Capt Bob LeMay

Hope they’re not expecting any business from tyers like me….

I long ago realized that I was a failure at scissor sharpening- until I learned to get the kind of tailor’s snips that have blades mounted on spring arms that are removable… Once I could remove one blade (each blade is screw mounted) then hand sharpening with a series of bench stones was easily done… After a blade is removed it's easy to sharpen the remaining blade - then re-attach and remove the sharpened blade allowing you to do the other side. I start with standard soft Arkansas stone - then finish with a marble hard natural stone - both very lightly oiled... I've re-sharpened the pair of Clover scissors (believe they're from Japan) at least a half dozen times over the years and they're still performing well. The only other tip I can provide is not to use a good pair of scissors for rough work ... for that I use much bigger scissors (Fiskars, and others)... I try to only use my good scissors for small amounts of natural materials...

yep, it does get hot down here... too hot for those accustomed to northern reaches... One solution is to pick up that fly rod - and fish at night... Every docklight holds fish at night down here, so do the shadows under bridges.... litt'luns, and fish that eat the small fish (or shrimp or crabs) . The best part is that you can actually sight fish them (as long as you remember that only your first few casts have much of a chance at getting bit.). The only time the night scene is not worth looking at are on colder nights (for us, when the water temps get down to 65 degrees and the air temps even colder... ). Each to his own...

You’re probably right… On the other hand if you fish the tropics like we do, here are two certainties… No two days are ever the same and at the end of many years on the water you’d still be seeing things you’d never seen before…. After nearly fifty years since my first foray into the backcountry (miles and miles of creeks, rivers, and bays in a mangrove jungle setting). I’m still being surprised at some of the things we run into.

When you find reds (or black drum) schooled up, they can get very competitive and actually push each other out of the way to strike a fly or lure… Unfortunately where we find them when they’re schooled along the coast of the Everglades they’re being followed by bull sharks so closely that the moment you hook up the sharks attack and the reds scatter… Great fun for a moment or two then all of them, sharks and all are gone… This only happens for us in the fall when small groups of bull reds come inshore for a few weeks… then disappear back out into the Gulf.

Used ostrich many years ago - but only a few times… looks like a great material for larger flies - but doesn’t actually provide much of a benefit when it’s wet in my world… I still use peacock herl for really big deceivers (the Southern Deceiver in size 4/0…) and for the Big Eye Bendback. In recent years, when I was filling orders for shops, not much call for the peacock either - but remember, all of my efforts were for the salt… Now that I’ve added peacock bass to my charters I may start using some of that peacock herl again. I tend to buy in bulk so I probably have a lifetime supply of strung peacock if I choose to use it…

Always notice how folks "up north" are really looking forward to the warming weather they need to kick off their sport... Meanwhile, down here in paradise... we're having a relatively mild winter - water temps are finally in the mid seventies each - and one of my anglers caught his first big tarpon last Wednesday (about 80lbs in a river that's less than 100 feet wide down in the coastal Everglades - not on the fly -but not for lack of trying...). My world is just so much different than what freshwater anglers work with. As usual though, my camera work leaves quite a bit to be desired.. Here's one good photo from earlier that day - a 28" snook caught and released very carefully along our mangrove jungle shorelines...

Worldwide most folks involved in production tying… are ladies… Nimble hands, attention to detail, just a few of their many advantages.

Here’s another tip about tying with synthetic materials… As a general proposition less is more with most synthetics… Matter of fact when you finish a pattern you should be able to lay it on your hand and see right through it..

Here’s a tip for anyone bargain hunting fly materials at shows… If you go the very last day of a show just an hour or two before closing you might find some great bargains if you offer to purchase this or that as they’re beginning to pack up the goods for the road… Early on before I had solid wholesale connections it proved very valuable buying necks, saddle patches,etc for this tyer…

I worked fishing, boating, and one or two fly fishing shows over the years starting in the early to mid eighties… At first I was volunteering to assist one shop or other that were ordering flies from me, then finally as an independent commercial tyer once I was picked up by Umpqua. My usual routine was to tie flies all day long, selling them to anyone that wanted them to cover my expenses… while also assisting in whatever booth that was hosting me. Those various shows were invaluable, allowing me to meet many professionals and become well known in the industry. That was how I was picked up as a contract tyer for Umpqua… When I came back to guiding full time in 1996 I continued to work shows - but as the years went by did so less and less. At this point I haven’t worked or even gone to a show of any kind in some years. My preference will always be time on the water. If I’m ever forced to give up guiding I’ll consider going back to tying commercially if I’m still able… If I go down that road again, fly shows will be part of the deal…

If you expect the clerk in the fly fishing portion of a Bass Pro shop to be skilled in fly tying, good luck. The best you can hope for is that they know what’s displayed and how to ring up a sale…. At least that’s what I’ve seen in my local big box sporting goods stores…

I buy a good bit of gear on ebay (when I'm not going direct to one manufacturer or other...) and I regularly see items posted for a lot more than they sell for locally (understatement). Sometimes it's a case of the seller simply ignorant of the value - but I wouldn't discount good old fashioned greed.. Over the years, as long as i stick to stuff I'm very familiar with Iv'e done well. Every now and then though I've ended up with something that I didn't want - but that's the game...

