Contributing Writer
Capt. Mike Bartlett
Key West Fishing Charters
May is here and that can only mean one thing…TARPON!
May is when the flow of tarpon really gets going in the Florida Keys. Large schools of tarpon will move along the ocean-side flats from the west heading toward the Seven Mile Bridge. In fact I heard a report recently (mid April) through a local client that one of his friends was recently 30 miles offshore Key West and they spotted acres of tarpon heading towards the Keys. Here we go!
The next six to eight weeks will be like groundhog day for me. Wake up early, get to boat in the dark so we are fishing by first light for rolling tarpon. After that head out to wherever I plan to fish for the day and fish for tarpon some more until late afternoon.
This sometimes will get broken up to fish for bonefish, I love a bonefish trip in tarpon season!! If conditions are awesome we may even head back out in the evening for a spell. Otherwise it’s get home, eat some dinner, shower, sit down and pass out! Wake up early the next day and do it all over again. Rinse and repeat.
I’m pretty much on autopilot April through June and it gets really weird when I do get a day off, usually due to weather keeping us off the water. There’s a few really fun events that happen on the water for us starting about now and through most of the summer.
First off it’s just awesome to see the large schools of adult tarpon cruising along the flats in just a couple feet of water. This is the spring migration and we will find these fish pretty much everyday until around the end of June when the migratory fish have all passed through.
The early mornings can be really special. My favorite event is the guppy hatch. Not a true hatch like on a trout stream, but rather a very specific set of conditions that when lined up the small baitfish on the flats will get starved of oxygen and are forced to sip air from the surface in order to survive.
Tarpon somehow know when and where this is happening and casually swim around gulping up the easy pickings. We as tarpon guides/anglers can take advantage of the situation and have a blast usually jumping a bunch of tarpon in a short amount of time.
Sticking to the early mornings, sometimes things just aren’t quite right for a guppy hatch but we can find tarpon along the ocean-side high in the water, rolling and daisy chaining. This is another awesome time that even though it doesn’t last very long, can be very successful jumping several tarpon in short order.
The main event this month however is the Palolo Worm hatch. Unlike the guppy hatch, the worm hatch occurs during the evening, typically around the time of the full or new moon at the end of May.
The worm hatch is fairly predictable but I usually wait to hear reports from up the Keys before heading out with a client. But if the conditions are good, I may head out with a friend to have a look. Get a little bow time!
There’s been years when the worm hatch has occurred earlier than expected and in weird places. So for me it’s tough to take a client unless they are really into it and realize that if it’s not happening we probably won’t see much especially if it is breezy.
Quick update from the past several weeks since I missed my last article. Life got super busy and I simply ran out of time to write my article, happens sometimes. Anyway, permit fishing has been really good even though Mother Nature is trying to blow us off the map right now!
The results from the March Merkin Permit Tournament were amazing and I have had several fun trips focusing on them exclusively. The most recent day for me was with a couple of 14 year olds. The wind was howling but we had sunshine and they had been fishing all week in the wind, they were ready for it. The guys caught a big tarpon in the upper Keys earlier in the week, caught a few bonefish and bonnethead sharks with a buddy of mine and all they needed was a permit to complete the vacation slam!
I love fishing for permit but my confidence was low as I struggled the last few trips to find anything. I had mainly been fishing in the back-country where we have some protection from the wind and clean water,
but the fish just weren’t around. The clouds, plentiful.
I made an adjustment and fished close to home looking for tarpon to start the day. The only roll we saw was from a pod of dolphin coming down the channel. Once it got light enough I poled the flat along the channel. This flat historically is a really good permit flat and it did not disappoint. The boys had seven shots getting one of our beautiful permit to the boat and I don’t know how many bonefish we cast to, but they were being rude only giving us two on the day.
Well it’s May, all you need to know it’s time to fish for tarpon.
Hope to see you out there.
Capt. Mike Bartlett
