# Everglades backcountry, 26 September



## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

We spent the last Friday through Sunday down at Flamingo with visiting anglers Bob Strawbridge and his son Andy from Indianapolis. Bob, using fly gear and Andy with light spinning gear. The good news for those not familiar with the Everglades is that none of the terrible red tide problems along the west coast down to Marco Island have come anywhere near the Gulf coast and interior of the Park... As a result we had some pretty good fishing and clear evidence that it's just going to get better in coming weeks as we move towards Halloween. The first of the great schools of baitfish were just getting torn up by small jacks, ladyfish, and small mackeral everywhere you looked in the area of Ponce de Leon Bay, just north of the Little Shark River. For now the clouds of bait are mostly adult glass minnows (bay anchovies) but the pilchards and other white bait won't be long to follow... You could take a boatload of young kids armed with nothing but small silver spoons and keep their rods bent all day long.....

We found snook, redfish, speckled trout, and good numbers of small tarpon each day in the areas with fished. Most of the snook and all of the reds were on the small side (at least the ones we got to the skiff for a release..). Here's a pic or two from Andy's end of the skiff...








Note the small leadhead with Gulp tail - the fish everywhere just hammered them each day...









Although we never targeted trout we found some nice ones while snook fishing - enough to make a good meal or two...

At the end of the first day, after getting turned down by more than a few tarpon we found, Andy finally hooked up with this one and it was game on...








After a quick photo it was released carefully to fight another day

Not to be outdone, the next day Bob finally hooked up with two tarpon on fly along that same stretch of coastline. His first broke off on the first jump - not bad since he was only using a very light 8wt rod and I estimated the fish at about 60lbs... If it had stayed connected we'd have been chasing it for at least an hour - and then still had an unhappy tarpon to deal with... On our last spot of the day, up inside a tributary of the Shark Bob hooked up again - this time with a seventy pound fish on a 10 wt. The encounter didn't last nearly long enough (it was his first big tarpon on fly ever...) since the fish wore through the 60lb bite tippet but Andy did some video..... Now if I could only figure out how to post it.... here goes nothing....





Our last day had to be cut short after I had motor trouble - and we limped on back to the dock after only a half day's trip.... Still... just nothing like the 'Glades... We caught and released large numbers of fish each day on both fly and spinning gear - and it's only just beginning as we near October....

Be a hero - take a kid fishing!

Tight Lines
Bob LeMay
(954) 435-5666


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## Guest (Sep 26, 2018)

Great report Captain!


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## Scrob (Aug 26, 2015)

Thanks for sharing Bob


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Nice job Capt Bob!


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## klemtek (Oct 4, 2018)

Great report! What kind of flies were you using?


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

The flies we use in the 'glades for big (and medium sized) tarpon aren't exactly standard Keys style tarpon flies... They're a lot bigger and we're usually fishing them deep on a full intermediate line. Essentially they're similar to a Seaducer -but have large beadchain eyes and the tails aren't splayed out - they're done exactly the way a Deceiver tail is tied. The pattern is called a Tarpon Snake -and has been one of my royalty patterns with Umpqua Feather Merchants for some years now They list it as the Pike/Snake since it also works really well on northerns.. and will fill orders for any shop that orders them. Here's a pic or two -the standard size on a 4/0 hook (Owner Aki or Tiemco 600sp...) for the big fish. For fish in the medium size range (30 to 60 lbs) we downsize them to a 2/0 hook size...

Like always every bug I tie for the 'glades has a wire weedguard if possible. Those weedguards allow us to fish in bad places without snagging up and ruining a spot... 








this is the original Tarpon Snake in size 4/0








we do them in a variety of colors 








this color - like the all black version has taken fish around the world - inshore, offshore, etc.

The fish on the video? It took an all white version on a 2/0 hook meant for a bit smaller fish....


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