Florida Keys Flats Fishing Report: Dec 12th....

It has been a warm december here in the Florida Keys. Highs for this week in the mid 80's.. Water temps rose into the low 80's two days ago.... no wind... we found schools of rolling baby tarpon the first stop. Jumped one and left tarpon to look for tailing permit.... found some permit, but it was tough. I did find a dozen or so 6 foot tarpon laid up in a winter warm up spot..... YAHOO!!

It is winter here in the keys and conditions change..
Had a charter yesterday.... winds out of the NE, solid cloud cover and had too work to find fish... However we did find some nice snook and redfish out of the wind.. Earlier in the week under similar conditions I had the pleasure of fishing with Sid and Jesse... They were taking a break from winter up north and just wanted to keep the rod bent and lines tight. We changed tactics.. Instead of sight fishing we went out to the gulf edge and caught a BUNCH of sea trout, lady fish and jacks on shrimp tipped jigs...

Florida Keys Flats Fishing Report: Nov. 14th....

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Our first major cold front of the year has arrived. Just after that we had some horrendous fishing conditions when Ida was passing though... 30+ mph winds and solid cloud cover. My friend Luke Andrews, a Montana Fly Fishing Outfitter was also passing though as well. So we went even though conditions were awful. It worked out, we fished leeward shore lines and had a blast. We got into baby tarpon, snook and redfish. Luke even tempted a blacktip shark to eat a crab fly..

Thankfully the winds and clouds associated with Tropical Storm Ida have past... I fished with my Friend Capt. Derrrin Doop today.. Blue skies, light winds out of the NE... water temps in the mid to low 70's.. We found a bunch of redfish in the first spot and a surprising amount of bonefish later in the day.. Also lots of BIG barracuda in the 4 to 5 foot size..

Florida Keys Flats Fishing Report: Nov. 14th....

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Our first major cold front of the year has arrived. Just after that we had some horrendous fishing conditions when Ida was passing though... 30+ mph winds and solid cloud cover. My friend Luke Andrews, a Montana Fly Fishing Outfitter was also passing though as well. So we went even though conditions were awful. It worked out, we fished leeward shore lines and had a blast. We got into baby tarpon, snook and redfish. Luke even tempted a blacktip shark to eat a crab fly..

Thankfully the winds and clouds associated with Tropical Storm Ida have past... I fished with my Friend Capt. Derrrin Doop today.. Blue skies, light winds out of the NE... water temps in the mid to low 70's.. We found a bunch of redfish in the first spot and a surprising amount of bonefish later in the day.. Also lots of BIG barracuda in the 4 to 5 foot size..

Florida Keys Flats Fishing Report: Nov. 14th....

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Our first major cold front of the year has arrived. Just after that we had some horrendous fishing conditions when Ida was passing though... 30+ mph winds and solid cloud cover. My friend Luke Andrews, a Montana Fly Fishing Outfitter was also passing though as well. So we went even though conditions were awful. It worked out, we fished leeward shore lines and had a blast. We got into baby tarpon, snook and redfish. Luke even tempted a blacktip shark to eat a crab fly..

Thankfully the winds and clouds associated with Tropical Storm Ida have past... I fished with my Friend Capt. Derrrin Doop today.. Blue skies, light winds out of the NE... water temps in the mid to low 70's.. We found a bunch of redfish in the first spot and a surprising amount of bonefish later in the day.. Also lots of BIG barracuda in the 4 to 5 foot size..

Florida Keys Flats Fishing Report: April 26th

Wind, wind and more wind..
I gave my anglers the option not to go today and they pounced on it.. One of the advantages of fishing here in the Keys with a guide instead of a lodge.. With a lodge you pay and take your chances on the weather. Here if it is unfishable, you can take the money you would have spent on the charter and play in Key West.

However.. I called my friend Bruce Chard and asked him if he wanted to go for lunch.. He was out on charter, they had already boated a redfish and had shots at bones and permit.. Way to go Bruce! The lower Florida Keys has lots of lee ward shore lines to fish out of the wind.. Here is a picture of a permit Mark Raisler boated on a 25 mph wind day.

Prior to the last 4 days the tarpon fishing had been very good. Water temps were in the low 80s. Nice sized schools of tarpon had started traveling the ocean side flats. We did very well in some of the back country basins on big tarpon and juveniles. If you can find them in the basins they will generally eat better then the ocean side travelers.. I have been concentrating mainly on tarpon the last couple of weeks, but have also been finding some permit and bone fish..

Florida Keys Flats Fishing Report: Nov. 24th

Cooler weather has lowered the water temperatures on the flats. The last couple of days we have found some bonefish, permit and even some tarpon. I have mainly been targeting redfish. Redfish are more tolerant of cooler water temperatures and will pounce on a live shrimp or a well placed fly.

Large barracudas are also moving on to the flats.. We got several nice ones on tube lures a couple of days ago..

Weather is looking good for tommorrow and later this week!

Sight fishing for barracuda on the flats.