Key West two day Slam

I fished with Dick from Michigan the last two days.  We took off early this morning and were treated to a brilliant sunrise.

Friday we found a few baby tarpon and were able to get one to the boat and jump another.  Dick also landed a permit using a crab.  The search was on for bonefish, but I could only find one that we didn't get a shot at.  The fishing out west has gotten pretty slow on the flats during this full moon phase.

Saturday was all about getting Dick a bonefish to complete his trip slam.  I went out east and fished the backcountry where reports have sounded a lot better than what I was finding out west.  The first flat we hit early this morning had two schools of tailing bonefish.  Dick's first cast resulted in a nice bonefish.  Dick landed a second bonefish about the same size as the one below a short time later.

Captain Mike Bartlett http://www.keywestflats.net/

Tarpon and Permit out West

Fished the Marquesas yesterday for a couple of hours with angler Phil from Virginia before getting clouded out. I went looking for permit and bonefish and instead found a massive school of pilchards with many baby tarpon feeding on the bait. Phil landed three, had a few other jumps and several other eats all on fly. It was pretty spectacular.

Captain Mike Bartlett http://www.keywestflats.net/

Key West Tarpon and Bonefish

Last week I fished with Joe and his wife.  The moon was still pretty bright so we made an early morning start, 5:30am.  While it was still dark, up until the light just started to come up a little, we had tarpon popping baitfish off the surface.  Joe and his wife landed a double header, both tarpon being close to twenty pounds.

After sunrise we set off for tailing permit and bonefish.  After a lot of searching I finally found some bonefish and Joe caught a couple small ones.

We stayed out to get Joe a permit to complete the slam.  We had a lot of shots at tailing permit, but unfortunately the wind dropped to nothing and the permit proved to be extremely spooky.  Often taking off when Joe would cast or when the crab hit the water.  I  was surprised the permit were letting us get close enough.  Many times when water is flat like glass we can't get anywhere near a permit in shallow water.

Captain Mike Bartlett http://www.keywestflats.net/

Guides Day Off

What do fishing guides do on a day off, they go fishing!!!!  I hooked up with Captain Rob Kramarz and Captain Derren Doop.   I met them at Sugarloaf Marina on Sugarloaf Key the other morning.  We fished the backcountry flats for tailing permit and bonefish.  It was slick calm and tough to get close to fish but we managed a couple of nice bonefish like the one pictured below with Captain Rob.

Captain Mike Bartlett http://www.keywestflats.net/