Curious as to what specifically makes fishing tarpon in the keys so much more difficult than other less pressured places, like Belize or Mexico. For clarification, I’m not looking for the answer “they are more pressured”. I’m looking for specific techniques and challenges that make it difficult to hook up with one. Is it longer casts? The retrieves? Lighter tippet for bigger fish?
Since the obvious answer is not allowed - lol, I’ll take the long way around. My knowledge is somewhat dated and needs the dust blown off of it, so by all means add more, folks…
Not helpful:
- Too many shallow-skiff owners who care more about cutting more speaker holes in their boat and burning the across flats on their way to the Sand Bar - than enjoying the quiet beauty of a day, fishing the flats.
- Too many unskilled guides who thought it would be cool to fish for a living - How hard could it be? Why don’t I have my own TV show yet?
- Too many jet skis (too many jet ski people)
- Too many spooky fish that have already seen a fly just like yours, casted poorly at them hundreds of times before.
- Hull slap
- Noisy trolling motors
Helpful:
- Everyone on the boat needs to talk, move, step and open/close hatches as softly and quietly as Grasshopper moved across the rice paper without tearing it in the TV show Kung Fu in the early '70s
- The guy on the poling platform matters A LOT. A skilled one has a sense of where the best vantage point is for the fisherman to make a precise cast without spooking the fish.
- The fly caster should be able to make a long, deliberate, accurate cast in seconds with minimal false casts (know how to load the line on your back-cast and double-haul)
- Always be the courteous and respectful guest in nature. Enjoy it and leave it in as good or better condition as it was before you arrived.
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The kind of answer I’m looking for! Thanks man.
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@Skiffadee-Doodah had a killer answer. If you extrapolate that across the US and compare it to other places the obvious pressure answer ends up being huge. But I think you can also look at pressure in a variety of ways and it can honestly change how I fish certain fish day to day and in different locales.
This is very general - so take it with a grain of salt - but something to consider.
Keys fish get a balance of pressure between anglers and pleasure/other commercial boaters.
Fish around Boca Grande experience a ton of angling pressure but not as much pleasure boating traffic.
Fish around Tampa get a ton of pleasure boating traffic but not as much angling pressure as the keys or Boca Grande.
Somewhere like Belize might really not get much of either.
After you get off the pressure thing… you can target tarpon in a few different kinds of places.
Clean water vs. Dirty water
Shallow vs. Deep
around current vs. not much current
laid up vs. cruising
Migratory vs. resident fish
combine those factors together based on what you’re seeing and it’ll dictate how you should fish them.
Compare migratory fish in the keys vs Belize (I wish i knew more about the Belize fish honestly) They are both often shallow and in clean water when targeted. What else is different? The keys fish are in shallow, clean water for essentially their entire stay in the keys. Even the long key bridge isn’t that deep. They don’t get much of a respite besides a few canals, bridges (where they get fished heavily), and the glades. They can get a commercial boat dinner at basically any marina from Key West to Key Largo. This makes them more likely to be extremely sensitive to what is going on around them. Is that the case in Belize? If they spend more time in deep water or have to find a meal the more natural way more often then I’d wager their behavior will be much much different.
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The answer is simply massive pressure on the fishery. What that means is the fish you are throwing to has been cast to every day since it got there, and usually thrown to before yiu throw to it. When you see the fish there during the day they aren’t swimming to feed, they feed at night, so yiu really have to “feed the fish”. Being able to see the fish well, cast accurately(oftentimes into wind), see your fly in the water in relation to the fish are all key to making it happen. Having a f8shing partner with great eyes and above average poling ability really helps too. I spend a lot of time on the hook, but I rarely cast with the anchor line tight. What I mean is if you are on the front and im on the back, when I see the fish I am either gonna have you disconnect anchor or pole while on anchor to get you the best possible angle and shot opportunity. Sure yiu can still catch some fish early in the morning or in dirtier water with 2/0s, but most successful flies during the day in the keys are 1/0, 1 or even 2. That makes it even harder to see the fky in the water. Maybevi am a masochist but I thoroughly enjoy the challenge. If you can catch migratory tarpon in the keys, you can catch tarpon anywhere in the world.
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@Skiffadee-Doodah nailed it. I’ve been reading books and watching the older mill house podcasts, focusing on the older generation, and the one constant is how awesome the fishery was. 1000s of fish and no people. Fish would eat anything you threw at em, they weren’t spooky ect.. I watched “Tarpon” the other day, and biggest takeaway for me was, water clarity/quality and lack of traffic. Even Andy himself mentions and asks the guests about having to “feed” the fish vs just throwing it a fly.
Read “lord of the fly” or any watch the mill house podcasts, with Evans, Pallot, Dopioak, Huff, Chico ect..and you’ll get of sense of what it was vs what it is. It’s honestly heartbreaking.
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The actual area of Florida Bay presents a problem for tarpon anglers since the fish follow the same routes year after year and the best place to present a fly or lure are what I’ll call choke points that are pretty well known… Add to that the waters there are crystal clear and the fish can actually see you before you see them at times… and that in itself makes the fishing tough. There’s hardly a “secret spot” anywhere, and the best spots are few in number. Years and years ago the big fish might go miles between anglers waiting for their shot and if you encountered them they might be very receptive to a well placed fly… That’s just not the case these days (and every year it gets tougher). That’s also why you won’t find me in the Keys chasing tarpon - instead I’m up in the backcountry of the Everglades where there’s miles and miles of creeks, rivers, bays, and oceanside shorelines all with relatively dark waters - where you’ll hardly ever see another skiff (as long as it’s not Saturday..).
