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.