Key West Fly Fishing

The weather that John began his last post with, changed and brought about change to the lower Keys. After the warmest October on record in Key West, a cold front pushed through ushering in cooler temperatures and winds out of the north. This front has definitely brought a shift in the fishing and our approach.

After the arrival of the cool weather, I was again on the water with Graham Anderson and Dave Blair, owner of Fish Tales Fly Shop in Calgary. Despite the cool weather and high winds the permit fishing was suprisingly good. The mornings definitely seemed to provide the most consistent action with a strong falling tide until midday. The fish, although not as active as the past several months, were tipping and tailing as they searched the flats for crabs. The last two days that we fished we had about 15 or 16 shots each day, not numbers that will knock off anyone’s socks but not bad for the days after the first cool down of the year. The last morning Dave connected on a nice fish in the Marquesas, his first permit in the Keys.

The middle of this past week, the fishing definitely followed the weather’s lead and cooled off. Flats where we had been finding decent permit and bonefishing, had very little activity. The few fish that we saw were generally cruising about and not looking too interested in feeding. This is typical behavior as the fish try to adjust to water temps in the low 70’s (the coolest since March).

I spent the past couple of days fishing with Steve Morris from Knoxville, TN. He had fished earlier in the week with Alex, who had to head to the Bahamas on Thursday. The first day was brutal, almost no permit and only one group of very chilly bonefish. Yesterday was a little bit better. Although the permit were not thick, most of the fish that we had shots at were consistently tailing and mudding. We did catch a nice 8 lb bonefish out of a school of 12-15 fish. Additionally, the barracuda are beginning to show up on the flats and jacks are beginning to shadow mudding rays. Winter is definitely on its way.

I hope to get up to the Everglades sometime in the coming week to chase some redfish and snook. I’ll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, I need to get back to the fly tying bench and work on some new crab flies and watch some college football.

Drew