Capt Bob LeMay

Yep, winter is almost here.... Out in the 'Glades it's still the usual snook, trout and reds - with the possibility of a big tarpon as long as it stays mild (nights now are just beginning to drop into the high sixties -days in the low eighties). My best indicator of good winter fishing, though, are the night triips in Biscayne Bay where we tangle with tarpon in the 20 to 40lb range. On our first trip a week ago we got four bites and put two 20 to 25lb fish in the air. I came off the water that night at about 4Am since the outgoing didn't start until well after 10pm.... All that's needed for a decent night on the water is a falling tide and we're in business. Nights will be a bit slow until the shrimp run starts in a few weeks (not even the shrimpers can tell you exactly when....). Once a few shrimp start to show things will be as good as it gets with small tarpon right at the surface for sight-fishing with 8 or 9wt rods. The night scene will go full bore all the way through April. The only thing that hinders us are day trips since days and nights conflict. Such a problem...... The pics show the fly we use the most, called the Night Fly (what else?), it's just a small white tarpon fly on a 1/0 or 2/0 hook (either an old Mustad 7766 or an Owner Aki). The angler shots aren't from this year -they're from my library.... Last week I was too busy to reach for the camera when we were hooked up.... Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Wonder if he can do a manatee fly?

I fish in salt, brackish, and freshwaters (the Everglades is an amazing place) and the only thing I ever use to clean my lines (or my customer's lines) is the Scientific Angler's cleaning pad. If we're on the water and one of my angler's lines aren't shooting properly (dirty, sticky, etc) then we just use the pad right then -no matter whether we're in salt water or not... I have my angler strip out the entire line into the water then I briskly clean it up and down using medium pressure and the coarse side of the cleaning pad. Once the line is clean I work it through my polishing cloth back and forth until the line feels new again (my polishing cloth is the end of an old white cotton sock that has a fair amount of residue from the Scientific Anglers line dressing) and we're good to go for an entire day. One of the best fly anglers around, Chico Fernandez advocates doing this twice a day on the water but I rarely take the time... After a day or two on the water (or the first time I have the opportunity if we're going continuously...) every fly rod that's been used gets the line stripped off down to the backing and thorough freshwater rinse (everything, rod, reel, line) and while wet the line gets the scrubbing with the pad, then a tiny drop of line dressing on the polishing cloth is used to restore the line to new condition. When the line is done it's wound back on the reel (which is still wet from the freshwater rinse, the drag on the reel is backed down to zero -then the rod is stood up with all the others (I keep six or seven ready to go from a 7wt on up) and allowed to dry without the reel cover in place. The reel cover only goes back on when the rod has dried for at least one day... I make a point of never using any type of detergent or soap on my fly lines (or on any fly reel) since they degrade the plastic coating on the line and will actually remove the lubricants from that expensive fly reel... (ask me how I know....). Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

I'm fond of sliders for working tangled shorelines in the brackish Everglades when poppers are just too noisy... All I do is mount a Perfect Popper head (the foam one 0 not the hard head) backwards on the hook shank, then tie in the tail and collar. I'll try to get a pic to add to this later today if I have the time....