Looked at the photo shown - and it's definitely a stainless hook... but then I looked at his other photos - and none of them are on that hook type... Here's a pic of the one conehead fly I've been doing recently for comparison... It's on a Mustad 34007 1/0 hook (very standard saltwater hook for fly tying...) and it has the largest brass conehead that Wapsi sells.. That conehead is just big enough to slide over the hook's barb (and occasionally I have to crimp the barb just a bit to make it fit....

Have no idea what to do with all my tying materials (you could literally stock a fly shop with what I've collected over the years, buying feathers by the pound, tails by the hundred and hooks by the thousand per size..). I'm guessing my place will look like locusts visited -- if it's anything like death sales I've attended down here in paradise years past.... Seems like everyone likes a bargain and someone will have one heck of a yard sale... for this or that. If I'm ever forced to leave the water and am no longer able to fill orders... then I'll be the one running that rummage sale... Kids are another matter.... I've never charged a penny for demonstrations or talks if it's for kids (and got in a quiet dispute with the IGFA when they wanted me to donate my time - while still charging kids to attend... ). To this day I'm still the guy who will fix a kid's reel, or rod - for free if I can (but they have to bring a parent with them when they come.. ). Thinking back on all those years since I got my first job on a boat (1973....) it's been a heck of a ride and i hope it's not ending very soon at all...

I do something similar - only I call it re-cycling where you take old chewed up flies (and poppers) cut down to where you still have usable materials -then re-build... Of course fishing in salt or brackish waters there's more than a few times where you're saving materials and replacing the hook. Unlike freshwater anglers I'm not using any legs on my poppers (legs of any kind are reserved for crab patterns mostly )with an occasional bug meant for a bonefish... This time of year my bookings are few and far between (that will change towards the end of February and by April I'll be lucky to have any days off the water..). So for now I'm filling lure orders, sorting out rods (still have two to put new guides on as well as one brand new rod that will go on my skiff as soon as it's done....). Just posted a pic over on Instagram of a part of an order for anyone interested (under lemaymiami...).

Those "outrigger style" weedguards were originally meant for very specific conditions in parts of Biscayne Bay where you have, at times, fish over very thick turtle grass that will snag up any fly with something not quite as effective as that outrigger... Years and years ago I taught fly tying classes (both formal, at night at our local community college, early eighties.. and informally with tying nights for local fishing club members) and the test I suggested back then was simply to tie up whatever pattern you were going to use and drag it slowly across your lawn - if it snags up - try something else... or a different weedguard... One of the nice things about this kind of weedguard is that if it's not needed or wanted, it's a simple matter to clip it away and do without... The presentation I came to favor for big bonefish was pretty much gambling.... I'd lay the fly out at least ten feet from a big tailer or cruising fish and note very carefully exactly where the fly landed in relation to the fish - then allow it to sink motion-less. Over turtle grass that meant that the fly was down in the grass... The gambling part? Pretty simple, you were gambling the fish would move to where your fly was - and not move it until the fish was within two or three feet... Bonefish never tail in the same direction for very long -at least not where we were fishing - so fairly often that "gamble" failed and I'd have to pick up the fly and make another presentation. The problem with the fish we were on is that they were terribly spooky and most close presentation just spooked them entirely - and that was that... Remember as well that back when I was fishing bonefish a lot - the average size of a bonefish in the Bay was 8lbs - and the tailers we were working were considerably bigger.... Hard to believe that all these years later when an 8lb fish is hard to find in those same areas.... If I remember correctly the original bendback type flies were in fact meant for bass in freshwater. Chico Fernandez took that style of fly and came up with his own version -then popularized it with a feature article for saltwater and the idea took off from there. As far as the design's weedless characteristics so much depends on the actual conditions you're fishing - and how you're going about it. Over in the Ten Thousand Islands area weeds are rarely a problem - but working around mangrove shorelines and downed trees something relatively weedless is a great idea.... Hope this helps...

Speaking of peacocks (the fish, not the bird)... if you make the move and you ever have occasion to come south for a day or two down to my area, south Florida... Every bit of freshwater holds a variety of opportunities in canals, ditches, ponds, etc. and a fair amount of it can be fished from the bank... Along with peacock bass we have lots of exotics - fish that look like panfish on steroids (or some kind of chemical..) like oscars, mayan cichlids, snakeheads, along with the usual more normal freshwater bass, bream, etc. Just to spice things up a bit some of our freshwater canals, if they're close to saltwater will also have the occasional saltwater fish like snook or tarpon... As already noted a kayak or small car topper skiff can greatly expand your access - but anglers on foot do pretty well with just a rod and a few flies or popping bugs... Lots of opportunities - some in very un-likely places like an urban canal right behind a shopping center... Come on down... remember as well that along with DIY stuff you'll find a great variety of fishing guides to do any kind of fishing you're interested in.... (anyone interested in what I offer... an email request to [email protected] will get you a brochure by return mail...).

Any of those should work on pompano with the appropriate hook and an Intermediate or sinking line…

Y'all do have some well fed redfish up your way... .Great pics by the way... My old Maverick couldn't get close to where you're fishing... That's real skinny water...

