It’s about 6:30 am, just as the sun is beginning to peek over the horizon and Capt. Labadie is charging ahead to the crew’s first destination. Since tarpon are the easiest of the three to catch in low light conditions, this is where Labadie opts to start. Rowland and Tudor remark that they were somewhat surprised at first by the guide’s choice to fish right in front of the coastline resorts and houses. On a day that they were purely targeting tarpon, the Saltwater Experience hosts would tend to go somewhere a little more remote. Labadie chose this spot because he knew the fish would be there, but, more importantly, it was on the way to their other targets, eliminating the need to backtrack later and burn up precious time. Read more on Waypoint…

S15:E2 - “Key West Birthday Slam” (2020)

Captains Tom Rowand and Rich Tudor are joined by Key West guide Nick LaBadie.

Daniel Andrews of Captains for Clean Water discusses the state of the Everglades with Tom Rowland and Rich Tudor on Saltwater Experience Television show. As seen on the Discovery Channel, Waypoint and Sportsman Channel.

S13:E11 - “Thunderbolt Permit” (2018)

Tom & Rich hit the USS Thunderbolt wreck in the Middle Keys hoping to find schools of willing Permit

We met Jeff with our film entourage at the marker outside of Safety Harbor.  From there, Jeff took us to a place to catch bait and baby tarpon.  Soon, we had caught both and were at the Long Key Bridge catching a few more Tarpon, Yellow Jacks and Giant Jack Crevalle. (See that episode by clicking here)

I guess I can answer that in two ways.  My absolute favorite is the Permit.  They are in my opinion, the top gamefish and the one I find...

Fishing out of Islamorada in August can be very good.  Generally the weather pattern calls for very calm days and slick conditions.  Often, the Everglades can hold some incredible fishing for tailing redfish...

There are some things that you can do to help preserve the life of each crab and make them last a lot longer.  Here are 5 tips to making your crabs last longer:

1. Be careful how you hook them. 

We get lots of questions about the right rod, reel, line, knots, hooks and baits, etc... for Permit. 

I put this video together to answer all these questions and more. 

However...if you have any additional questions and you want an answer from me personally....

March is an excellent month for fishing the Keys.  The entire 150 mile chain of the Florida Keys offers the possibility for a Slam just about any month of the year if you are with the right guide.  This being said, the fish can vary drastically in size from one season to another.  March will give you the opportunity at very large tarpon, big bones and big permit.  I believe that March is one of the best months of the year to target a Slam with really nice fish of each specie.

Key West is the best place for permit.  We fish for permit both inshore and offshore so I will suggest guides for both...

It is hard to put a blanket statement out there about exactly what to do when fly fishing for permit because so much of what is done is based on the behavior of the fish...

Flyfishing for permit is difficult not because the fish are terribly difficult to catch rather that our flies and techniques do not accurately represent what they want to eat.  Permit look at a dead crab the same as they look at a fly.  The profile is interesting but not really what they had in mind.  Flies need to have action resembling the real crabs and until they do, it is my opinion that they will remain exceptionally difficult to catch on fly.

There are many ways and methods that we can use to catch permit.  In order to be successful in catching permit under all conditions anglers need to have mastered many skills with different types of tackle...