Here's the retail side of an outfit that does all my jigheads .... lurepartsonline.com I've had great results from them ordering by the 100 or the 1000... If you contact them directly they may be able to do almost any jig you can imagine with the exact hooks you want. If they don't have it -they'll make it but you'll see substantial additional costs for proto types and items that require a new mold as part of their production.. Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Finally a day ont the water with a fly angler.... the first day in this report was fly fishing the next two were spinfishing.... We did three days out of Flamingo this week, one on fly -the remainder featured light spinning rods using lures and bait. We're right at the beginning of the fall trout season and the first fat speckled trout are beginning to show up now. Find a feeding lane and you can catch them until you get tired.... Most are in river mouths but a few are already up in Whitewater Bay. There will be more and more in coming weeks -and they'll be a staple all winter long... The big snook along the coast have quietly disappeared leaving the small ones to bite our lures. I'm pretty sure the big girls are moving up inside and are somewhere between the coast and the interior but it will have to get cold before they really establish in one particular area in a week or two. In the meantime there are some very nice redfish still out on the coast. At one spot we caught and released a half dozen slot sized fish up to nearly 27" in length - two of the smallest ones were invited home for dinner... There are still a few big tarpon around but you have to look hard to find them. We've had a shot or two at them but no hookups. Here's a few pics of our days on the water.... this trout ate a small fly after we chummed a bit with small white baits. For about an hour every cast was a hookup or a missed opportunity. The fish were trout, mackeral, jacks, ladyfish, and some surprisingly large mangrove snapper... these snappers were as hungry as piranha and really hammered the fly... Here's young Toby Castillo with his first redfish of the day... the reds that day wanted small finger mullet and nothing else would do. We kept the two smallest for the table and released the big ones. Here's his dad's biggest fish, local angler Armando Castillo hooked this fish on a light rod with only 10lb line and it was released after a quick photo. here's Toby's biggest redfish... He's an accomplished angler for his age... The weather has remained relatively warm but we've had our share of "cold fronts" that only seem to bring high winds. We'll have more of the same later this week. Until the weather turns a bit colder and stays that way the fish won't settle down into late fall/winter patterns. In the meantime every day will be a hunt as well as a fishing trip. Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

I'll have to look on my skiff to see what brand of wading boots are on board. I'm much more concerned with how well they protect my feet than any brand info. I rarely do any wading (where I am most days there are just too many sharks and since the water is tinted brown you can't see them until they're far too close...). Those boots on board my skiff are there for the occasions when I have to get out and push my skiff after an un-planned grounding. Nothing like running aground on a falling tide with anglers aboard to give you some incentive. By the way, for those worried about getting hit by a small stingray, it's a very valid concern since it will ruin your day. Many times your boots won't protect you since the animals strike will hit you in the ankle or higher.... I want the boots to protect my feet against oysters, barnacles and other sharp items embedded in the mud so I choose them with substantial soles and good protection around the edges of my feet.... The Everglades, whether you're in the freshwater or saltwater areas can be very un-forgiving if you don't take precautions. Dug them out - they're from Shimano, with side zippers and heavy soles... Now for another concern that anyone wading in warm southern wates should always keep in mind. If you ever have the slightest break in the skin that results in any kind of infection from wading.... don't treat it lightly. If it shows any signs of growth get to your doctor or nearest emergency room and specifically ask them to check it for "vibrio" (the short name for a common bacteria that exists in all warm salt or brackish waters). If it is vibrio and it's treated promptly you won't have a problem at all. If it's vibrio and not treated for a few days you could end up in really, really bad shape. Google up "vibrio infections" if you want to read all the gory details. It's one of those things the press likes to call "flesh eating bacteria"..... Welcome to my world. Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Another great option is a simple 13' Gheenoe.... they're very popular here in Florida.

I tried a variety of superglues over the years -as well as different applicators... I never found anything as useful as the original Krazy Glue in the small plastic tube. To keep from appying more than you want just squeeze the tube lightly until a trace of the glue shows - then apply as needed. I know that saltwater tyers work on much larger flies but I'm still able to add just a touch to bonefish flies, etc. I use that same applicator as small paint brush when sealing thread heads with the glue before painting eyes in place... Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

