Capt Bob LeMay

Here's one bug I've had some success with... It's called the Swamp Rabbit and I do it in all the colors shown. I normally get asked to tie them in size 2/0 but it's also a great laid up tarpon pattern in larger sizes. The hook is an Owner Aki (Aki is Japanese for yellowfin tuna, so it's a pretty stout hook.).. Here's the tying sequence from an article I did....http://www.flyfishinsalt.com/techniques/fly-recipies/swamp-rabbit Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

For Andrew.... that fish looks to be between 30 and 40lbs (tough to tell without a bit more background for comparison). That size fish will give you all you can stand from a kayak - great catch! For Kudu... I'm not familiar with him at all (but I'm on the other side of the state...). can't tell you how many guides I've seen come and go in the last 15 or 16 years so he may well not be guiding any more. The best way to track him down is the fly shop on Sanibel (there's only one there - can't remember it's name...). If anyone knows the local shops are your best bet.... By the way some of the very best guides can be very hard to contact since they don't advertise at all and may actually be booked years in advance... that's not ever likely to be my problem... For Peter... and anyone else with the tarpon itch - tarpon season is different in different places. Down in the Keys March is very early... April though June is prime time. Homosassa and similar places things don't get going until May or later. In my area (south Florida including the Everglades) we're in fish now... babies locally at night (fish averaging 20 - 40lbs all winter long now that the shrimp are moving) and big fish in the interior of the 'Glades as long as it's mild.... My last day on the water a few days ago we had legit shots at fish up to and over 100lbs in Whitewater Bay where they lay up and loaf this time of year... Of course if a cold front comes through they're gone overnight (and won't come back until it warms up a bit...). Toward the end of summer each year we also get a second season with really big fish from the end of August until the third week of October as well.... That's my favorite time even if it is hurricane season and it's so hot that it feels like the Amazon... Glad y'all enjoyed the pics - they're from 2008. Each year I do lots of fish pics to add to reports....

Amen....

Here's a few pics... I divide my tarpon fishing into two categories.... daytime in the 'Glades out of either Flamingo or Everglades City and night trips in Biscayne Bay. The night trips are for fish less than 40lbs mostly (with a few notable exceptions every winter). The days are for fish of every size and in every situation from little blasters up under mangroves to big fish in rivers or laid up in shallow bays. Enjoy....

