Filed under Key West Fly Fishing, Tarpon fishing by info | 0 comments
Hello everyone. Today was a break in the normal fishing routine. Being the last wednesday in July, it marked the beginning of Sportsman mini-season; a recreational spiny lobster season. For you non-Floridians, this is when seemingly half of South Florida visits the Keys in what is essentailly a wild west-style free for all. Two days of diving, snorkeling, bad boating, bad ettiquete, and good eating. With the immense boating pressure, flats fishing is out of the question. If you can’t beat them, join them… right? So Drew, myself and mutual friend Capt Shane Wood (a hard working and talented first year flats guide) set out at sunrise to see if we couldn’t catch a few “bugs” ourselves. My one “spot”, which was unoccupied, provided us with our limit (6 lobsters per person) in 40 minutes. Safe and sound and back at the dock in less than two hours.
I know, enough with the lobstering. What about the fishing? I just finished up a four day charter with Charles Smid from Moose, Wyoming. He wanted to target only large tarpon (50+lb) and he had consistent success during his run of charters (he fished four days with Drew prior to our days together). He jumped nine fish and caught nine more with at least as many missed eats. His fish ranged from 100lb pigs to 30lb babies. In our first two days of fishing, Charles and I started each morning in large basins throwing gurglers to tarpon actively feeding on juvenile triggerfish (I swear that this is not BS). A.M. falling tides and slick mornings are the recipe for these July hatches. You have not lived until you see a 100lb fish catapult out of the water to eat a tiny gurgler. It is AWESOME. Afternoons poling similar basins provided good fishing to large single laid-up fish and shots at schools of aggressive 30-50lb poons. A shift in A.M. tides ended our hatch fishing and forced us to pole ocean swim lanes looking for the last of the migrants and the lonely locals. There are never a lot of these fish around this time of year, but patience/perseverance pays as they are willing eaters. 20-30 shots in a day is a reasonable expectation, and that is what Charles and I experienced. Our last afternoon, we encountered a small push of fish with the beginning of a flood tide at the Southwest corner of the Marquesas. Two 50lb fish in an hour was a great way to end the trip.
Well, I’d better go. Its time to spin up a few permit flies for this week’s moon tides and crack open a cold beer in anticipation for the meal of grilled lobster tails and deep fried lobster nuggets.
’Til next time,
Capt John
Filed under Key West Fly Fishing, Tarpon fishing, Permit fishing, Bonefishing by info | 0 comments
We have seen a change in the fishing since last reporting at the end of last month. The numbers of big tarpon have begun to dwindle, but the permit fishing has been getting steadily better. While there are still some large tarpon both swimming and laid up, the numbers that we were seeing even as recently as two weeks ago have declined. However, the baby tarpon fishing has helped fill in the slack created by the departure of their bigger brethern. Many of the edges that hold them in the summer are filling up and they can be found rolling and holding in the shadows of their mangrove lairs. Additionally, the permit fishing has been very good. The fish have been tailing, mudding and cruising and suprisingly relaxed given the calm weather we have experienced the past couple of weeks.
This past week I fished with Tomonori Higashi, Tomohide Kashiwagi both of Japan and Bernard Ramanauskas, cane fly rod builder extradonaire. They rotated and shared bow time throughout the week primarily chasing tarpon. Although the main target of some late season giants proved difficult, we managed to jump or catch fish from 120lbs down to 15lbs (most in the 20-50 range). I definitely enjoyed the week, but certainly had hoped for better numbers of big fish. Hopefully next year.
I did get the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to fish an afternoon with my Dad, Jim, and borther-in-law, Alex Neubauer. Despite getting on the water after five o’clock we managed to catch one tarpon about 130lbs, have two more eat (three shots total) and catch 3 bonefish. It was the first time I had looked for evening tailers and they were moving in waves across some of my favorite gulf side flats. Hopefully it is a sign of things to come this summer. The two photos are from that evening.
Capt Drew
Filed under Key West Fly Fishing, Tarpon fishing by info | 0 comments
Since John last wrote on the first of this month, the weather has definitely made a change for the better. What had been a cool year, did a quick 180 and quickly became summer. I couldn’t be happier. We have been blessed with light winds and hot temperatures and the fish have responded. The fish have been in their usual haunts, laying up in shallow basins and cruising the Atlantic fish lanes. Some days you simply stop the boat and the fish quickly have you surrounded. With the summer-like conditions I have found sporadic shrimp and guppy hatches. The fish have been attacking the stunned bait and any fly placed in their path.
Last week I fish with Ken Linde from Oregon. Almost everyday was calm conditions although some days the clouds made spotting fish difficult. He caught a number of fish that ranged from around 100lbs to 30lbs, often in the same areas. We spent the majority of time looking for laid up singles and pods, but occasionally made the run to the ocean when the tide was just right.
The recent fishing has definitely been better than most of the season, but still not just fantastic. As we move into summer and the boats continue to thin out, hopefully the fishing will last and there will be plenty of big fish to chase without any other fishing pressure. As we move into July the focus will still be on tarpon, but bonefish and permit will definitely start getting more and more attention.
