Everglades tarpon

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Just came off of three days booked out of Flamingo chasing tarpon in the rivers that drain out of the Everglades into the west coast of the 'glades.   Waiting now for a video clip or two from my anglers as I write this.  We're quite busy this time of year,  but I'm taking Easter off so will be able to file a report.  We're in big fish now every day using 10 and 12wt rods set up with full Intermediate fly lines and big flies for fishing in rivers (not exactly the tarpon fishing they do down in the Keys most days....).   These are the flies getting  all the attention... 

A stout 4/0 hook and a wire weedguard are standard gear for these flies (roughly five to seven inches long, set up with a 20lb Hard Mason tippet and an 80lb fluorocarbon bite tippet...).  This one is a variation of the original, all black Tarpon Snake...

The original Tarpon Snake, we use them in two sizes, the standard big 4/0 and a smaller version, about five inches long with an Owner Aki 2/0 hook - for 10wt rods, and hopefully smaller fish... using that same 20lb tippet - but with a 60 lb bite tippet... both the body and the tail are entirely done with large, wide, webby dyed saddle hackles (not exactly the saddles that freshwater tyers use...).

We're working tarpon - that behave like salmon or steelhead when they're up in our rivers, holding in current breaks, at bends, river forks, and other places where they are just out of the current but close enough to pick off any baitfish that come their way on the tide.  You see them rolling at the surface gulping air (not feeding behavior at all...) but when they have that little oxygen boost they drop right back down to the bottom in six to twelve feet of water (hence the full Intermediate lines...).

We're jumping fish every day now, mostly... even on days like the past three when the wind has been howling all day long (hooray for rivers that keep us out of the wind almost entirely...).  Our first fish was nearly 80lbs on a light 10wt meant for smaller fish in the fifty to sixty pound range... My angler that day did a fantastic job - beating the fish to a standstill in less than fifteen minutes on that light rod before it finally wore through the bite tippet at the boat... 

The next day we jumped three (two on fly one on spinning gear) and that was along with a few forays for small snook on much lighter gear.  This will be my routine until the end of the first week in May when all of our big fish will leave my area to join the spawning migration down towards Islamorada... The good news is that all the smaller fish (sixty pounds and under) will still be available - all summer long.  Our big fish will begin to return towards the end of summer - both September and October can be as good as it gets in my area for the big fish (if a hurricane doesn't shut us down.. since late summer and fall are prime months for the great storms...).

 

For anyone considering a trip to my area (or anywhere in the tropics) - here's a hint of how we dress each day... Friendly looking guide - covered up like a desert raider each day, and I get to see my dermatologist every three months as well... 

 

[ScienceGuy141 0]

Nice report and sounds like an incredible time. Those flies look great as well. Do you wrap a lot of weighted wire to get the flies down in the rivers, or is the intermediate line sufficient to achieve the desired depth?

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

You do have to get them wet before they sink  -but the combination of the heavy hook (either an Owner Aki  or a Tiemco 600sp) and very large bead chain eyes along with a heavy 80lb bite tippet allows the fly to sink at the same rate as that full Intermediate fly line - and once it's down it stays at the exact depth it was at when an angler begins the long, slow strip we employ... The beadchain eyes are the exact same size you find on the pull cord for vertical blinds - and we actually count down the depth as the fly sinks after my angler lays the fly out into the drift pattern we desire... and I count out loud to get them into the idea of allowing the fly to drop into the strike zone... so no lead needed at all.  Every fly line we use, whether sinking or floating is set up with a permanent butt section ending in a surgeon's loop that we'll attach whatever leader desired.   Every heavy 12wt line starts with six feet of sixty pound mono, a 10wt starts with five feet of fifty pound mono...  The entire package is pretty well thought out to achieve a given goal in my world.

Big tarpon that aren't migrating to spawn (these are pre-spawn fish) are pretty lazy and rarely go out of their way to feed (at least when we're around - the night scene is probably very different since tarpon are mostly night feeders...).  You see them roll to gulp air -then the moment you no longer see one - it's headed down to the bottom - wherever that is.. We fish them in six to twelve feet of water and really need that fly to be down at whatever level they're holding in.... At times these big fish will actually float just under the surface or ease along near the surface.  Whenever that occurs I have my angler lay out a cast that will allow the fly to cross right near the fish - and simply start stripping so that the fly never sinks much at all.... Here's the photo I always show whenever someone asks what I do - I call it my "office photo"...

 

a moment later this fish smacked me upside my head - and all I was trying to do was release it safely... it was an 80lb fish - they get a lot bigger, but the big ones have all the advantages when your hunting them in small rivers...