Biscayne baby tarpon last night

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

We did one of those night trips in the urban areas of Biscayne Bay last night. My anglers (passing through on their way down to Belize) met me just after dark at the only ramp on Miami Beach. From there it was a short run to the nearest bridge where lots of small (15 to 30lb) tarpon were right at the surface in the shadows. Every bridge between Miami and Miami Beach has tarpon on the falling tide - almost year round. Last night they were very active and willing to take any fly that came their way. Sightfishing at night isn't the first thing that comes to mind but the streetlights on the bridges cause the shrimp to rise as they come to each bridge so the fish just hang in the shadows right where you can see them, patrolling back and forth, waiting to pop any easy targets. Once we arrived on station and slipped under the bridge into the shadows we found lots of fish just waiting for us. A quick cast or two out into the light then stripped back into the shadows was all it took and we had our first bite.... That fish promptly jumped free leaving a perfectly good fly to toss at the next group of fish. Moments later we were hard onto our first fish. I fired up the motor and quickly pulled the fish down current and away from the bridge so that we could fight him in the open. And that's how it went for the next two and a half hours. We stuck six fish and brought two to hand on a 9wt (many nights all we're using is an 8wt). When things slowed down at that first spot we ran to the north to another bridge where more small tarpon were waiting for us. Our night was cut short by motor trouble (nothing like motor troubles on a holiday weekend....) so we limped on back to the dock. I'll be back after them when I'm up and running again. Here's a pic of the only pattern I use at night... Appropriately, it's called the Night Fly - just a simple white tarpon fly tied up on a 1/0 to 2/0 hook (the old Mustad #7766) with the barb flattened and the point filed razor sharp...

 

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

[agn54 0]

Great report Capt. Bob, love the pics. Do you prefer neck hackle to saddle hackle for your tarpon flies?

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

All of my "traditional" (if there is such a thing) tarpon flies are done with neck hackles for the tail on each side of a generous calftail spreader (squirrel if I'm doing cockroaches), the collars are all wide, webby saddle hackles with as much of the "fluff" at the base end of the saddle included as I can manage (if you look closely at any saddle hackle you'll see a portion of the fluff that is on narrow enough portion of the stem to be wound palmer style.... If you use variant type feathers (or chinchilla)where the fluff portion of any saddle is a different color than the rest of the feather you can come up with some pretty unique results. That really shows up clearly in the Sand Devil (pic below)

 

If anyone's interested I have an article that's scheduled to come out in the July/August edition of Flyfishing in Saltwaters on the pattern I use the most in the backcountry of the Everglades for big tarpon. It's called the Tarpon Snake and it's far from traditional but the photos show exactly hown I'm doing most collars on tarpon flies (unless it's with rabbit - that's a different proposition.).

 

Tight lines

Bob LeMay

[agn54 0]

Thanks Capt Bob, good stuff That Sand Devil really looks like an awesome fly

[bluegill576 0]

Nice flies and fish. I love tarpon fishing but I don't get to often.

[ditz2 0]

Things that dreams are made of. Thanks for the report

[Tailn'Jax 0]

That's a great looking fly. How are you doing the eyes, are you using a brush or a piece of dowel rod to put them on.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I wrote a short piece for Florida Sportsman a year or two ago about painting eyes on flies. It was folded into an article by Mike Connors (the fly editor back then) so if you can find that back issue it lays it all out.

 

If you're going to paint onto thread you have to seal the thread first. I use super glue (the original Krazy Glue, using the plasit tube like a tiny paint brush) and you have to be very careful to apply as little as possible since the glue will travel into collars, hackles, etc and ruin them.... Once the glue is dry I use different size nails to apply a single dot of paint on each side of the head. Although the paint I use is labeled "fast drying" it's anything but, taking a full day to dry after each dot of paint... Once the eyes are dry I then finish with FlexCoat, a rodbuilder's finish that goes on like honey. The flies coated need to rotate in a fixture for two hours after the Flexcoat is applied.. Now for some pics...

[Tailn'Jax 0]

Awesome insight. Thankyou.

[FlyFishOutdoors 0]

Great looking photo of it in the water. Nice fish.