Key West Fishing Report
Get Lost –
It was just another Wednesday here in the Florida Keys. I woke up, looked outside at the bright baby blue sky and it shined back down on me and said, go get lost in the day. I hopped in the car and took a drive as far as I could into the Lower Keys backcountry and followed the unpaved road until it ended.
Excited for the day I jumped out of the truck, grabbed my fly rod and took an overgrown mangrove trail for miles into the woods climbing over branches and trees that Hurricane Irma left in her wake. Along the way I found a small mosquito ditch probably about the size of a kids plastic swimming pool. I snuck through the bushes and to my surprise there were at least twenty of the smallest tarpon I have ever seen ranging from four inches to a little over a foot long. It was a magical moment for me to look down at these baby tarpon and wonder where they will be in fifty years. What oceans they will cross and places they will visit along their long journey into adulthood. I have read a lot of text and tried to study the tarpons life cycle including their larvae stages and spawning habits. But to physically see a group of tarpon this small and flourishing in their natural habitat was incredible. I have seen this a couple times before deep in the Mosquito Lagoon area and once kayaking deep in the everglades but never in the Florida Keys.
I am not a radical environmentalist by any means but I do truly appreciate Mother Nature and try my best to show to my friends the amazing things that are taking place in this world out of cell phone range and far away from the sounds of cars buzzing by. Do yourself a favor and the next beautiful day you have off and go get lost in the world. You wont regret it.
Key West Fishing Charters
with Capt. Nick LaBadie
