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home from the keys

2K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  JONESY 
#1 ·
Hello,

Just returned from the keys. Tried my hand at bonefishing the flats with no hookups. Fished Bahia Honda, beautiful area, the flats were very easy to wade. Had some action with jacks and blue runners. The wind was howling and the water was cool. On the not so windy days 15-20 we went out to the patches (7 miles out) in a boat and fished for yellowtail snappers. We did very well fishing and the attractions were better than going to Sea World. We saw so many species of fish and mammals it was unbelievable. Bottle nose dolphins, loggerhead turtles, hammerhead sharks, cobia, grouper, king mackeral, etc. etc , etc. The fishing was fantastic. Can't wait to go back.

Jim
 
#3 ·
Jonsey,
Sounds like you had a good time down there last week. I only managed to sneak out a couple of times for an hour or two and didn't do any flats fishing.

I rented a Kayak at Bahia Honda. Don't know what day(s) you were there but I was there on Wednesday the 16th. Anyways, I fished the pylons and pretty much had all the lookdown jacks I wanted. Was after something with a bit bigger but I couldn't seem to keep the Jacks off of my fly. Oh well it was fun…although an 8 wt was a bit of overkill. At one point my wife was up on the walkway looking down and watching me fish and she said that there were couple of very large fish that crashed the school of jacks. I didn't even notice. She said that they were maybe 6 feet long…(sharks)?

I also rented a Kayak at John Pennecamp and explored some mangrove creeks and ran into a school of maybe 15 baby Tarpon that passed within feet of the Kayak. I say "babies" but they all looked to be 20 - 30 lbers. I cast to them but I imagine that there was no way I was hooking any of them…they were well aware of my presence. Just as well as I didn't have much maneuvering room in between the overhanging mangroves. It would have been a joke if I did actually hook any of those fish. Real cool experience though and one that I did not expect.

I agree that the keys are a very fishy place. We went out to the reefs a couple of times on snorkeling trips and on the way out and back we routinely saw various fish crashing bait. Also saw many Bottlenose and had the pleasure of snorkeling in close quarters with maybe 40 or so Cuda at Looe Key Reef...some of which were 5 footers. I'll have to get down there again sometime on a true fishing trip.

Glad to hear you had a good experience as well.

tight lines
 
#5 ·
DMAS,
I was on my way home on the 16th. I heard some kids saying they say tarpon from the walkway. Skorkeling sounds like great fun! Saw a show last night on the building of the railroad to Key West By Flagler what a great accomplishment. Glad to here you had a good time. Spring will be here soon!!
Jim
 
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