It's our somewhat annual July trip to the wilds of Key West. I fly to KW
and pal drives down from Miami. He finds us a rental condo for 230 a
nite split 115 per. Two bedroom two baths...full
kitchen...the loathing of KW is "fishing room" nitely charges. I get the guide for three days Aaron Snell. The itinerary was
early morning Tarpon...then top of the tide Bonefish...then falling
tide Permit. For three days we had outstanding Tarpon action...mostly
15-40 lb but two or three 60-70 plus lots of takes...we started with
subsurface but then switched to floating crabs and gurglers....gurgler foul hooked a 60-70 which took him almost to the spool. We
would roll then off or pop them. For Tarpon we had consistent action
for the morning bite. Mostly casting to rolling fish however, there
were occasions when we would cast a floater to a fish holding in the
current clearly visible not quite a laid up fish...but more like a trout
holding in a spot and the take like a dry fly take...then we would move
inside for Bonefish not as prolific as the Tarpon but he knew when and
where I got two or three and Joel got one or two but we had
opportunities and takes...however, now it's around 2pm and I've been
flailing away for Tarpon and my 78 aged arm and shoulder are less than
perfect for Bonefish...then our last stop was Permit opportunities but
only one score...he got one on the second day big fish 25-30 on
floating crab...only pic is the tail...it was hooked outside the mouth
and took him for a ride for nearly 45 minutes mostly channel...on the
flat Aaron had to pop a small Bull on the head with the pole...but with
the leader in the rod Aaron reached for the leader but did not touch and
then tippet broke halfway up not knot break...junk abraded in the
channel...actually that was my fish since I was up first for the
Permit...but as luck would have it...Aaron called a large Tarpon clearly
visible holding in the current waiting for floats...ray take a shot so
did my best four foot dry fly lead little bump she rose up slurped and
short run full out jump and gone with a 16 lb Permit tippet...so now
Joel's up for the big Permit...we had a boat slam that day...It was a
very hot three days of action wind under 10 to 0. My pictures are
sh....t because I left my Canon G12 at home and tried the kid stuff with
my Samsung and I cannot see the screen in sun either with or without
polars on...myG12 has view finder...and our guide has bananas on his
boat
Looks like it was a great trip. Fished with Aaron a couple times before and recently on July 5...day after 4th of July is always a fun hangover battle He's a great guide. Awesome photos!
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Replies
Not a lot of people fishing in the heat of July.
Aaron is a solid guide.
grace finds goodness in everything ...