In much deeper (or faster waters) then you might have to resort to a full sinking line (maybe even a real fast sinker...) but I'd do my best to do without. These kind of lines do really well at getting everything down where you want it - but they're very difficult to work properly (remember you need a long slow retrieve with the fly suspending like it belongs there...). We use a fairly typical "dredging" strip... that's a long (24 to 30") strip with a sharp twitch at the end of every strip. Occasionally a big fish will follow a fly all the way to the skiff and only chew it then. The angler gets a surprise, a solid bite, and a bath - all at the same moment.... As a matter of fact I tell my anglers not to react to anything that happens while they're stripping, until that fly just stops cold. That's when things get interesting... By the way one other thing about a full intermediate is that you have the great luxury of starting your retrieve at any point you choose. If you count down you can actually start the retrieve at the exact depth you chose (if wind or tide isn't taking a hand with how things go...). We often use it for laid up fish where you want the fly no more than two or three feet deep and in other situations you can count it down and not start your retrieve until that same fly is on the bottom in 8 or 9 feet of water. It's almost the fiy fishing equivalent of fishing with lures. Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Blackwater tarpon are one of my favorites when they're around..... Before the flies and the gear you need to learn a bit about them -item one is water temperature. Being tropical animals they don't like cold water which is both a blessing and a curse. Blackwater areas (particularly deep canals and harbors) can provide the tarpon with warm enough water that they will move into those kind of places to winter over - but that doesn't mean that they may be interested in feeding at all... For big fish I figure that they just don't feed until the water temp is at 70 or above (but that doesn't mean that cold water at the surface might not conceal much warmer water under the surface...). I find that smaller fish -say 40lbs and smaller... will feed in colder waters. We routinely catch and release them in 67 degree waters at night locally... The next item is how they behave... no matter what you see them doing (rolling, pushing, or just ghosting along...) they actually live on the bottom - and that's where you'll be fishng them if you don't see them actually striking at the surface. The gear we use for them is almost always a full intermediate line (those pretty intermediate tipped lines just won't work -ask me how I know...) with a big fly at the bitter end -usually a dark color but some days red and white works as well as anything... When I say big fly - think something you'd want if you were fishing in Costa Rica for fishing deep where big fish lay. Although we routinely use six to seven inch flies on big 4/0 hooks, smaller fish (under sixty pounds) are just tough to hook on the big flies. For them a big fly is usually something five to six inches long with a hook no bigger than a 2/0... and on more than one occasion a big fish will eat a smaller fly. The next thing to remember about tarpon behavior -they're the laziest fish around when they're not migrating to spawn somewhere. That means that your fly needs to be moved as slow and steady as possible without hanging up on the bottom. Your casts also need to be accurate and very close to the fish, so close that the fish only needs to move a foot or two to feed (they're that lazy....). I'll end this now with a few pics of the flies we use for blackwater tarpon (and try to post another thread when I can...). The last photo shows the kind of places we're fishing deep tarpon (usually in eight to twelve feet of water - and most fish are right on the bottom when they bite...). Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Excise is paid by the first maker... if you're not adding value or using that product to make something else, then you're not on line for any addtional excise tax... Thus I buy hooks that have already had excise tax added, but as I use that hook to create a fly I'll be paying excise. If you simply purchase and sell fishing items there's no excise tax owed.... At least that's been my understanding and I've been paying quarterly for many years... Hope this helps Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Thanks for the comments.... First things first, the Prince of Tides hook is bent the exact same way I bend every hook for bendback patterns (and it's exactly what's used on the Slinkies ). This style of tying has been around for years and probably isn't nearly as popular now as it was years ago (and it still won't hook a tarpon.. something about the way they bite and the shape of those jaws...). The body on the Prince (my version at least) starts with vinyl rib tied in from bend to bend with the flat side up on a hook in the vice point side down (and that hook is the usual Mustad 34007 in 1/0). Once the vinyl is tied in and hanging off the rear I tie in three or four strands of dark brown flashabou or something similar, allow it to hang as well, then tie in six to ten strands of gold flashabou, that's promptly wound forward as a unit allowing strands to overlap (this way you never have the slightest gap in your body covering). After the gold is caught by a few turns of thread about halfway between the forward hook bend and the eye of the hook, then the brown is wound forward and each turn is spaced apart (and twisted together) to form an alternately gold and brown body - this is also caught with several turns of thread and trimmed away. Lastly the vinyl rib is wound forward (and this time the flat side is toward the hook shank) carefully covering every bit of the mylar underneath. Once I'vd done a bunch of bodies to this point, each one goes back in the vice point side up and whatever wing you want is added... Now for a quick note about maribou (and to a lesser extent rabbit strip) wings and tails... the same supple movement that these materials provide is also their biggest drawback since they tend to wrap around the hook shank just when you're casting at a trophy.... Here's the "fix"... before ever tying in rabbit or maribou tie in a sparse amount of the bucktail in the exact same color as a bed or support for the soft materials (flash and maribou, or flash and rabbit). This underwing is almost invisible under the more noticable wing and will pretty much prevent fouling when wet. You can't see that in the pictures of the Slinkies but you can be sure it's there in every case...

