Caught a few speckled sea trout,. We were targeting tarpon, but this season in the water temperature weren’t quite right yet so another time. The birds and the mangrove islands were beautiful and the channels and just the view in general was spectacular especially as a morning sunrise trip.

My April trip with Captain Sean Okeefe was a lifetime experience for me. I have had multiple trips fishing the back country but never experienced what I did with Sean. Sean is extremely knowledgable and shared information about the tides in the area, the winds we were experiencing and how to fight and land the fish when I did. The morning started out a little rough, there was wind and the water was pretty choppy, conditions weren’t great but after moving in to a different channel we hooked a tarpon that I would have never imagined, she hit and skated across the water about 10 times, she was huge. I / we finally got her to the boat after fighting her for about 45-50 minutes. Sean estimated she was 6’-7’ long and weighing between 125-140 lbs, she was a beast.

The pics I have attached aren’t as good as I would have liked but they tell the story.

Needless to say I will be fishing again next year with Sean, I suggest you book a trip with him as well.

We booked a full day with Captain Sean and I can’t even tell you how incredibly knowledgeable this man is . The only request we had was to be put on some tarpon and anything else would be gravy. After checking 2 spots on the third spot by 9:30 both my husband and myself had each caught a mid sized tarpon a piece. If you have never fought a tarpon this is the perfect size to start with to get a feel for how they fight and let me tell you tarpon are no joke. From there we went to another spot for the Mac daddy tarpon and we were not there a hot minute and we started the fight of our lives with a spectacular 100lb big boy . My husband and I are no spring chickens so I started the fight then passed him off to my husband. We had roughly a 40 minute to an hour fight when we finally got this big boy to the boat for some fantastic pictures and and unbeatable memory. From there Sean was more than happy to put us on more fish but this being our last activity and day in the keys and after that fight of our lives us old folks were pretty much done and more than satisfied. We told Sean we felt he absolutely earned his fee and we were fine to go in and he could do whatever he wanted for the rest of his day he still offered to take us to a nice beach to cool off so that’s what we did then from there we went in very happy campers. Thankx again Captain Sean you will absolutely be hearing from us again.

Had a great fishing trip with Captain Sean O’Keefe on February 5, 2021.  Captain Sean is very knowledgeable and patient.  I’m a novice fisherman, and spent four hours learning a ton about fly fishing and spinning rod fishing in the backwaters.  Sean was able to put me on the fish!

Murray Marine is about a $20 Uber ride from upper Duval Street.  Don’t let that fact dissuade you.  One of the advantages of leaving from Murray Marine is that you are fishing within 10-15 minutes from leaving the dock.

Highly recommend booking with Key West Backwater Fishing.  I’ll be back on my next trip to Key West.

Upon meeting Captain Sean he let us know about the possibility of bad weather. We chose to try and dodge the rain as there looked to be clear skies in a certain area. Sean had a game plan catered to the tide, weather and species of fish (Tarpon and Permit). We did see a few juvenile Tarpon, but didn’t really have a shot at catching them. About an hour into the trip the weather became in issue and we were forced to head back to the marina.

Overall captain Sean did everything in his power to get us on the fish. Sucks it had to be the one chance we’ve had to fish in the Keys but that’s the nature of scheduling a fishing trip in Florida. Would still recommend this charter as this was completely out of the guides control. He made it right by not charging his full rate.