Key West Flats Fishing with Capt. Mike O'Brien Fishing Reports

We have been catching both big and little tarpon the past few weeks. Bonefish are around in pretty good numbers and, of course , Permit fishing is good right now too!!

Rules to live by

Permit or Trachinotus falcatus is probably the hardest flats fish to catch on fly.
Below are some images of the fish and the flies we use to catch them.  The most important part the game is making a quick and accurate cast.  A good angler can get the fly to the target with only one or two false casts.  Permit are spooky and have great eyesight.  We look forward to days with a little wind which masks the noise of the fly line in the air and allows for multiple casts a fish or group of fish.  I recommend that anglers practice their casting out on the lawn prior to their Key West flats fishing trip.  This practice will pay big dividends in fishing success and can mean the difference between going fishless or adding an achievement of a lifetime to your trip.

We train ourselves to see fish swimming under the surface, mudding, tailing, and floating.  There is nothing in the angling world that compares to seeing a school of large permit with their tails popping up out of the water as they move up a flat feeding.
Sometimes we hear a splash from a permit that has just tailed so hard it tipped over.

The rod of choice for these fish is an 8, 9, or 10 weight depending on the wind or lack there of.  A saltwater reel with a good drag like a Tibor and 300 yards of backing are a must.  Use a nine to twelve foot leader.

Feeding the permit is a learned art and only time on the water and your guide can help you with this ability.  A good angler does not just make a great cast to the fish; he or she actually sells the fly.  By selling the fly I mean that the angler reads the permit’s actions toward the fly and moves it or lets it drop to entice the fish to react and EAT.

Tight Lines and fish boatside,

Capt. Michael O’Brien

Days for these guys are filling up. May is gone but March, April, and June days are still available .

Come down and fish!!!!

We are catching Cudas now but as soon as we get a warm spell in February the tarpon fishing will go off!! And permit too.

I did not fish the Cuda Bowl this year but am getting some big ones boat side. #cudabowl

I did see a giant Permit yesterday!!

Get ready for these guys…………

and these guys too

Here are some photos from the past few days

I’m getting ready for the Del Brown Permit tournament July 14-16. My favorite sponsor is

So technically we tied for 5th place. fishing was tough with the radical wind and water temp. drop from 80 to 68 deg. The permit fishing was really good for more than two weeks before the tournament though .

Big Tarpon start to show up in the lower Florida Keys starting in February .

I have had several good days of tarpon fishing this month and look forward to a great 2019 season for both tarpon and permit. Yesterday was awesome with lots of big tarpon rolling and laid up in slick calm conditions . We missed a bunch but had many shots and then fed a smaller fish and a HUGE female ate the fly!! It was a rush for sure. After that we went permit fishing and saw a bunch. The vis was getting tough late in the afternoon and we saw most of the permit too late to get a good set up. Can’t wait until tomorrow to do it all over again. Getting ready to pre-fish for the March Merkin Permit Tournament.

Are you ready for this?