This report was sent to us by Jack Ehrhardt, a talented young angler who visits us when he’s down. Last time he was in, he bough a few Diablo Crabs….read on: I’m Jack Ehrhardt and I live up in Orlando. I come down to Key West a few times a year with my dad (we…

Now I know from a recent conversation with Thomas “Titan of Law” Rapone that the Northeast is in pretty bad shape weather-wise. The weather here, however, is very nice. We had a small front roll through yesterday, and were unable to find any tarpon in the channels (we did, however, get to jump some smaller…

Guide: See that branch? Angler: The one right above that brown trout? Guide: Yip. See below it? Angler: Yes, right where there’s a hole in the water from a large brown? Guide: exactly. Now see that fish? He’s kinda hard to see…. Angler: Seriously? Guide: You gotta look hard, maybe cock your head to the…

Good afternoon (really, it is). Hardy has shipped us some of it’s highly anticipated Proaxis rods more than a month early. Now I know that there are a lot of good rods on the market, but these are, in my opinion, some of the best. The best way I can describe their action is that…

Alex Powers recently emailed me this story and photograph of an incredible catch. Thank you Alex for reminding us why we do it. Here’s the photo of the striper I caught last Memorial Day. His account is here: It took an epoxy sand eel pattern in about 2′ of water – it weighed 25lbs and…

It’s 11:22 in the post-meridian, and I just returned from fishing. My thinking was that the water would still be warm after the light cold front that rolled throuh last night, yet most of the water temperatures we read were between 63 and 66 degrees f. We marked a few fish in the channels on…

There are a lot of tarpon down here. While it’s getting cold tonight, the chill is forecasted to be brief and the temperature is slated to return to the high 70’s on Wednesday/Thursday. As the water temperatures have been in the mid to high 70’s for a few days now, there are lots (tons, many,…

First a report on the Cuda Bowl, which took place over the last few days. We will have more specific information soon, as the following is from memory slightly clouded by two days of fishing which was incredible to say the least. Fly Division Champion Captain Scott Irvine took the Fishbones sculpture home, catching three…

Today brought some incredible weather (no suprise there), and the reports are filtering in of great permit fishing, and even some tarpon laid up in the backcountry. The captains meeting for the ‘Cuda Bowl is at the shop at 5:30; the rules and measuring devices will be explained and handed out respectively. The Angling Company…

The weather today is, to be fair, pretty near to perfect. After a few days of this, we should see some phenomenal tarpon and permit fishing. In fact, I have already heard a few reports of boats that saw tarpon in the channels this morning–the good news is that as long as the weather remains…

On my way back through Northwest channel today, I stopped to see a large mola-mola (ocean sunfish) that seemed to be in some trouble. We pulled up alongside the fish, and grabbed it’s dorsal fin. A closer look revealed a square hole, obviously made with some sort of sharp blade, cut through the dorsal fin.…

One of my favorite flies for permit is Dave Skok’s Diablo Crab. This pattern sinks well, looks like a crab or a shrimp, and “puffs” out a little bit when it sits on the bottom. This fly caught 3 bonefish, 3 tarpon, and a permit in a single day–the only modification was removing the weight…

We all know that catching a permit on a fly rod is difficult. While this comes as no suprise and is in no way a groundbreaking piece of new information, I bring it up to illustrate a point: mention permit, and the first thing anyone thinks about is how difficult they are. I posit this:…

I was given some photographs by an old friend, Captain Travis Rolan, who has since moved away from the Keys and is, to the best of my knowledge, catching fish elsewhere in the world. Before he left on his latest journey, he gave me some photographs that I had converted to digital files, and I…

Fishing on the flats has been good at times, though our cold fronts have been timed in such a way that it’s felt like the best is just around the corner before the water temperatures drop as the result of a new front. That said, this year is nowhere near as cold as last year–one…

On Sunday night, Aaron and I drove to Everglades City to fish with Captain Steve Huff. After hitting a wayward alligator on 41, we arrived safely at our hotel and inspected the Goose (astro van) for damage. There wasn’t much, and we retired by 11:30 for a 6:30 breakfast meeting. After a great breakfast and…

From the BBC today (click on link below). Personally, I’m not sure that moving a 600 pound piano to a sandbar isn’t indicative of exactly the kind of commitment a university should be dying to have in it’s student body. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12302362

A week ago, I was fishing with Fitz Coker west of Key West. After a few hours of chumming and the capture of a smaller lemon shark, a larger fish arrived. As is often the case, the fish was somewhat timid, approaching the boat only to about 15 feet before moving away and beginning their…

For the last few weeks the weather has been phenomenal, though it looks like that may be drawing to a close this afternoon. While the high is supposed to be only 61 (f, !!) tomorrow, we are supposed to see temperatures in the mid 70’s by Friday. All things considered, the last few weeks have…

For the record: I never said that I was too “intense” for tournament fishing….and I was honestly a bit annoyed at how that sounds (like something a total idiot would say, quite honestly). What I said was that tournament fishing was too intense for ME. With that said, here is the link to the article…