Just delivered 14 dozen flies to my local shop. Here a pics of an addtional few bendback patterns for the backcountry... this is my version of Flip Pallot's classic Prince of Tides in 1/0... this maribou bendback is called the Slinky and it's an original.... Tied up on a 1/0 hook with a bright silver body it's a great redfish pattern that was developed in the late eighties. this is the Natural Slinky and it was the first of the Slinky series... Now that these are done it will be tarpon flies for most of the next 15 dozen. By the way for those who don't live down here in paradise my local fly shop is the Fly Shop of Miami. Enjoy Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Here's a simple production trick that I started using years and years ago.... As you tie up a given pattern do one extra.... When you have that dozen flies (or 100 flies) completed line them all up and choose the absolute best one (materials, dimensions, colors, finish - be critical).... and save it as a "master" pattern. The next time you need to do that bug you'll have a perfect sample to compare to, and you'll find yourself tying more efficiently and quickly since you have a ready reference right there in front of you. You'll find that your collection of masters will grow as you fill orders. You'll also find that years later if someone orders an old pattern that you haven't tied in quite a while... you'll be able to duplicate it exactly, colors and all.... As you actually use a given pattern or get feedback from customers that master may evolve over time and that's not a bad thing either... I'm busy completing half of a 30 dozen order right now. Two of those dozens are for a pattern I haven't tied since the late eighties and the finished result will be like I've been doing them all the time. An added benefit is that any new shop will have a set of masters to look through as they decide what to order from you that first time. Very handy.... Never, repeat never, make a set of masters for anyone else (particularly any shop that requests them...) not a good idea - ask me how I know.... Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

I'm having great difficulty posting both pics and text on this site.... Here's the way this posting actually went on another site.... http://www.microskiff.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1358096547 As far as the tie off for the collar - I run the palmered feather right up to the back of the popper head, catch it with two or three turns of thread, then snap off the tip... At that point it's a simple matter to pull back the collar, do a quick whip finish by hand, then snip it off as close as possible. No finish used at all, after once again pulling back the collar to expose the thread end... I just touch it with the tip of my super glue tube (I use ordinary Krazy Glue). Hope this helps. Now if I can just figure out how to sort out this computer stuff.... Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

I recently did two dozen of this pattern and it's an easy one to learn. Materials are as follows: Hook: Mustad 34007 #1 Head: Wapsi Perfect Popper #4 in soft foam version Thread: Danville's flat waxed Flash: two strands of pearl Flashabou, doubled and re-doubled, ends staggered wrapped around the barrel of your bobbin then slid into place. Tail: six dyed white neck hackle tips, splayed out three on a side Collar: One single wide webby saddle, choice of color... Easier to show the pics than describe...http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee111/lemaymiami/Speedbugprepstepone_zps305606d9.jpg[/img Hooks prepped for gluing in place, the glue is simply Krazy Glue, a single bead laid along the thread after the hook is inserted into the pre-cut slot in the popper head. This shows each head clamped until the glue sets in less than five minutes Ready for tails Here's a completed bug, note how short the tail it kept - this one is almost a bit too long.... this is half the order, the other half was all white with fl. red thread...

Great moving bug! Hope you get a contract from Orvis for it. That thing has enough action for a whole bagful of Hogies... Like many saltwater fly types... my fly stuff is only a small part of my whole on the water scene. Easy to get a soft plastic to dance like that -not so easy with a fly.... Very nice.

My best (and only) tip for guys learning to spin hair isn't in the spinning at all - it's in the trimming.... Like you I tried scissors and worked my way through (all the while thinking there has to be a better way...). That was well over thirty years ago. Finally someone set me straight and I've used razor blades for all my deerhair work ever since. Not the nice, easy to find, single edged blades... what you want are the old fashioned double edged blades that are so thin that they'll cut you if you look at them. Once you have some double edged blades you need to crack them in half lengthwise using a small pair of nippers, resulting in two separate blades (be careful working with double edged blades... flies don't look so nice with all that red stuff on them...). I learned the hard way only to use the sharpest blades and discard any that don't slice right through that hair without any effort at all. Hope this helps (and you need less band-aids than I did, starting out). Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Looks great should work just fine where there's forage that size....

