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

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.

Here is Dave Molone with a nice Keys Bonefish caught on the Fly with Capt. Mike O’Brien.

lower Keys Bonefish

Here’s one of the bones we caught on a very short trip. Hooked two more and had a very hard follow by a nice permit.

September and October are my favorite months to fish.  Bonefishing is good and the permit are a little more easy to feed.  Of course, the tarpon fishing is super fun and I have been getting into big tarpon crushing mullet in the Backcountry.  We can fish in the am and dive for lobster when it gets hot.

Tarpon fishing is getting good.  Water is 85 .

Bones are around in good numbers and Permit too?

Now is a great time to fish the Lower Keys and Key West.  Practice your casting because April is usually WINDY.

I was at the Bonefish Tarpon Trust symposium last weekend in Weston , Florida with my good friend and Client Jay Decker from Patagonia.  We set up a small booth and talked about the cool new line.

I saw lots of friends from the fly angling world and made some new ones too.  I sat in on the Permit and Tarpon panel discussions and got some new perspectives on these fish.

A lot of time, money, and love is going into protecting tarpon, permit, and bonefish for now and the future.

Shots at permit , tarpon and Bonefish.  Got a nice bonefish to the boat on the 9wt. flyrod.