Cooler weather in the Key West area was short lived. Things heated right back up to steamy mid-September and made fishing more difficult in the afternoon hours.

I had a few good days of pre-fishing with my angler Nicolas Pierce from North Carolina. He’s a fun guy to fish with and we had some great fishing throughout the entire week.

Fishing tournaments certainly has its highs and lows and I have experienced all of this, sometimes in the same day. We had some fabulous early morning tarpon fishing. Baby tarpon are the best target this time of year early, early in the morning. They tend to hang in their ‘regular’ spots during the lower tides. High tide is like recess for baby tarpon - it allows them to roam and possibly find a new place to call home for the next tide change.

Gurglers work well in these baby tarpon holes. If you can find them layed up or rolling the chances of them pouncing on a gurgler fly is good. They will also eat the classic black and purple combo during the early morning or evening hours (if you can find them feeding).

Bonefish have been in the spotlight for this week and will remain a strong contender for flats fishing throughout the rest of September and into October and November. Tailing fish are prominant on a calm morning. Their fins break the glassy water and create an amazing disturbance on the surface of the water. With the skiff we can get so close to them, it’s amazing.

Permit fishing has been tough but there were plenty of nice permit caught in this weekends tournament. Pierce and I hooked a permit on a crab fly during one of our days of fishing before the tournament, unfortunately he got away from us and broke off.

Pierce and I fished the Super Fly, a one day fly fishing event that is part of the Redbone series. We placed second with a nice catch of 3 tarpon and 3 bonefish. We did land one other tarpon but he was not regulation size for the tournament, he was just fine for fun fishing.

The SLAM was a little more difficult. Some of the best guides in the Keys fish this tournament and do very well. We were mainly fishing with a fly, leaving ourselves in contention for the Fly Division with only two other boats. When it comes to numbers in this tournament it is about getting the fish, and most anglers choose to use artificials or bait to achieve the goal of catching a slam, tarpon - bonefish and permit.

We tied for the Fly Division prize but lost to a tie-breaker of time, the other team had caught their fish much earlier in the day. Congrats to them!