Bonefish, Permit and Tarpon Voracious After Weather
How bad weather has a good influence on these fish - By Captain Tom Rowland

The weather radio crackled as the voice announced that there would be a mandatory evacuation starting in 24 hours. In addition to the radio, I was monitoring Hurricane Georges on the Internet, the Weather Channel and the local News station. There was no doubt that this storm was going to hit South Florida and it was going to be a big one. Work began immediately as my friend, Doug Kilpatrick helped me ready my house for the storm and I did the same for him. 

I packed my family, my fishing tackle and my skiff and we headed for a safer place to spend the next 72 hours. After driving to the west coast of Florida and realizing that the recent change of the storms track was bringing it right to where we were, we drove back across the state of Florida and resided at Doug’s parent’s house in West Palm Beach.

Doug and I stayed by the Weather Channel and watched a monster invade our homes, property and our beloved fishing grounds. Both of us had been fishing hard until the last minute and noticed the fish behavior change. It had been almost 100 years since a hurricane had struck the Key West area so neither of us had any experience with what it would do to our fishing. While watching the weather, we posed the worst-case scenarios and hoped for the best. We returned to see the Keys ravaged and beaten. As I drove south I looked over my bonefish, permit and tarpon spots from the bridges and I could hardly recognize the places that days before I would have bet you that I could find a specific sponge hidden among the turtle grass.

My house survived well and soon everything was cleaned up and I was ready to go back to work. As luck would have it, my customer for the upcoming week, Joe Scuderi, was a Keys resident and possessed a Hurricane Pass that would allow him to travel throughout the Keys. Joe was hell bent on  catching a permit on fly and, I could not wait to get out there myself. Beginning at Sugarloaf, we carefully navigated downed trees and trailer home wreckage. Everywhere we went we encountered muddy water until we reached the Marquesa Keys. The inside of the atoll is filled with the healthiest and most extensive turtle grass beds anywhere in the Florida Keys. These vast acres act as a filter and had managed to keep the water clear. On the outgoing tide, the clear water was pushed out to the outside and a crystal halo surrounded the islands.

I had no idea what to expect as we began poling on the flats that had once been so productive. To my immediate surprise, we began seeing a few permit tailing and cruising. These permit were eating ravenously. They would tail and blow huge geysers of water visible from 100 yards. We saw permit aggressively following rays eating everything that they saw. Joe and I had a great time with those permit and he managed to catch 4 of them on fly. I will never forget those days because I had been so surprised at the fish behavior following such an intense weather event. These fish looked possessed as they ripped into the bottom excavating crabs and other crustaceans. I remember thinking, “How could fishing get any better than this?”

This year in the Florida Keys (article written in 2001, ed), we have been suffering from different weather problems than a hurricane. From the last week in November to the last week of January, the fishing was nonexistent. The mercury plummeted to unheard of levels, the wind blew 25 mph constantly and the sky was full of clouds. I have never seen bad weather last so long.

When that stretch of weather broke, we experienced the nicest conditions that can be dished out. We were anxious  to get back out there as anglers and the fish were equally as excited to get back up on the flat and feed. We went from record lows in the temperature to record high numbers of tarpon in the air. The fish were acting like they are supposed to in May with numbers exceeding that of what is referred to as “Tarpon Season”. Not only the tarpon responded, the permit fishing was unprecedented. One of my anglers, Maurice Smith, landed 3 permit in a little over an hour on fly and broke off 2 others that day. Maurice finished off the week with 6 permit on fly. Bonefishing was outrageous and stories of really large fish and really high numbers began circulating.

This tarpon season, we are trudging through a tough series of meteorological patterns that simply won’t allow good fishing to be had. Anglers who have had this time booked for years are scratching their heads wondering how the most consistent weeks of the year can turn out to be a wash.

What I am realizing as someone who is out there everyday is that the weather is the most important factor in this kind of fishing. If the weather cooperates then so do the fish, usually. What I can draw from my experiences this year is that if the weather is consistently good for long stretches at a time, the fishing will be good but not truly exceptional. To get the days that are magical, where everything is eating everything else and shots of every species are coming from every angle, the system needs to experience a weather event that displaces the fish. A bad cold front, a hurricane, a tropical depression can all cause the fish to vacate the flat and seek deeper, more consistent water. When the weather returns to prime conditions, the fish are aggressive and prolific.

So, while you are experiencing the 20-degree temperature drop, the hurricane or sideways rain, rest assured that the fishing will be red hot after it clears up. If the weather was consistently perfect, I am afraid that the fish would become so educated and consistent that we might never catch them. Even though it is hard to swallow, I welcome the serious weather and enjoy paying my dues because I know that I will soon reap the rewards of staying positive and fishing hard. We will never experience the truly magnificent days unless Mother Nature dishes out the truly nasty ones.

Hopefully you will experience more magnificent than nasty.