We did but it wasnt a walk in the park. Wind ruined north shoreline. Fished Carancuhua with no success but finally found some clean water holding bait. Found a pair tailing then pushed a handful more...
It was a really nice trip and reminded me how much I friggin love my BT Micro. Amazing little boat!
Nice tail! I was hoping some spring time trip reports would start rolling in.
I went to Key Largo in search of early tarpon 2 weeks ago. The guide was annoyed by my casts, and I was annoyed the guide didn't see the fish until we polled into the school and broke em up. I had to settle for a bonefish using shrimp. I really wanted one on the fly, but it wasn't meant to be. Related bc he also had a blue tail.
I should clarify. My practice casts at sharks and rays were great, but my attempts at bonefish were awful. The guide was annoyed because I botched some real good opportunities. I'm glad we had a plan B, and I would use the same guide again. I just need to practice at fast moving targets first.
Are Keys bones real skittish? I know the smaller bones in Mexico and Bahamas are voracious eaters and will run a mile to take a fly if they can just see it - but I've always suspected that bonefish in the Keys are wary and see a lot more fishing pressure.
Freakin' bones are like dynamite with fins. Like the tarpon we so revere, bones are in a class all their own.
We didn't see any stationary or tailing bonefish, so it's hard to tell if they were extra wary. The few bones we saw were cruising at a decent speed and wouldn't slow down for a fly. There were lots of lemon sharks around, so who knows.
Sounds like I should try the Bahamas. The one bone we caught shot off like a rocket. I heard they were fast, and I was expecting a solid run, but I was still surprised at the burst. Very athletic and cool fish.
Say a body was going to be in Marathon in July... Bones or Poon, flats or glades? Yall help me out here, there's so many choices I don't know where to start.
I may be wrong here, so it's worth what you paid for it - remember, I've never fished in FL.
If I was going to the Keys I'd concentrate on tarpon. I've documented here how much I love bonefish (second only to tarpon) but I'm thinking that if bonefish is what you REALLY want there places you can get more shots for the same $. Mexico and even the Bahamas, now that SW files there, can be reached on a relative budget and even though the fish are smaller I think the action is a lot better. My vote is tarpon. I'll let guys w/ FL experience comment on which side.
@ that time of year, Poon, no doubt. The bones in the keys are generally larger than you will find elsewhere. However, there are fewer of them. Tell your guide you are interested in both and be prepared for both. You may pass a flat on the right tide and catch a nice bonefish.
My thoughts are that the water in the glades may be too hot for tarpon, but snook would be available. The glades are a cool place and worth going over there for a day if you have time.
I don't know about Marathon but you're only 15 minutes from the Lorelei in Islamorada where those guys usually run out of.
I've fished with Drew Moret out of there. He's a really good poon guide.
Or go 15 minutes further down the Keys and fish with John O'Hearn. He'll launch out of Key West or up in Big Pine. IIRC he lives on Big Pine. A number of Ags here, including myself, have fished with John.
You will see a lot fewer boats if you launch out of Cudjoe or Sugarloaf. That's the main reason I like fishing there more than Islamorada. Good luck, and report back!
Thanks man. I was scoping out a few boat ramps on big pine and middle torch that look protected enough for my noe. I'll have to get on Google Earth and check out the next few keys south as well.
When I was fishing on Friday we were poling a back lake and could see the ICW... Could see an SCB doing some speed runs through ICW and looking absolutely radical... Well, just saw on their instagram a video of the GPS hitting 92mph. That is so insane.
Also, Low Country Journal (floodtide) uploaded some great footage of tails in the low country. https://vimeo.com/160523300
That would be an amazing day on the water to catch that many permit. They were in the Key's correct? I've been looking really hard at making a trip down there this year to mark an item off my bucket list, which is to catch a quality Permit! Has anyone been down there to chase permit and any rec's on a guide would be appreciated.
Yeah so his cast may look "wonky" but that is Nathaniel Linville. He owns and operates the Angling Company in Key West. The only real fly shop in Key West. Great guy.
trust me, he spends lots of days on the water with excellent guides.
he probably stole the hat or found it on the side of the road
I'll vouch for the first guide in the film, John O'Hearn. I fished with him last summer on BKClark's rec and he's top-notch. Another Ag who only rarely posts on here and is known as Teddy Eyeballs fishes with him pretty regularly.
O'Hearn is also well aware of our "Tarpon junkies" thread and our little cabal of Aggie fly fishermen.
Thanks for the vids. I saw a school of permit on my last trip out of Key Largo. They just looked like a bunch of greater than signs at first. Little black >s darting thru the water. Another super bad ace fish.
quote:Picking up a new rod and reel tomorrow... Will post it up.
What did you get?
Also, I'm a bit low on intel these days but am looking to hit the water Sunday. Thoughts on where I might find some clean water? I'm not sure if I want to fish the falling tide in the morning over in East Bay or the rising tide in West Bay/Xmas Bay.
I've never fished in FL but I did see a permit once in Mexico. We were fishing Casa Blaca Lodge and our guide was this fella, I can't recall his name but his nickname was tarantula to his buddies (because he was so dark skinned).
We were in this spot, EXACTLY, because I remember taking a couple pictures when it was going on. This is toward the very back of Ascension Bay. We had been all morning throwing at super sly tarpon in the back lakes of the bay (this is where they take the noobs, like us, so you can see tarpon, even if they won't take a fly) and had just come back out on the flats.
I had been on the bow casting at a snook that was cruising the edge of the mangroves when this ball of silver just slides right by the front of the boat. It was darn near close enough to hit with rod it seemed and it took everyone by surprise...
Especially Tarantula! He was so shocked he started yelling in his broken English...
"F*** YOU. F*** YOU. Permit. Permit. Ohhhhh F*** YOU" over and over.
He meant to say F ME, because he was pissed at himself for not seeing the only permit of the week before it was so close, but somewhere in the translation all he could get out was f' YOU. For a split second we didn't know whether to laugh or fight. Then it all sunk in and Quaid grabbed the rod with a crab tied on and started throwing at it. We tailed him for a while but he was cruising and alone and it ended predictably - then all the all the way home poor tarantula just muttered under his breath "F' you, F' you."
tl;dr - watch this unrelated NSFW Permit video for a laugh
I was lucky enough to catch a permit on my honeymoon in Belize, it was only the size of a small dinner plate but still a damn permit on a fly rod. It was my first fish of the trip and I ended up catching it off of the dock at the place we were staying! It was tailing a school of bonefish that cruised by and got it to eat on my first cast. At that moment I thought this whole permit game was a piece of cake....man I wrong. I didn't catch another the rest of the trip!
quote:Picking up a new rod and reel tomorrow... Will post it up.
What did you get?
Also, I'm a bit low on intel these days but am looking to hit the water Sunday. Thoughts on where I might find some clean water? I'm not sure if I want to fish the falling tide in the morning over in East Bay or the rising tide in West Bay/Xmas Bay.
8'6" 7wt Loomis with Hatch 4. Wanted something shorter and a bit lighter for bass and marshes.
I am still biased towards north shoreline of west bay when its working but had good shots on fish in the back lake on southwest corner of carancuhua fishing the eastern shoreline on high but falling tide.
Sunday is looking pretty friggin nice with hardly any wind and good light. I imagine you find clean water on north shoreline.