I can remember receiving samples of Bill’s braid some years ago but it was a bit fine for my needs… I’d already been able to have custom made, tons of braid in larger sizes, mostly in pearl (spools of the stuff, hundreds of yards at a time, done up for me by Pat Dunlop at Cascade Crest). The most recent pattern I’ve posted on this site, a bendback fly, clearly shows the braid I’ve used the most for bodies on larger patterns….

The only one I ever knew about, down here in paradise was (and is) Steve Kantner, who advertised his services as the "Land Captain". A very skilled angler and guide I don't believe he's currently still guiding (but he's also a writer with many articles and a few books to his credit... He specialized in covering as much of the Everglades as possible from the road with his car loaded with fly rods and anglers... I knew him years and years ago when we both fished off of local piers. He's come a long way since then... When guiding he ranged all the way from Ft. Lauderdale to Naples, mostly working canals where there were bridges or dams to create feeding stations for both salt and freshwater species. He was also known for figuring out a fly pattern for the monster triploid carp that were introduced into our canals years ago to assist in weed control (it was a fly tied to resemble a particular berry that trees along canals dropped each year to carp in the 20 to 30lb size range..). Of course my best stories usually end... "but I was a lot younger then"

Earlier this week I was booked to fish out of Flamingo, a double boat trip with four anglers total, but on that day the weather was just awful - a combination of a strong cold front with high winds combined with a full moon tide (super high water, most of it very muddy from the high winds everywhere... ). What to do... Capt Mark Giaccobba suggested we switch gears and head for freshwater canals locally targeting peacock bass and the other assorted freshwater types... His suggestion saved the day and we were going to be fishing the canals along Alligator Alley (I-75 between Ft. Lauderdale and Naples - but on the Lauderdale side only thirty miles to the west...). We got on the water just at dawn, ran a few miles to the west and found fish on a day when we'd have been skunked in the backcountry down at Flamingo... My anglers caught and released peacocks, oscars and other cichlids, as well as a short nosed gar fish - all on clouser variants on 1/0 hooks mostly using 8wt rods... Here's a pic of our first peacock Believe I'll have to do this more often. If not for those many freshwater canals, I'd have had to cancel that day's trip... Iv'e just gotten my first 5wt rod as well... When conditions allow it should turn any oscar or small peacock bass into a real battle...

As a commercial tyer I've used a ton of hooks over the years and every now and then I've gotten a bad batch (either soft and weak -or tempered too much and very brittle as a result) so I've learned to check them - before using. I'm not using freshwater hooks since I'm a saltwater guy... If I can bend a hook easily just using my hands I consider it "soft" and won't use them (pretty tough when you're buying hooks by the thousand per size..). Hooks that are brittle and will break before bending are also a problem -but in the other direction... Most of these that I've found were actually super premium, super sharp, and extra strong imported hooks from Japan or other far eastern places. In the effort to make them something special it's too easy to make them brittle - a situation where the hook won't give or distort at all - instead at a certain point -they just snap. One particular model did it often enough out on the water that I began doing two different things - first paying much more attention to the fly I had my angler using - to verify that it still had a hookpoint (or anything at all from the barb forward after a pulled hook or getting pulled off of a snag...) and secondly, the moment I found hooks that were simply too brittle - that was the last time I tied up anything with them... at all, no matter how many I had in stock. Put simply you can catch a lot of fish with a hook that's opened up a bit under a load but a hook that snaps at the barb will have you talking to yourself.. I still do make and use fly patterns tied onto "bent" hooks (popularly called bendbacks in the salt) and I do my own bending, using two pairs of pliers (mostly with Mustad 34007 style hooks in various sizes.. Actually bending hooks will give you a very good idea of how durable the hooks you're using can be. I can say for certain that I've never found any "super premium" hooks that I could bend successfully.... Rather than bend they snap... Not a problem as long as they're strong enough - I just won't use them for bendbacks... I've never had a hook snap in the vise while tying - but I'm not using light wire fragile freshwater hooks at all... Here's a pic of one of several bendback patterns I've filled orders for over the years... the Big Eye Bendback Hook: Mustad 34007, 1/0 with a slight bend 1/4" from the hook eye Thread; Danville's flat waxed nylon Body: Diamond braid doubled Wing: Dyed brown bucktail over, yellow , over orange Accent wing: a single Cree saddle on each side of the wing (Metz # 2 saddles, probably no longer available) Flash: Flashabou Accent in pearl - a few strands between each color of the bucktail Overwing: six to eight strands of peacock herl Eyes: Painted onto built up head (optional).

I still like Cree feathers for shrimp patterns and as noted above have a small supply since the eighties (Metz #2 saddles) - I'm a saltwater tyer and never do anything smaller than a #6 for bonefish - mostly.... A great substitute for tarpon flies is what's called in the trade "red chinchilla" - that I have a pound of.... in neck hackles alone, as well as a smaller amount in strung saddles... Saltwater tyers have little use for those gorgeous skins meant for skilled freshwater tyers... Here's a pic or two.... the Sand Devil "something shrimpy"