Key West Fishing Reports
Updated fishing reports from the Lower Florida Keys & Key West
Archive for March, 2006
March 20, 2006 at 11:33 am · Filed under Florida Keys Fishing
Nothing to complain about here in the Florida Keys this week. March weather has been cooperating nicely and the fishing has been exceptional. For those of you awaiting your turn for a cast at a tarpon, bonefish or permit, they are here and they’ll be around for a while now.
This past week has been a quest of hookups and breakoffs for my angler. He’s a good angler and has seen and hooked more fish this week. Redfish on the flats of the Lower Keys - you’d think “no way” but we’ve managed to hook a few on fly after they were so skiddish for days prior to that. To add to the list of fish, tarpon, bonefish, jacks, barracuda and permit. That’s an active day and and active week for this guy. I’m happy to say that we finally landed him a couple of very large tarpon yesterday to round out the day.
We spent a large amount of our time avoiding the 23 boats entered in the first annual March Merkin tournament. The tournament was out of Hurricane Hole Marina and was hosted by Jon Ain and Dave Horn. The tournament was created because of the popular demand for a permit tournament in March, since the Del Brown was moved to July by popular angler vote. Historically the weather has been windy and therefore tough fly fishing for permit. Many of the anglers who normally fish the Del Brown were delighted to be able to fish this week.
Anglers competed for bragging rights and some great prizes in the March Merkin. At the end of three days of fishing, only a handful of boats actually managed to land a permit on fly. Largest Permit and First Place went to Jon Ain with guide Doug Kilpatrick. Ain caught 2 permit during the 3 day tournament, one weighing 28- pounds, the other 18- pounds. This tournament was unique in that permit were counted by inches. Each inch earned 4 points.
First place went to Jon Ain who was guided by Capt. Doug Kilpatrick. Second place went to Moe Slayton who was guided by Capt. Mike Guerin, and Third went to Tom Rowland who was fishing with Capt. Ernie Maynard.
March 6, 2006 at 7:23 am · Filed under Florida Keys Fishing
This week in Key West has been a productive one for me. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many new anglers, some of which have never experienced the flats before. Since each trip is custom tailored to the client, we’ve had a lot of fun doing all types of fishing.
Fishing in the backcountry has been pretty productive for all types of fish. In fact, this past Friday I caught more sea trout, ladyfish and look downs than I’d ever even seen since I’ve been fishing here. It was a lot of fun for my anglers and for me too. We had some great luck just blind casting into mullet muds. There were a few large ones in the backcountry. The sea trout were on the larger size, ranging from 1- to 3- pounds. It provided lots of action to say the least.
Next day we got a little more serious with more traditional flats fishing. March is historically great for permit and there have been some large ones around lately. We ended up casting to quite a few permit with a live crab, and we landed one 17- pound fish on light tackle. Permit are probably my favorite fish. They fight hard and they are pretty sneaky on the flats. Always aware of any preditors in the shallows.
Tarpon have been rolling in the channels and deeper flats. I’ve mainly had permit anglers the past couple of days and I’m just holding out for some better tarpon fishing to come. The weather has been so cooperative that it is to be expected the tarpon will bite better than they have been. Today the winds are light and variable and the temperature should break 75. Tarpon really get active after the water temps break 71 but any degree above that makes them even more active.
The annual tarpon migration is usually in April, May and June. For those of you who are reading this, don’t rule out July or early August if you are a serious fly rodder. July is a perfect time for a grand slam and the fish are certainly here. The mid-day might get a little steamy but it’s all worth it when you return to the dock with a story to tell.
We spent a large amount of our time avoiding the 23 boats entered in the first annual March Merkin tournament. The tournament was out of Hurricane Hole Marina and was hosted by Jon Ain and Dave Horn. The tournament was created because of the popular demand for a permit tournament in March, since the Del Brown was moved to July by popular angler vote. Historically the weather has been windy and therefore tough fly fishing for permit. Many of the anglers who normally fish the Del Brown were delighted to be able to fish this week.