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Water in the Keys has a high residual content of pharmaceuticals, and I’m guessing there’s also some residual square grouper too.
GOOGLE AI
“Research confirms the widespread presence of pharmaceutical traces in the waters of the Florida Keys. This is a significant issue because these contaminants can impact marine life and potentially pose risks to the ecosystem.”
If we find out the right mix of uppers and downers the fish might start acting like nobody lives there again.
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Adult tarpon are old fish. They have been around a long time and have seen every fly in the book. You can try and take some long winded edge around the answer. But sorry OP. Its pressure.
But when the stars align and you find that fish that is a willing participant there is nothing better in the fly fishing world. Just know going in that its a very tough game.
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People.
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The reality is they are more pressured. No way to sugarcoat it. They are easier to get to for an angler than the more exotic locations like Belize, Costa Rica, etc. and there are a hundred plus miles of Keys to fish with Key West, Big Pine, Islamorada, and Key Largo. And because they are easy to get to (you can fly or drive there), you have anglers from inexperienced to experienced throwing flies at them all the way up and down the Keys. The show Silver Kings just upped the popularity so a ton of out of town guides decided to make the big bucks in the Keys during poon season. And if a new hot fly appears and word gets out (think Andy Mill and the Toad which won him a number of tournaments until Pat Ford spilled the beans and everyone fished it till the fish wised up), everyone starts throwing them and they become far less effective.
It seems like you are looking for some magic secret answer so that you can go out and hook 10 fish in a day and land 8. Not going to happen unless you are already a superb caster and angler.
The real secret is to practice your casts a lot, especially with the wind in any and all directions, and put in a lot of days on the water. I used to practice casting 5-7 days a week, with rarely a week off. No other way around it. I was lucky enough to fish the tail end of the “easy era” where tarpon would go 3 feet out of their way to grab your 3/0 Black Death in the late 90s, and I fished every year in prime tarpon season (May) until the 2020’s. As the game got harder, my game naturally progressed so I continued to catch them…it’s harder for newbies now because it’s easy to get discouraged when you don’t catch fish, and it’s not a confidence builder, either.
The silver lining here, is if you can get good at feeding ocean side tarpon in the Keys, you can catch them anywhere. I fish other places for tarpon besides the Keys and I think it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. I find it ridiculously easy to feed tarpon everywhere else.
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Pressure = more people, more boats, jet skis, cruise ships, water quality, less food source, higher water temps, less oxygen in the water
All of those things make a fish on edge and will change their behavior.
I’ve personally witnessed this in a part of Belize I loved to fish 10 to 15 years ago. Now I won’t go fish that area. I went 3 years ago and saw how the fish had changed. Boats running over the flats, taking short cuts, and not doing the hard work that long time guides were doing. Boats jumping in front of another, cutting in line. When I started going, I could see fish on the white sand 200 feet out, working their line. Fly fishing for tarpon over white sand is unbelievable. Those fish now turn around at 200 feet. Not all of them, but most sense the boat and are on edge. And they are moving a lot faster than they used to. They know the game. A fresh one might come in and get caught from time to time, but it definitely isn’t like it was.
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Not looking for a magic answer, was actually looking for breakdowns of specific fundamentals to work on. What are realistic tarpon situations to practice your cast for? Forehand and backhand casts at the mid to long distances?
A frequently overlooked distance is the very, very short distance. Sometimes the tarpon will appear 5-10’ from the boat. Be able to cast (more like flip) a fly very quickly and accurately. I’ve had eats literally 4 feet from me doing this. Set up strings of fish to cast at by using PVC tubing cut to 4 ft lengths. Practice getting the fly in front of the 2nd, 3rd or 4th fish and not the first one. Be very critical of how well you do this. Don’t “line” the gap between your PVC fish, and try to get just the leader on the tail of the leading fish. Move the PVC tubes around to different approach angles and distances. If it’s a windy day make it a point to go out there and practice. Understand how fast tarpon swim so you learn to judge how far to lead them. Unfortunately some things you will need hard earned knowledge on a boat - for example, knowing which way the water current is going - is it going to swing your fly away or towards the fish? Is the wind drifting the boat towards the fish which means you need to strip faster to achieve the same speed? Some of this you will need to experience, learn and internalize so it’s automatic and that only comes with a lot of seat time. There are times I forget which way the current is flowing and screw up my retrieve.
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@MariettaMike good point, maybe this new fly pattern will do the trick..
I know in actuality it’s not funny, but I couldn’t resist.
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You need to be able to cast in the wind….a lot of wind. Practice loading the rod in a much higher angle. For example, come down in a much more aggressive angle from a higher back cast. Let the wind load the rod. Back cast, over head back cast….list kinda goes on and on. Perfect the roly poly retrieve….be smooth. Make your transition smooth from casting to retrieval, that’s a big one….have fun.
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