I'm afraid I've cheated a bit on the body materials for these particular bendbacks sine I had Pat Dunlop make a custom run of braid for me many years ago that's about four times the size of Sparkle Braid... I still have over 200 yards of the stuff and start each body with a full length of braid then over wrap it to get the effect you see. One of the bugs you're looking at actually has 1/2 inch of .040 square lead wire as a keel that the braid is wrapped over. Pat Dunlop of Cascade Crest has always been the guy I go to for custom materials (and I've never found square lead wire anywhere else either....).. I used to really struggle with grizzly accents on flies (now I just struggle with how much they'd cost if I didn't already have nearly a lifetime's supply....). The best way to do this is simply to cut the saddle and tie it in without removing any fibers at the tie in point (that gives you a nice triangle of feather shaft and fibers for the thread to catch (and pretty much prevents the feather from cocking or twisting as the the thread wraps catch it....).. After a grizzly saddle on each side (#2 Metz) the last material is the peacock - and it comes from strung and bundled peacock (I still have two ounces of the stuff so I'll be forever using it all up....). Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

Busy playing catchup now that my charters are getting scarce. Here's a few pics of what I'm up to... http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee111/lemaymiami/ShopfliesDec2012_zps50e51f00.jpg/IMG] after rotating for two hours then sitting for a day, these four dozen are ready for packaging final inspection, no clogged eyes or materials missing.. This pic shows the color variations on the Big Eye Bendback - this was one of my contract patterns with Umpqua... until they didn't sell enough of them... These aren't the only bendback patterns that I tie but all of them start out with a 1/0 Mustad 34007 hook with a modest bend... Enjoy Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

There appears to be some sort of limiter on replies so this is "part two"... Here's how I use powder paints... My heat source is a propane torch, set on my bench, free standing with the flame set modestly. I use a pair of forceps to hold each item as it's heated in the flame (I quit hand holding the heads - I got tired of the burns....). I learned the hard way to carefully count how long each head is heated (dependes on the size....). Once the head is heated it's dipped in whatever color needed then hung on a small diameter threaded rod to cool. Once I have a batch completed (anywhere from 20 to 100 in a run) all of them are hung in the family's oven and baked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees to harden the coating and make it as durable as possible. The powder coating has almost no fumes as it bakes out - but I'd advise not doing this if family members are at home.... Here's a pic of 100 "pilchard heads" ready to remove from the oven after cooling... Since I've been luremaking for as long as I've been fly tying (mid seventies) I've never found any coating or paint that's as good as this powder coating procedure. But I have to say... I've yet to find a use for it in my tying operations. Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 4354-5666

I've been using ProTec powder paints now for at least 20 years in the lure making side of my work. I have a professional outfit mold up the jigheads and lead heads I need (by the 100, the 500, or the 1000 per size) and ship them to me ready paint -clean of flash and as high quality as possible (and with the hook style and size I need -something that you just can't get with what's available in shops... First a pic or two of the results... these are standard snook/backcountry jigs in 1/4oz size this small skimmer jig with two wire weedguards allows an angler to work right in cover.. these finished bucktails range from

Noggin, since I'm primarily a saltwater angler (and full time guide) corrosion is an ongoing battle. If you carefully wax your spool first before winding any line on it the spool portion of your reel will last a lot longer (and if you're paying big bucks for that reel anything that helps is welcome). These days reels are much better protected from corrosion but no reel is completely safe (particularly up under you backing where you can't see what's happening.... until it's too late.

No standard but here's the method I was taught many years ago..... I break down my reels as far as backing goes... 20lb for an 8wt or smaller, 30lb for 9wt and above. My first step before ever putting on line the first time is to very carefully wax the inside of the spool with a good qualitey automotive wax and buff clear.... Now for the fun part... wind on your fly line first (yep, we're doing things backward...) then wind on the backing on top of that. Be careful not to wind on too much backing (leave a bit of space to allow you to wind things back on a bit uneven during a fight with a good fish. Once you know exactly how much backing to add, then remove it, also the fly line and reverse the process -winding on the backing first, then a strong loop to loop connection (I prefer a bimini twist on the backing followed by a doubled surgeon's loop -and the loop needs to be large enough to pass the reel through....). Set up this way it's very simple to change fly lines (since you just dismount the reel, pass it through the backing loop and you're ready to add another fly line.... All of the above is for dacron or Micron backing (and no you still don't know the backing capacity (unless you can obtain it from your reel's manufacturer (and you're willing to believe their figures...). If you prefer one of the new super braids then I'd use a minimum of 30lb for an 8wt and smaller, 50lb for a 9wt. and larger... Hope this helps. By the way in the salt I want a minimum of 200 yards of backing (300 for tarpon reels (10wt up to 13wt rods).