I've been tying commercially since 1979 (and for some time filled orders for three different shops... these days I've cut way back and only tie for one shop when I can (I'm also a full time guide, luremaker, tackle repair guy, and write magazine articles--- I try to keep busy....). The way I started out all those years ago was to go to my local fly shop with a few samples and ask if they needed any flies... Those first few orders were a dozen here and a dozen there. Whenever I was asked to do something that I wasn't already tying I'd ask for a sample and very carefully save it (some of my best stuff came that way...). Initially I bought my materials from whatever shop I was tying for but soon enough I started contacting wholesale suppliers and buying my own materials. At that point you're going to need a business license and a tax number for your state. Those two items are the first things wholesalers will ask for before dealing with you usually. Once you're up and tying, properly licensed and collecting and paying sales tax (if you're selling retail...) then the next step is to begin paying excise tax on your production. That's a bit complicated but the form you'll need is form 720, most of the time you'll be paying excise quarterly (the excise tax is 10% on any sportfishing gear you make and it's based on the first point of sale... Hard to believe that all of it started with an order for a dozen bugs (that first customer, a shop owner back then), has become one of the premier guides in the Keys over the years and was a regular on the Walker Key Chronicles when it ran on TV - they called him Dozer but his correct name is Capt John Donnell... Tight LInes Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

I don't (at least not yet....) make any videos at all - but I do quite a bit of fly photography and have had some of it published with articles I write. All I ever use are the inexpensive foam sheets you can buy in any craft store (and I have seven or eight colors to choose from...). Here's a sample.. forget the fly or subject matter -just look at the background.... Frequently I'll shoot the same item with two or three different backgrounds to see what has the best contrast for the purpose... Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

I use an improved Homer Rhode knot (the improvement is only at the first knot you tie - instead of a simple overhand, add a second turn to make it a surgeon's knot then pass your short end through it twice to create a two turn slip knot -then finish with the same second overhand knot you're currently using before pulling on the long end to make them jam together -the improved version is a bit stronger than the standard Homer Rhode...) or a simple five turn clinch knot with the fluoro. You can't get fancy at all with heavy fluoro since the stuff is stiffer than mono and in heavy sizes won't cinch down properly if you go above five turns.... The funny thing is that many of my best known tarpon patterns were originally designed to be snelled since that's what was in favor back when I developed them (mid eighties). Even with flies designed for snelling I much prefer the two knots mentioned.... For baby tarpon, though, I do without any kind of shock or bite tippet at all -using a 20lb fluoro "Poor boy" instead (a four foot length of straight 20lb fluoro looped to a four or five foot mono butt section of 40lb permanently attached to the fly line. We'll be using that rig on Friday in one or two small interior bays down at Flamingo. Yes, you lose a few fish but without any shocker you get a lot more bites with small flies or bugs...

Here's an additional tip or two to make your spinning work better for you. First off, deer hair spins nicely - but deer belly hair spins better.... I learned to use an amount that's just about the size of a wood pencil for each bundle of hair... It's also helpful to shorten the bundle a bit by clipping off the tips, leaving an amount of hair that's already just a bit larger than how you'll want it after it's trimmed. Lastly I take each bundle of hair (of whatever kind you're spinning with) and very carefully comb out the butt end to remove any fine underfur that might slow down the flaring and spinning process. Good luck. If I'm any indicator everyone's first efforts with spinning hair are going to leave a lot to be desired. Spinning, then trimming and razoring a deer hair head takes some practice.... To this day I won't take any orders for deer hair patterns - it just takes me too long to do quality work with the stuff.... Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

sand... I've run into one or two with that requirement but most realize that tyers are rarely shop owners as well....

Just posted something of interest on the Beginner board about fluoro leaders... http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=72059&page=2 Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

