PPS Destinations Report 

Key West, Forida, USA

Date:        May 2010

 Reported by Dr. Chris Travis, Laguna Hills, CA, USA

Without a doubt, Key West is the best destination to fly fish for sighted large tarpon on the flats. The mangroves are like magnets for migrating tarpon from the Gulf and Atlantic Ocean to spawn in warm clear water with lots of food for them to eat.  Those who fly fish for tarpon for a long time seem to gravitate towards those Silver Kings who swim onto the shallow flats to eat. It is an incredible visual experience of sighting the giants, making long casts and watching them take the fly, and strip hook set to an acrobatic shinning mass of muscle that cannot be described. You have to be there to get it all.

The time to go is May and June. Most of the good guides are taken at this time, but there are ways to book a trip and have a great time. We stay in Key West , because we can fish the Atlantic , Gulf, back country, or Marquessa at a whim if the tarpon migration has gone to those areas. We use two flats guides, young and energetic, because it is very hard work to get The fly fisherman into position to cast to a moving tarpon in a few feet of water. We were somewhat lucky this year, as the week preceding ours had high winds the whole week. That is tough conditions to cast let alone see tarpon on the shallow flats. Make sure you fish one angler to a boat. You get so few shots to the beasts, it’s is shame to sit through another angler’s time on the casting deck. Muy Malo!  

We had almost no wind. One day, the water was so glassy, I thought we were on Oil, (all joking aside) while sight casting to some of the most beautiful tarpon I have seen. One of the tarpon I landed was about 50 lbs and finally got a photo of one. They can be so big, taking photos of them can be dangerous for them as well as you.  

The days start early. You are on the fast skiff by 6 AM and going to your first stop 50 miles an hour. As the guide idles onto the flats, you jump onto the casting deck, strip out 70 ft of line into a stripping basket, and gaze all around for the proverbial long dark shape swimming towards the skiff.  The guide jumps onto his poling platform above the engine and slowly poles up current in the shallows as the tide flows like a river through the channels next to the flats. We see permit, sharks, porpoise, jacks, rays, bonefish, and an array of sea life on the shallow reefs and sand flats. Some flats are a 1000 ft wide and a mile long and it seems like a dream when poling on those flats.  

There is a knack to land these monsters in a short time. You don’t want to give the tarpon any kind of edge, so you land them quick and release them unharmed. If you give them any slack during a battle, they can turn a 15- 20 minute quickie into a long drawn out affair that kicks your ass and kills the tarpon. You use the leverage of your 11 wt rod and move it from side to side to confuse the fish, and put the rod tip deep (down and dirty) into the water to keep the tarpon from breathing air on the surface.  It is important to use your legs to put pressure on the tarpon while your arms act as shock absorbers during the fight. It is not uncommon to land a 100+ lb tarpon in 15 minutes using these techniques. The casting deck is perfect to bend your knees and not use your arms too much when playing a tarpon. The legs have all the muscle to subdue them in short order.  

Fishing was good this season for us, only because we had the weather on our side.  Many years, we search for those migrating fish for days on end, but because the sky is overcast and the wind blowing 30mph, we find it hard to find those fish on the flats to sight cast to them. I will not dredge channels, might as well fish for tuna with bait.

Tight lines,

Chris