I second that with one proviso... after you loop to loop your butt section, take the fly line in one hand, the leader in the other (two wraps around each hand) then pull slowly across your chest until the line is hurting your hands... If the loop that comes with your new fly line survives this extreme stress test... you're ready to fish. Wish I had a nickel for every loop on a new fly line that I've seen fail (and right up there with them are those nicely rigged splices done just for your trip by your local fly shop.... You'll never know the knot is weak with fish under 10lbs. With fish over 100lbs you'll find out the hard way.... so that's how I test my angler's gear at the start of each day (until I know it's been done right....). Lots and lots of ways to set up any leader... make sure of your connections and you'll be ready for whatever is on the other end of the line. Long ago (and not so far away) as a rookie mate on a charterman out of Miami Beach I was lucky enough to work for a really tough captain who insisted that every leader, every bait, every hook and swivel... was right -or it was not going to be in the water. He also taught me to treat every fish as though it were the only one we'd see that day.... Nothing like a day when you're struggling a bit to remember the basics.

For day to day backcountry leaders where snook and tarpon aren't expected I'm still using a "poor boy" system. Start with a permanent butt section spliced directly to the fly line with a seven turn nail knot (for a full intermediate line use two nail knots in a row- intermdediate lines will allow a single nail knot to slip under pressure...). Leader butts for me are always Ande clear mono , in the following strengths and lengths.... for a 7wt, 30lb, 3.5 to 4' long - for an 8 or 9wt, 40lb, 4 to 4.5' long - for a 10wt, 50lb, 4.5 to 5' long, for 11wts and above I only use 60lb and it will be 5 to 6' in length... Every butt section ends with a surgeon's loop big enough to pass your fly (or popping bug) through. Being a bit old fashioned all of my nail knot to fly line connections are coated with Pliobond... The "poor boy" part of the leader setup is just 20lb fluoro (occasionally 30lb if we're working heavy cover or there's snook around, but I'll also go down to 15lb for really clear shallow conditions if necessary) with a surgeon's loop in one end and the fly on the other. Here's the trick... the fluoro is at least one foot longer than the butt section, and many times two feet longer -these dimensions will allow you to turn over any fly without difficulty and still allow you to trim the bitter end back as it frays up from fish bites. If you do without the shock tippet (or more properly the bite tippet) you've got to be very careful to cut back to clean leader or you'll lose fish... We've even taken baby tarpon (five to fifteen pounds) and the occasional good sized snook - but you're going to lose an occasional fish without a bite tippet... We're trading the ability to get more bites for the certainty that the bite tippet allows. That's the Poor Boy.... the beauty of this system is that yhou can loop to loop a heavier fly leader with shock tippet at any time if big fish are on the horizon while having just what's needed for everything else where a shock tippet is a hindrance... Tight lines Bob LeMay (954)435-5666 p.s. Here's a few pics from our last trips into the Park. I'll be back on the water tomorrow and hope to do a few more before year's end. If anyone wonders what the difference is between pompano and permit.... the permit is the rounder fish in profile.

I have family up that way... there is some great redfishing, etc. along with both one fly shop and good guides but I don't have specifics. If you don't draw a response here, the following site should provide all the info you need... http://www.floridasportsman.com/flyfishing/ Tight lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666

At one time I bought fair amounts of grizzly saddles (usually Metz #2, five or more with each order)as well as saddles from other sources. You'll find a wide range of shades even in grizzly.... Now that the stuff has become almost prohibitively expensive a recreational tier will find a very limited range of choices. One possibility is to make a point of attending large fly oriented expos where dealers bring bins of materials to paw through (and the last day, last few hours of any show may produce a bargain or two...). Hope this helps. Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666