Contributing Writer
Capt. Mike Bartlett
Key West Fishing Charters
Summer is coming to end here in the Florida Keys and with autumn just around the corner, slightly cooler weather will be most welcomed. It has felt really hot here from late spring all through summer. The dry air we have been experiencing has contributed to the hotness by keeping our normal afternoon and evening showers at bay.
As of this writing we haven’t had any tropical systems so far. Thanks to El Niño and the Saharan dust in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, none of the tropical waves moving across the open waters of the Atlantic have been able to form into tropical storms or hurricanes…yet. Being as we are in the most active period of hurricane season, I think we are pretty lucky so far. But we do have a couple months left of hurricane season, so plenty of time for something to spin up.
Despite the very hot water and low shower activity, fishing on the flats has been simply amazing. My last couple times out I have been finding big schools of well above average bonefish, six to seven pounders all day. There are definitely some eight to ten pounders around, I’ve seen them, just haven’t managed to get any over eight pounds yet. Soon!!
I’ve been finding permit here and there also. Nothing crazy yet but coming across a few as I pole around the flats. It was another good year of permit fishing for me and really no reason for it to not continue as we move into fall.
Surprisingly though, tarpon fishing hasn’t been as good as I would expect. For starters I haven’t seen much bait on the ocean which is primarily what I would be looking for first thing every morning. It has been a little too breezy for my liking in the mornings still, making it bumpy on the ocean which makes it harder to find rolling tarpon. The backcountry stuff has been pretty normal still but a lot of that can be tide dependent and again the morning breezes have been enough to put a little chop on the water making it harder to find rolling tarpon.
We are coming into the time of the year when the tides are huge for us. King tides around the full and new moons can reach up to 2.7 feet on the ocean side, which is so much water. Enough so that water will come up onto the islands flooding low lying areas around boat ramps and storm drains. To this day I am amazed at the amount of people I watch drive their vehicles fast through standing salt water, stupid.
On the opposite side of those big King tides are extremely low, low tides. These tides will be well into the negative territory exposing areas that are under water the rest of the year. These are my favorite tides to fish and they are finally coming around to occur in the mornings instead of the middle to late afternoon.
I love fishing the negative tides for tailing bonefish. As the incoming tide starts to fill in following a negative low tide, schools of bonefish will move onto the flats, waking and tailing as they root through the grassy bottom for tasty bits. It’s going to be so much fun this year if these big bonefish I’ve been finding will be on the flats I fish for tailers. Will be insane watching seven to eight pound bonefish rip across a flat in just a few inches of water. This is a must do if you’re a fly angler or enjoy wading. Be warned, it’s hard fishing as tailing bonefish are super spooky. Long, accurate casts are a must, we have a very small margin of error.
Enjoy the rest of summer while it lasts. It won’t be long until we are complaining about how cold and windy it is, LOL
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Capt. Mike Bartlett
