What a great week for the flats, permit are everywhere, tarpon are laying up, and bonefish are feeding hard. While we have had inconsistent wind speeds, the fish have yet to skip a beat. Despite the few gusty days we received the water remained gin clear in the areas that mattered, seeing that lets you know everything is working as it should. The calm days allowed for epic fishing, spring is here and it is currently a great time for the inshore flats slam.

Permit love the warming trend we have received, and the groups of threes and fives I am seeing tell me they are continuing their pre spawn flats activity. It is tough to say when they will all move out to spawn this year, but I see no sign of them deciding to yet. I would say we still have some great permit sight fishing to be had for a bit more to come. They are currently crushing blue crabs right now, and if you are throwing fly, look for those head on shots because they all seem to be moving fast.

Many have spotted tarpon in our backcountry basins, while most are still sticking to some of the more overlooked channels. I have found the more explosive bite to be on our windier days. While the calmer days allowed for them to be a bit more selective. It appears that the tarpon migration has started; I have certainly seen an increase in the amount of adult tarpon this week. My permit addiction has kept me away from the western half of the Lower Keys and I have yet to hear any reports from the Marquesas. I am sure it is crawling with tarpon out there by now.

Bonefish are happy on the flats right now and I have found many of them feeding in isolated areas, in large numbers. Thank the heavens for the shrimp when it comes to these guys. This week I witnessed a spooked bonefish turn around for a well placed bait, they sometimes just can’t pass that shrimp up. Bonefish are great, they provide plenty of action between the tarpon and permit during this time of year. . .

Courtesy of Captain Luke Kelly from The Weekly Fisherman