Fear and Loathing in Key West

tarpon41

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

sunflower

Sounds great.
Not a lot of people fishing in the heat of July.
Aaron is a solid guide.

brad

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!