As a guide who works in the salt I use a quite a bit of fluorocarbon leader material, preferring Seaguar or Ande (the Ande is very good and you get more per spool than with Seaguar so it's probably the better value...). When I need much heavier tippet material (60lb on up) then the Seaguar is better than anything I've found. I don't use Fluoro for it's claimed transparency in water - I use it because it's a bit more abrasion resistant when used for shock tippets... A word of caution here... there's lots of fishing line that's labeled as "fluorocarbon, or son of fluorocarbon, or possibly fluorocarbon" (pretty quickly you get the idea that this is just marketing stuff - which sounds better than outright lying...). Now for some reality.... I avoid fluorocarbon marketed for fly fishing like the plague (but still see and handle quite a bit of high end name brand stuff that my anglers bring). In general the stuff marketed for fly fishing is smaller diameter and generally actually poorer quality than the two brands I've already named... In fact I generally figure that if stuff labeled for fly fishing is designated as "80lb" it's the equivalent of the Seaguar 60lb in actual diameter and real world (tarpon are very hard on leaders...) performance... A few words of caution are in order here.... One thing is certain, fluoro has different knot characteristics than mono so you have to be careful when splicing the two together and careful as well about any terminal knots since the stuff is noticeably stiffer than ordinary mono..... I use fluoro in two ways -the most common is as a bite tippet for fly leaders and as plain leader material when used with spin or plug casting gear. I always do my best not to use any more of it than is necessary (for general applications as a leader for conventional gear I'm only using a two to three foot section spliced to a three foot doubled line). For fly applications as shock tippet (or bite tippet) I keep it to the regulation 12" (including knots to be in compliance with IGFA record rules). Here's the second (and much more common usage)I have for fluoro in fly leaders -that's as a "poor boy" leader with a length of fluoro usually about four feet long looped to a mono butt section that's permanently attached to the fly line (those leader butts break down to four feet of 40lb for an 8 or 9wt line, and get progressively heavier and longer as you go to larger line sizes.... five feet of 50lb for a 10wt... six feet of 60lb for an 11 or 12wt.... The poor boy is nothing but straight leader material with no shock tippet at all, usually 20lb fluoro, occasionally 30lb... This is a very general system for almost anything that swims when you either don't want to use a shock tippet (or can't, popping bugs don't perform well with shock tippets at all....). The combination of a heavy mono butt section, and quick change (loop to loop) lighter straight fluoro tippet has great utility, and we catch many, many fish with it each day (including small tarpon up to about 20lbs). You have to cut it back after almost every fish since you're not using a bite (or shock) tippet but it's really effective. Lastly fluro has one other characteristic that makes it very desirable as tippet for the salt... Unlike mono, fluoro will quickly lose any kinks or curls when stretched tight just before use. As a result most that I know long ago quit using any fly leader stretchers at all.... Here's a pic of a pair of tarpon leaders just before they're cut into individual tarpon leaders and stretched out... The breaking strenth is Mason hard mono the shock tippet is 80lb fluoro and these leaders are meant for the biggest tarpon around.... Tight lines Bob LeMay (954)435-5666

Many retail catalogue outfits are also wholesalers, add Cascade Crest to your outfits you want to do business with... When you contact them they're going to want a copy of your business license, tax certificate number (if a US tyer/manufacturer, etc.) and a few other details about your credit references. Good luck, I made the switch to full bore commercial tying (both flies and jigs) quite a few years ago now. The relationships you forge with your wholesalers will be critical to your success.... Good Luck! Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Some of my best patterns years ago were attempts to translate what worked in lures to flies... In salt there are even well known patterns named after the lures they were trying to match (the Mirrolure fly is an example). That transference works both ways. Bob Clouser's famous Deep Minnow has long been the starting point for a whole series of saltwater "clousers" that never saw a smallmouth but are used for everything from bonefish on up.... Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

I use Wapsi's wooly bugger maribou as well for accents on larger flies as well as for bonefish bugs. Good as the stuff is -it's quite a bit smaller than standard 4" blood quill...

As always.... superb work!

