Key West Fly Fishing

I know, I know it has been a while since you last heard from us.  I happen to have a very good excuse.  My wife and I welcomed a new baby to the family in April.  Finn, while being a perfect angel, still occupies all of our free time.  As far as the others’ excuses, well I’m just going to chalk it up to sloth.

Now, after a nice and relaxing family vacation (is that an oxymoron?), I am once again at full strength.  So lets get on with the fishing stories.   This morning I managed to sneak out with my old friend Barry Pietraszek for a few hours of tarpon fishing.  This time of year, this is almost a sure thing.  Put together light winds, early mornings, decent current and you can almost guarentee a “shrimp hatch”.  Sometimes you have to run around to find the flocks of birds that indicate the presence of the bait, but that was not the case this morning. 

While idling into our first spot, we were greeted by fish sipping shrimp off the surface.  Actually, sipping is not the correct word.  Let’s go with exploding.  Now, I have seen thicker hatches, but this one was pretty good.  We had fish in the 70-90lb range a few hundred yards off the tree line, and schools of 10-30lb fish closer to the trees.  Once Barry found his stroke, the fishing was easy.  It always is in these situations.  Every cast in the ballpark got eaten. 

My fly of choice for this fishing is Gartside gurlger.  Color doesn’t matter, size doesn’t matter, all that matters is the little wake or pop that the fly makes.  Sure almost any fly will work in a hatch, but the fish seem to hunt the gurlger donwn a bit better, and the eats are fantastic.  I just love to watch the fish catapult out of the water to eat the fly.  Even when you know the cast is right, the eat comes as a surprise. And what a surprise it is.

The one glaring drawback to this fun is that it is very easy to miss the take.  The fly just has a way of sliding out of harm’s way.  Today was no exception.  Still, when the fishing is this easy, everythings works itself out.  Barry managed to catch two (around 20lbs), jump three more, and miss 5 or so more bites.  Not bad for a couple of hours work.  Hell we left them rolling.

 Well that was this morning.  Overall the fishing has been pretty good.  There has been a solid push of post-spawn tarpon in the 70-120lb range as well as the usual local babies.  The larger fish require a bit of looking to find, but the edge that hold them now, generally will hold them thru the first cold fronts of the fall.  The bonefishing in the Lower keys has been a little spotty, nothing like this time last year.  However, whenever I have got off my ass and trailered to Islamorada it has been world class.  Big fish schooled up in the park and smaller pods on the ocean.  I have done very little permit fishing in the last few months, so I am definately not the man to ask on that front.  In other words I am my typical summer fishing pattern. Tarpon fishing and bonefishing with an occasional day spent permit fishing.

I promise it won’t be long till the next report.

Over and out,

john

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tAkf-pCvw

I finally got my MOJO back.  Thank God it has been awhile.

It is March, so my life should be pretty easy. Blue Skies, east winds, 12-18 shots at permit a day, and catching just enough fish to make it seem worth our while.  That is a normal March.  This one has been plagued with inconsistent weather and erratic fishing.  Still this wouldn’t have been that much of a problem, if I hadn’t lost my mojo. 

What does that mean?  Here are a few examples.  I sent my client wading after a group of hard tailers on a slick morning.  On the first cast a fish charges, humps up, and crashes the experimental fly.  Cory comes tight for three tails kicks, then slack.  Examining his rig, he notices the hook is still there, but the fish had eaten the fly off the hook.  It was completely gone.  Here is another.  On one of the rare good fishing, good weather days of the month, we broke off two permit on the hookset.  A faulty spool of Seagur Flourocarbon tippet was the culprit.  14lb broke at maybe 5 lbs.  At least it was my client’s spool.  Here is a more subtle one, a large single permit, sees a fly while my client is stripping in for a recast.  The fish charges the fly, lights up, dying to eat it, just as the fly is pulled from the water.  FUCK.  I can’t even talk about the fish that raced over to the fly, tailed up on it, then miraculously swam away without a hook in their face.  I tried waiting longer, stripping sooner, different flies.  Hell I almost sacrificed a KW chicken.

Fortunately calmer heads prevailed.  I just went tarpon fishing.  Four Caught fish (3 100lbers aand 1 50lb) with 5 more hooked and I feel like a new man.  I love tarpon.

I think I got my MOJO back.

later

john