The Florida Keys is the birthplace of flats fishing and Key West is renowned for some of the best shallow water fishing in the world. Bonefish, tarpon, permit, Mutton snapper, barracuda and sharks of mammoth proportions prowl the emerald green waters of Key West and the fabled Marquesas keys. The latter is the only atoll in the entire Western Hemisphere.

Barbara Martin shows good form with a flats permit on 8# test line.

Here also was the home of more than 200 Spanish solders for two years while they salvaged the wreck of the Margarita and searched for the sunken and lost Atocha. Today we are still searching those waters for silver. Silver tails and silver sides, with telling shadows that belie the location of the silver king, Megalops Atlanticus, the mighty "Tarpon".

If you have never seen the form of a school of 100# tarpon silently gliding over a white sandy shoal in 4' of gin clear water, then you are missing one of the most memorable sites that God ever created.

The first time that this happens, I recommend you hold off on that first cast and savor the colors, the smell of the salt water and life. The moment will last forever. Another school will come by soon and you can make that first weak-kneed cast. While you are there, keep a keen eye out for the faintest of shadows. Usually you will not see the details of the body of the "Permit", until after the fish spooks.

Tarpon goes airborne in Key West

Key West offers the best all around permit and flats fishing in the world, as the record books will attest to. Though bonefish on the average are larger and more numerous in the upper keys, they are still plentiful in the back country of Key West. With the abundance of these fish in the lower keys, I believe that the best chance for a grand slam (a bonefish, permit, and tarpon in the same day) is right here in Key West.

The mutton snapper might well be the least known of the flats dwellers. If you think the permit is hard to see and spooks easily, then try your skills against the mutton. If you are lucky enough to get one then you may be on your way to the "Super Grand Slam". I will save the sharks for the "Shark Fishing" page.