What time should I arrive?

Arrive 15 minutes prior to your charter time at Perry Marina: 7001 Shrimp rd Key West FL 33040 to rig rods and review the plan.

Are licenses and gear provided?

Yes—rods, reels, lures, bait, ice, water and Florida fishing licenses are provided for up to five anglers.

How many people per trip?

The charter accommodates a maximum of 5 people.

Is catch cleaning included?

Yes—catch cleaning and filleting are included so you can bring fish to a restaurant to be cooked.

When is the best season for tarpon and permit?

Spring and summer typically push tarpon and permit into the shallower flats, while fall can produce aggressive snapper and cobia.

Full Day Inshore: Lower Keys Backcountry Fishing for Tarpon, Permit & Grouper

Q: What boat and electronics are used?

Trips run aboard a 2023 Pathfinder 2600 HPS with a 300HP Yamaha, GPS, fishfinder and a wireless trolling motor.

Full Day Inshore launches from Key West into the Lower Keys backcountry, a shifting geography of mangrove shorelines, basins, channel edges, hard‑bottom patches and wide seagrass flats that can sit hours from shore. Meeting point is Perry Marina: 7001 Shrimp rd Key West FL 33040, where Captain Brooks runs a 2023 Pathfinder 2600 HPS with a 300HP Yamaha, GPS, fishfinder and wireless trolling motor. An eight‑hour schedule gives this charter the decisive advantage: you fish an entire tide cycle—the incoming, the slack and the outgoing—and each stage wakes a different species.

This is the trip anglers name when they want targets that short runs miss. Tarpon shows, permit shots and Goliath grouper encounters are realistic with time to move and read the water. Work mangrove dropoffs, basin cuts and isolated flats for mutton snapper, cobia and large mangrove snapper, and expect opportunistic strikes from barracuda, jack crevalle and lemon sharks. The Lower Keys are defined by hard coral rubble and seagrass mosaics that concentrate bait and big fish; those geological seams are what make this water so productive.

Everything is provided for up to five anglers: rods and reels, lures and bait, ice and water, and Florida fishing licenses. The boat suite includes live well capacity and catch‑handling gear; catch cleaning and filleting are included so you can have dinner prepared by a local restaurant. Captain Brooks’s years of local experience steer the boat to spots that see almost no pressure—especially valuable in the middle of the day when other charters head home.

Practical details are straightforward: arrive 15 minutes early, expect an eight‑hour day on the water and plan for sun, spray and sudden wind. This trip is best for anglers who want a full tide’s worth of options and can stand long casts or extended fights from a stable, capable skiff. Families with younger kids should consider shorter options; the boat holds a maximum of five people.

Beyond fishing, the backcountry offers raw coastal ecology: thick mangrove fringe, white sandy cuts and scattered coral outcrops where seabirds hunt and sea turtles surface. Key West’s fishing heritage runs deep here; local captains have read these tides for generations. If you’re after a true inshore pursuit—where patient scouting, tide timing and local know‑how are decisive—the Full Day Inshore delivers hard-fought fish, remote scenery and a plate at the end of the day.

Seasonal windows matter: spring and summer push tarpon and permit into shallower flats while fall produces aggressive snapper and cobia. The boat’s electronics help locate key structure; the live well keeps bait fresh. For serious anglers who value time on fish and local expertise, this full day is the clearest route to memorable catches and backcountry solitude now.