I was out yesterday afternoon with my buddy, Capt. Bill Stockton chasing  Permit west of Key West on the incoming tide.  It was slick calm with some spooky tailing permit and bonefish.  Late afternoon low vis fishing means you are going to blow a few fish out.  We did a bit of that.  Not all the perms were tailing. Lots of fish would tip up and vanish or blast off the flat.  We tracked three feeding fish as they gobbled their way with a focus on eating.  I got a few shots and finally dropped the fly in the zone and it was fish on.  Permit #13 for me.  It’s been almost a year since I stuck one and it felt really good.  Thank’s Bill!  

Evening Permit

Capt. Mike O'Brien with permit #13

It seems so easy when the fish finally eats.  The key to catching permit on fly is to get it there quickly and in the zone.  If you miss the first shot or two then pick the fly up off the water gently and get it back in the permit’s face.

I was out west of Key West the other day with a great angler and client, Chris Macdonald and we had the Marquesas all to ourselves. We fed four baby tarpon and landed one. Then we stuck 2 bones on the outgoing tide. I was fired up and thought we could maybe get a slam. It was that kind of day. We have fish in all the spots but the permit were scarce on the flats. We had a couple of shots at some spooky perms but no eats.
All in all it was a great day on the water and Chris and I had fun. Can’t wait to do it again.

Visit my Facebook page at- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-OBrien-Photography-and-Flats-Fishing/146990925313926

Well, it’s late summer and hot and humid here in Key West.
I just got back to town after 2 weeks of surfing with my family in Southern California. Cold and foggy out there with water temps in the low 60’s. Very cold this summer. Key West on the other hand is hot and humid with water temps in the 90’s.
The bonefishing has been hot and the permit are around on the right tides. Looking forward to September and big tides with hungry permit and bones on the flats here in Key West.

Well May has come and gone. The end of the month was killer tarpon fishing. The wind laid way down and the tarpon were rolling in the am and laid up thick in the afternoon.
The Palola worm hatch started last Thursday and culminated on Monday night. Worms were everywhere and the tarpon were thick enough to walk across. Hopefully we will get one more worm hatch on the new moon.
Call me to book a trip in mid June. I still have a few days open.

Night charter caught tarpon -Key West, Florida Keys

We are starting to see large numbers of big tarpon here in Key West.  These are mainly the gulf fish and we are finding them in the deeper channels but are getting into some laid up fish too.  Water temps have hit 80  Deg. We stuck a few big ones on a couple of my charters last week.  I landed a nice  one the other day on a black death fly.  The ocean side migration should be starting soon.  It’s blowing 30knots as I write this.  I will be kiteboarding this afternoon.  When the wind lays down this weekend I am expecting the tarpon fishing to go ballistic.  The permit fishing has been very strong as well.  I still have a few April and May day open but am booking up fast for tarpon and permit on fly.   We’ve been using a lot of SS flies from Peter Smith.

Capt. Mike is gearing up for the March Merkin.  Permit on Fly!

It’s warming up fast here in Key West.  The tarpon were everywhere yesterday.

I am seeing more permit everyday and hope to give my angler lots of shots next week.

permit release

Tailing Bonefish on Little Ambergris Cay

Capt. Mike O’Brien will be guiding for the Turks and Caicos Sporting Club at Ambergris Cay this winter. This is a world class bonefishing destination. We see schools of fish in the hundreds. A decent caster on a good day should be able to catch ten 4-6 lbs bonefish on a half day trip. We pole skiffs through the deeper flats but most of our fishing is done while wading skinny sand flats and mangrove creeks and sight casting at

Nice Bonefish

cruising and tailing bonefish. It has been in the high 70’s at Ambergris Cay this past few weeks and the fishing is hot. I will be back in Key West to guide in the March Merkin Permit Tourney in early March and am currently booking Key West tarpon fishing trips for March through June.

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

Captain Michael O’Brien is pleased to announce two exhibitions of his Wave and Fish photography at the Lilly Pulitzer stores in Boca Raton, Fl and Key West, Fl.  The Boca Raton  Town Center store is partnering with the Surfrider foundation and will donate a share of the profits from the sale of clothing and O’Brien’s art to benifit the Surfrider Foundation in Florida and their ongoing battle to protect our beaches, the water quality and the waves.  O’Brien wil be showing images of both wave photos taken over the past several years as well as images of tarpon, permit, and bonefish.  All of Capt. Mike’s fish photos were shot in and around Key West on the flats and backcountry.  These fish were all caught while fly fishing either by clients or by O’Brien himself and photographed under water.

The Boca Raton show will be Dec. 5 and the Key West show will be Dec. 12, 2009.

Permit fishing West of Key West

sup in the keys: tarpon on fly

November 4, 2009
We fished out East today and had good tides but were chased off the water by

some nasty storms.  Looks like the kiteboarding will be good for the next few days.