Satellite view of the Lower Florida Keys

It has been 2 weeks since my last report. I have been stalling and waiting for some good news. You may or may not know that Florida was bludgeoned with a major cold front early this month. Cold fronts this time of year are common.. Instead of the normal front which drives the bone fish , tarpon and permit off the flats until it warms up in a couple of days... This one lingered, then got colder...record colds. Water temperature here in the keys dropped to 49 degrees one day.. That is cold for here.. Fortunately the vast majority of our flats have easy access to deep water. The bone fish, tarpon and permit go to deeper and warmer water when the flats go below 70 degrees.. Leaving us sharks, cudas, red fish, snapper, sea trout and lady fish to normally target on our cold water days.. This January it got so cold for so long, all the fish left the flats for days.... EVERY THING!

Reports of snapper fishing being off the charts on the patch reefs just off shore..

The fish that did not leave and remained in the basins died.. Mostly small snapper, grunts, angel fish, parrot fish, small cuda, etc.. It was a great month to be a pelican, frigate, or an osprey..

Unfortunately places like Tampa, Flamingo, Florida Bay, White Water Bay did not get off as easy. It was even colder there with not as much easy access to deeper water. The snook population has taken a big hit.. FWC has placed a temporary ban on the harvesting of snook, along with tarpon and bonefish. Nature hates a vacuum and hopefully the snook population will rebound rapidly. Fortunately the redfish are very resilient to the cold..

The good news... weather has warmed back into the high 70's. Water temperatures in the high 60's to mid 70's and the fish are coming back!
Permit have returned to the flats in good numbers along with the tarpon.

Spanish mackerel, sea trout and lady fish returned to the gulf side basins this weekend as well.

Florida Keys Flats Fishing Report: January 10th....

Snowing In The Keys???

No it is not snowing in the Keys... I tampered with the photo. But it is cold here and has been cold for the last week.

Low temperatures tonight across the Lower Keys are forecast to drop into the mid 40s. The record minimum temperature in Key West for January 11th is 48 degrees set in 1970. This daily record will be in jeopardy tonight.

Temperatures will be back in the 70's this weekend.

Florida Keys Flats Fishing Report: Dec 20 th....

It is winter here in the Florida Keys. We got hit with a cold front this weekend. North winds and the high for today is 72. degrees. Supposed to be back in the high 70's by mid week. Guess I should not complain, the east coast is getting pummeled by a major snow storm..

When water temperatures drop below 70 degrees it make it tough to find tarpon, bonefish and permit. How ever if it is cold and blowing here we can always fish for barracuda, sharks, red fish, sea trout and lady fish.. Beats scraping ice off the wind shield and shoveling snow..

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..