Pre Hurricane Gustav

Well the fish must know that the weather is changing, we have had some great bonefish and Permit action the past couple of days. I spent a day fishing with pasture David Hughes for Bones and Permit in the Islamorada/ Duck key area. The morning was a little slow producing a few good shots at tailing bones in the backcountry. We then chased the tide around for a while with no success. Then later in the day we were met with a tailing permit attack on some of the strip banks on the way back to Duck Key. Incredible is all I can say!

The following Day I fished with Scott Silver and his son Jeremy. For a day of chasing a Lower Keys Grand Slam on light spin tackle. For us fly guys finding bait at 5:00am is always a tough proposition. So I elected to get bait on the water at a local Marina after the first light tarrpon bite.

Our first stop produced a nice shrimp hatch were we manged to get several Tarpon hooked up on a soft plastic shrimp bait rigged weedless.

I then ran to one of my local hot spots to buy some shrimp. (To save face I wont mention the establishment). To my surpise at 8:30 am on a Saturday morning there was no one to be found at the Marina. And needles to say no bait. Oh well thats the Keys for you.

Without another marina our bait shop with in a 1/2 hour boat ride I was up shit creek without a paddle. So we improvised and I headed to a great bonefish flat armed with only one meger bonefish jig.

We had several good shots at fish that all but puked on our offering. At this point I was really kicking my self for not buying a couple dozen shrimp the night before and keeping them in my fridge. Finally god shinned upon us and gave us an 11 1/2 lb bone on that same jig that all of the other would'nt eat.

Wow I cant belive I pulled a day of bait fishing off with no bait!!

Today I fished with one of my favorite clients and friends Mitch Widom and Bobby Balough. Our first stop greeted us with waves of tailing bones and each of them caught a nice bone. In attempt to save one of the bones from a sharky death I fired my motor up on the middle of the flat knowing that I would scare everything within a half mile of our location. Well sorry to say it didnt work, that fucking Lemon still got our bonefish.

We then spent the rest of the day chasing permit on a super high flooded tide. We did mange to get some great shots at some tailers and hooked another really nice bonefish that broke off.

With all of the Hurricanes bearing down us I wish all of you in the path of doom the best.

K

Tarpon Times and Summer Fun

Wow! Feb 4th was my last update. That will tell you how buisy 2008 has been. I have finally had a few days off in row due family vacation and Tropical strom Fay. The fishing so far this summer has been quite good. Tarpon seem to be the fish of the season for me. Every where I go I seem to be encountering Tarpon of all sizes. Early morning shrimp hacthes, calm winds and hot weather make for some great tarpon fishing. We also been having some good bonefishing on the oceanside flats lately. I havent been doing as much permit fishing as I usually due, but when we have gone it has been pretty good. Hopefully as it moves through Sept and October the Permit fishing will get a little stronger, but for now I'm quite content with pounding on the Tarpon and Bones.

Ed Young caught this nice Permit last week while spending a few days on my skiff with his son EJ.

Out

Kris

Permit time again

The Permit fishing in 08' has started out with a bang. During a recent January warming trend I had the pleasure of fishing with west coast anglers Bill Williams and Don Riesen. We had outstanding permit fishing accumlating close to 50 quality shots in 4 days of fishing. We had to fight through some cool water on the first couple of days. But the fishing steadily improved each day.

With the cooler water the Permit can be a little tough to feed a fly. Although you will see them tailing, they are generally filter the sand and mud for small crusteans, like Hermit crabs, clams and worms. They will eat a well presented crab fly but they just are'nt quite that aggresive yet, and they are not really looking for them.

When the water temps reach into the mid to upper 70's again they will really turn on and provide fly anglers with some great catches. Until then keep at it.

We did manage to hook into a couple nice fish over the 4 day period. Including this fish in the 20 lb class.

New Years Tarpon

I got to spend the last day of 2007 chasing big winter Tarpon in the Lower Keys. These fish have been around for a few days but have been a little reluctant to eat until today. I was fishing with Shark Key resident Art Hungerford.

Art is relatlively new to Fly Fishing for Tarpon here in the Florida Keys. I set out to a spot where I had seen a good number of big laid up fish a couple of days earlier, and when we got there we were treated with lots of big rolling fish. As I explained the do's and dont's of Tarpon fishing with a fly to Art. We immediatley had two big fish slide in on us for a quick shot. Not a minute later I spotted another fish laying high in the water column. Art dropped the fly out in front of the fish and the Big Tarpon crushed it. Being that it was Arts first ever tarpon bite he was'nt eable to get it tight in time and the big fish slide away no worse for the ware. After about another 20 minutes of casting at rollers and laid up a fish, a group of three big fish moved in on us And art made a great cast out in front of the lead fish. The second fish in the group jumped over that fishes back and inhaled the fly. After several nice jumps the fish trew the fly. Art was crushed trying to figure out what went wrong. I told him he just had to hook a few more to learn what to do witth them once you have the line tight. We moved to another spot and we where greeted by a big single fish moving into a back country edge for some warm winter sun. Art made the cast and without hesitation the fish ate the fly and took to the air. "Big fish, Big Fish" I said. " Clear the line, Keep it tight."

The fish hit the reel and headed for the gulf. Art survived all of the jumps and did a great job putting pressure on the fish. After a 30 minute fight we had the fish boatside for a few quick photos and a good clean release.

Thats what I did on New Years Eve Day, You?

Best wishes for 2008

CApt. Kris