Finally I have a report that's mostly about fly fishing.... Enjoy The day after the Park re-opened we were back down at Flamingo fly fishing with Bruce Rueben and his son John for three days... Everything was biting and we saw great quantities of bait along gulfside shorelines just getting shredded wherever we looked. Using 8wt rods mostly, both father and son released snook, mackeral, trout, snapper, and a variety of other species. We started out each morning with popping bugs and had a ball. Here's John's first mackeral on fly -you can still see the popper in it's jaws.... We were in perfect weather each morning as you can see from the glassed-off conditions in the background... Here's a pic of one of those Speedbugs before it got shredded... Along the way we found a few tripletail that liked flies as well.... The first one ate Bruce's clouser - the second one chased down and ate another one of those poppers for John.... The only fish we couldn't seem to get a bite from were the large tarpon gorging on bait.... We solved that problem by running back inside where baby tarpon were perfectly willing to eat small Crystal Schminnows... On our last day John had to return to college so it was just Bruce onboard. After catching a fish here and a fish there we decided to load up on bait and do some chumming to turn the fish on. It was a great idea... at our first spot up inside Oyster Bay we had non-stop action for more than an hour once the fish spotted the live baits and came after them. For almost the entire time it was a fish every cast (and I quit counting when we hit fifty, or was it sixty fish). The fish fell for any fly that looked like a four or five inch pilchard.... jacks, ladyfish, spanish mackeral, snapper, trout... and I've probably left out a few... When the tide quit we headed for home, making one last stop in Whitewater to chum up the corner of a small island... When the party started we found very nice sized mangrove snapper in less than two feet of water along with snook - all competing for that fly.... If was great fun and a great end to the day... A few days later I had local fishing club members Francis Santos and Dr. Bob Andreae (they're with the Sportsmen of Broward - the dreaded SOBs...) and we had a great time. On this day we again loaded the well with white bait and began chumming in the Shark River area with Francis on light spin and Bob using an ultra-light 5wt fly rod. Again the fish were really turned on and we went for several hours hooking fish after fish. This time we had some competition in the form of very hungry sharks that took a fair number of the fish we hooked. You haven't lived until you see a tiny fly rod just screaming after a brief fight with a small fish that got tagged by something large and grumpy.... Francis kept track and released nine different species at that first spot - including a small bluefish (winter is coming....). When the action slowed down a bit we moved to a nearby log that was holding some upper slot redfish and released about a half dozen on bait, lures, and flies. Here's a few pics from that day.... Now here's one or two from Bob... Since he has a house on Chokoloskee I expect that Bob could teach anyone a thing or two about backcountry fly fishing.... Now that we've had our first mild cold front, the big tarpon seem to have almost disappeared and the winds that have been blowing have made the pilchards a bit hard to find. I expect the mild temperatures forecast all the way through Halloween will keep the tarpon around a while longer but more and more our focus will be turning towards the interior bays.... tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Great looking fly. I do something similar only with a spun and clipped woolhead so it sinks a bit....

Just nothing like polar... When you fish it you'll find out that it's much, much more durable than bucktail for a similar application - so fish those flies. Years and years age we used to use polar almost exclusively for big 'cudas. No matter how many strikes, the polar bear wing would survive those toothy critters...

I buy (and use) quite a bit of maribou (thank heavens lots of folks eat turkey....). I buy my maribou by the pound usually and make a point of purchasing "four inch strung blood quill" which should be what you're looking for. these days I see quite a bit of maribou that's intended for wooly buggers and it's much shorter than the four inch stuff I prefer.... The best I ever got was from an outfit that's no longer around - Hobbs Feather Company. They kept a high standard and would also break down a pound of the strung blood quill into your choice of four or five colors. Hobbs, by the way, was the only outfit I ever dealt with that would provide an end user (they were a wholesale outfit...) with a complete color chart of all the colors they dyed (and each color came with a sample of, you guessed it, blood quill..). Wish they were still in business. Here's a pic or two of the patterns I use with maribou for any wanting ideas... One of my anglers yesterday used a Crystal Schminnow (the small white fly) in size #4 to catch and release a pretty little tarpon.... Tight lines, Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Fishing docklights is a staple for my anglers when we're doing night charters.... The only thing that changes are the species and the time of year. I'd bet that docklights from Maine to Key West (and everywhere in-between) are well worth a look in warmer weather. If you're down in south Florida where I am docklights are a year 'round proposition.... Great night, great pics, enjoyed the report... Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666