Capt Drew
Filed under Key West Fly Fishing by info | 0 comments
Whatever Drew said about consistency and the return of “May fishing” please disregard. It has been windy (20kts +), cloudy and rainy for the last couple of days, and windy for the last two weeks. There are still some tarpon around, but the conditions have been ill suited to fishing for them. If you can’t see its hard to catch them. The word on the street is that this system over us now is about to get a name. I guess it is officially “Hurricane Season.” Anyway, this weird year just keeps getting weirder. In case you haven’t figured it out already, the fishing has been terrible the last few days.
praying for sun,
Capt John
Filed under Key West Fly Fishing, Tarpon fishing by info | 0 comments
This previous week has given us a multitude of different weather conditions. Last monday the wildfires to the north of us, tried to choke us with smoke. In fact, at times it was difficult to see across backcountry basins much less spot a tarpon in the soup. Tuesday we awoke to strong thunderstorms and heavy rains, but for those that had the determination the fishing was worth the effort. The rest of the week brought us typical May conditions; partly cloudy, winds about 10mph and good numbers of happy tarpon. And now as I write this I can hear the wind blowing outside and showers are passsing by.
I spent the majority of my time last week working backcountry bars and edges and fishing oceanside basins. I tried to avoid the madhouse that the ocean can be at times in May. I had the pleasure of fishing Don Wood and Justin Martin. We had several good days getting multiple bites, putting a good number of fish in the air and landing a majority of those hooked. While there are not huge numbers of fish in the back, the solitude and aggressiveness of the fish has been worth the hard work. On some edges we would pole and pole and finally have a couple of shots, but often both shots would be rewarded with at least an eat and often a big fish in the air. This is my favorite type of fishing. Others can have the huge numbers of fish (and boats) currently swimming the ocean. I would rather have happy fish and see almost no other boats (other than John).
This past weekend I returned to my roots and fished west of Key West for the first time this season. I fished a lot of my old haunts, splitting time between hunting for laid up pods and looking for the sliders on the oceanside. The fishing was just like I remembered and it was a nice change of pace. I believe we had about 10 bites and caught a couple of bright, spunky fish. Although it was a couple of weeks late, May and its good fishing seem to finally be here. The fish are eating better and the consistensy that we all know and love this time of the year has finally arrived.
Capt Drew
Filed under Key West Fly Fishing, Tarpon fishing by info | 0 comments
The Southwest Florida wildfires have added an erie element to our calm waters. The last week we have been greeted each morning with little or no winds, but our clear skies have been filled with blankets of wildfire smoke. You would think we were fishing Montana in August. Despite the smoke clouds the fishing has been better than average. The poons are swimming well along the Lower Keys Atlantic lanes. For those willing to play the numbers game, they have been eating, but 95% of the fish swim by showing little interest in even our best presentations. Personally, I can only take so much rejection, and have been spending as little time as possible fishing for these swimmers. Most of my time has been spent hunting backcountry corners looking for little pockets of fish that have decided to quit swimming and spend a little time here. Most of these corners have been near empty, but when you find the fish, it is worth the wait.
Steve Schimdt of Western Rivers Outfitters and friend Ken Louder put up with hours of such “fishing” and were rewarded with two afternoons of spectacular fishing. We were not fishing a “top secret” area, but nonetheless found the edge to ourselves. It wasn’t the numbers that were so impressive (there were a ton of fish though), but rather what the fish were doing. Every fish was big, high in the water column, often with tails out of the water, and very shallow. Many of our shots were at fish laid-up and sliding fish in only a couple of feet of water. On top of this the fish themselves were unusually bright many with distinct orange and pink tails. Beautiful fish and fishing. Our last two days yielded 12 or so “bites” with only a hadful of fish in the air (three for those keeping score). This doesn’t sound like much, but there was something about how we were fishing that left us all feeling like rockstars at the end of the day. Fun stuff.
Well, tomorrow i am off looking for exactly the opposite thing. I’m off to find the thundering herd in the Marquesas. I will let you know how it goes.
Capt John
Filed under Key West Fly Fishing by info | 0 comments
Well, its the first week in May, and the tarpon fishing is supposed to be great. I would love to lie and say it has been but that’s not our style. Don’t get me wrong, there are fish around and in good numbers but we have to work for every fish we catch. There are a few fish swimming on the ocean, but the majority of our fish and fishing is taking place in Atlantic facing basins (crowded with boats) and backcountry corners (we have them to ourselves). In the past ten days of fishing my clients have hooked 17 tarpon ranging from 50-120lb. These stats aren’t bad, but they won’t turn ay heads either. Keep poling and the fish will find you.
Capt John
Filed under Key West Fly Fishing by info | 0 comments
The north winds have been making the tarpon fishing tough in the Lower Keys. Where we would normally be knee deep in migrating tarpon by now, there are few laid up fish on the deeper flats on the ocean side.
