The Pompano That Ate Key West

I have not seen in thirty+ years of fishing the Key West flats and back country so many Pompano.....mobs and lots of them are big fish.
When I came to the lower Keys in the late 60s the commercial Pompano net boats had just about wiped out the species.I knew a few of these guys and they were selling their nets and converting to bait fish or crawfishing.
I was in the Marquesas on the north side flats one time, fly fishing for Permit and Mutton Snapper and saw a Pompano net boat just about aground very close in.
As I watched him run his net circling a fish mud I witnessed half a dozen small Tarpon jump out and over the net.
When these guys realized this was not a school of Pompano they backed off,but not before killing several dozen baby tarpon.
Thank god and the state of Florida, inshore gill nets are a thing of the past and pretty
pompano have rebounded in the Florida Keys.........mike
www. chaserkeywest.com