Here's a writeup of my Florida Keys fishing trip from week before last. It was an amazing week on the water. It was my first time to the keys and it lived up to the hype. I fished out of Marathon, 4 days of fishing. Fly only. Weather was hit or miss. First two days it was blowing 25-30, day 3 was the best weather day, winds in the 15-20 and no rain, 4th day started good and went south around lunchtime.
Day 1:
Launched 6:15, fished the backside of the keys for baby tarpon to get my feet wet and probably for my guide to figure me out too. The first trip w a poling skiff fly fishing guide is a lot like a first date. Nobody knows what to expect, there's been a lot of back and forth talk before the trip about how each person fishes, etc, but you never know until you step on the boat.
One of my favorite things about fishing is sunrises on the water. We ran about 20 minutes to one of the small islands just off Marathon looking for baby tarpon. Wind had been blowing 20-30 for a few days from the E/NE, so the game was to fish the windward side of these islands where the grass blows and stacks up. About 40-50 yards from shore the water goes from Keys clear to turbid like we are used to fishing on the middle coast, and then it gets pretty dark/brown right up against the grass. The baby tarpon cruise that turbid water looking for bait, as that water has reduced oxygen content and the bait fish rise closer to the surface to oxygenate. The tarpon have an advantage because of their ability to roll and breathe oxygen, so they excel in feeding on the bait rising to the surface there.
In those conditions, the game is to pole those windward shorelines looking for baby tarpon (2-20 lb fish) rolling and crushing/busting bait, then you basically blind cast to spots that look like they would hold fish - structure, eddies, rips around points. If you happen to be in them rolling and busting of course you throw to them (or in front of them) too. Threw dark colored shrimp patterns and absolutely cleaned up on the baby tarpon. Probably had 15-18 jumps and landed 8 baby tarpon to the boat, all in the 5-8 pound range. The baby tarpon are super aggressive, hit hard, and are a ton of fun to catch. They jump and run and don't take much time to get to the boat. My uncle told me "those are the size tarpon I like to catch".
My guide was outstanding, grew up in the Caribbean and the Keys and knows his stuff. Been guiding out of Marathon full time 7-8 years. Runs a Chittum Snake Bite. Even though I told him I fly fished the Tx coast quite a bit, before we got started he gave me the usual first time salt water tips like don't trout set, don't raise your rod, etc. I put a few strip sets on these baby tarpon and lost 3 flies with breakoffs and lost a 3rd with a bent hook and he says..."Ok, well, you can cast and strip set, let's step you up to a bigger hook". We started landing more fish and didn't lose any more flies.
Also caught a micro barracuda. Having never caught one before, even though it's tiny, it still counts for a new species on the fly. And these were my first tarpon on the fly.
Day1 Pics:
Day 2:
Day 2 was a completely different experience. We fished the ocean side looking for shots on big fish. That game is a little less active. Not a ton of poling around. It was really windy (blowing 20-28 all day) and so it's almost impossible to hold a skiff in position with a poll all day waiting for migrating fish. So we "posted up" or anchored about 200 yards from one of the bridges on the migratory path that the big fish follow. Water depth was 4-6 feet. Then it was sit, wait, and watch.
We just didn't see many fish (3-4) and never had any shots. I didn't even make a cast. It was a lot of sitting and staring holes in the water. Did see a juvenile manatee and a good sized loggerhead turtle and a couple of sharks. Keys water on the ocean side was beautiful, crystal clear even with all that wind. At about 3:00 my guide asked me if I wanted to move and go try and find the babies again. We did, but by that time of the day the water temp was up and the baby tarpon spots were blown out. It was still an awesome day on the water. Saw some great thunderstorms and the best sunrise of the trip.
Day 3:
Day 3 we went after ocean side big fish again, but launched 10 miles east and fished the ocean side E of marathon. Happened to be in the keys when the biggest tarpon fly tournament was going on, the golden fly. Turns out that the #1 and #2 boats in the golden fly both wanted to fish on the flat that my guide fishes almost every day, and they were cool enough to message him a few days before and ask him if they minded if they fished the flat. He said no problem, so we were posted up between the boats that eventually placed 1 and 2 in the tournament. Of the 4 boats on that flat that day, there were only 2 eats and 2 fish caught, one release fish and one weight fish. Those were on Dustin Huff's boat. He was about 250 yards due east of us.
I really only got 2-3 good shots at a school of big tarpon. The best school was an 18-20 pack of big fish that showed up upwind. Guide did the best he could to position the boat, wind was 15-18 so manageable and I can usually cast pretty well into that wind, but man, I saw those big tarpon and I lost my cast completely. Huge adrenaline rush to see fish that big that close. My first shot was short, my second shot was short, and my 3rd shot was in line with the middle of the pack. I stripped, got a follow, saw a huge tarpon rise at the fly, her mouth opened, and right at the last minute she saw something she didn't like and closed her mouth swiped it sideways with her head and she was gone. It happened in a split second but she was within 20-30 feet of the boat and because the water was so clear, you could see it all, it was incredible. Anyhow, didn't get any other legitimate shots at groups of fish that day but it was a great way to see what big tarpon fishing on the ocean side of the keys is really like. For those of you looking for a good stripping basket, the XL/widest carbon marine basket is excellent. Probably gonna get one for our boat.
Day 4:
On the last day I asked to run up to Everglades National Park, which is a 40 minute run from Marathon as long as the weather is good. We launched 5:15 and spend the morning working islands just inside the park, we could see mainland FL on the horizon. We started in low light looking for rolling tarpon. We saw a few tarpon but they were so close to the boat in that light that we didn't get any shots on them. Did some blind casting to points and troughs but didn't get any takes.
Saw another juvenile manatee, this one probably 250 pounds.
Ran to another flat that holds snook, but nobody was home. Went to another island and about that time a huge storm cell came our way from the south. He had planned to take us farther N into the park but we had to stay close to the island, some medium rain, thunder, etc. While poling around the shores of that island, caught a rat redfish (first red on the fly in FL, checks the "redfish in another gulf state box"), and came across a sand flat with 20-30 cruising lemon sharks. Guide says "well, this weather is gonna prevent us from looking for more big tarpon where I wanted to go, want to catch a shark?". Heck yeah. He quickly put on a large red and orange fly with some wire bit tippet and proceeded to pole and cast at sharks for 20-30 minutes. Finally hooked one. Probably a 30 pound lemon shark. They make a big strong run but that's about it, no acrobatics or anything like that.
We ran back S to Marathon between storm cells, hit a couple of spots looking for tarpon on the way back, but then another storm cell came up and this one was hard ran, thankfully we made it back to the N side of the island right as the big rain hit us. We spent the last hour and a half anchoring above the bridges throwing bait patterns and letting the current take the flies up under the bridge pilings. Apparently the big tarpon will post-op under the shade and ambush bait fish as they come through the shadows. Didn't get any takes, and headed back to the marina about 4:00.
All in all, this was an amazing first trip to the keys, and while I'm bummed I didn't get more shots at big ocean side fish, I'll be back next year to try and get a few eats and jumps!
