keys and the winds will back off and the tarpon fishing will return to the madness that we have grown to expect this time of the year. Just in case, I’ll cross my fingers and do a little dance - I mean it can’t hurt right?

Drew

Good Lord it has been a long time since we put up a fishing report. It is amazing how life and fishing can put other things on the back burner. The past several weeks for me has been, well, life-changing, and in a very positive way. I got married on April 4th to my college love, Allison, and forced Jacob, John and a couple of other guides to interrupt their spring schedules to attend my wedding in Tennessee. Luckily, the event went off without a hitch and I think people may have actually enjoyed themselves a little bit. Needless to say the break was short-lived and everyone was back on the water chasing some fish.

So far April has given us some pretty decent weather. We had a cold front push through a little over a week ago, bringing some winds and cooler weather for a couple of days. Gladly the warm weather returned quickly and the fishing has picked right back up where it left off. With the departure of the permit to deeper water to spawn, (not too heart-broken about that) I have focused solely upon my other true love - tarpon.

The tarpon fishing the past week has been good. Its been good, but not great. While the numbers of fish haven’t been low, the reluctance of them to eat at times has been a tad frustrating. This isn’t to say that we haven’t had some great days on the water. I have fished with Charles Smid of Moose, WY for the past week. In six days of fishing, we have had over thirty tarpon eat the fly getting a good number of those fish in the air. The fish have been both laid up and moving and everything from singles to groups numbering over 20 fish. We have been getting anywhere between 20 and 50+ shots a day, plenty to keep us busy and finding fish on just about every edge that I have fished. And the fish have been big for the most part. The majority of fish that he have fed and jumped have exceeded 100lbs. I can’t say that we’ve tangled with any truly monstrous girls, but I’ll gladly take fish that average around triple digits.

It seems that we have had a number of fish eagerly taking the fly from below with enough voracity to cause their heads to come out of the water. When a tarpon does this it can take all of an angler’s discipline to avoid the dreaded “trout-set”. The key is to just continue your strip as if the fish had never eaten the fly and patiently wait to feel the weight of the fish on the line - “feeling for the wall.” This allows the fish to settle back in the water and if the fly pops out, it is still right in the zone for either that fish or another one in the group to eat your offering.

The wind blew like stink at times today, but the fish were still around. Hopefully the wind backs off over the weekend and the beautiful weather we’ve had for the past week holds. I have my fingers crossed that we have seen the last of cold fronts in the Keys at least until sometime in the fall. I also hope that we can be more consistent in getting up reports, hell when its tarpon fishing its a lot of fun to write about the experience.

Drew