I found myself running up to the Fort Lauderdale Fly Shop last week for some fly materials when my customer ran out of tarpon flies. I got what I needed and browsed the pre-tied flies to see what was available. Mostly what I saw was the very popular "Toad" and of course there were lots of them in chartreuse. The Toad was made popular by Andy Mill and for good reason. If you want to catch a tarpon on fly you should use the same fly as the guy who won the Gold Cup five times. I certainly did so for several years.
I have since changed my way of thinking. Show me something a tarpon won't eat! The flies I used this past week were not even close to resembling the Toad. I'm not going to say what they are, but I can say that it doesn't really matter. What matters are the conditions, the environment, and most important, the presentation. Sure, the Toad works great, but if all the fly shops are out of them, just grab anything with a strong hook and get it in the water.
Fishing out of Miami in Biscayne Bay this past week Dick Resnick fished with friends Tim and Sonya Pask. They each hooked several tarpon and landed fish in the 80 to 100 lb range. They used flies for bait. Enzo and Vince Leva used flies, lures and bait to catch tarpon from 80 lbs to 125 lbs on average. Vince caught the biggest tarpon that measured 79 inches overall. He estimated the fish weighed between 180 and 200 lbs. Also, Enzo and Vince each caught bonefish of 5 and 7 lbs. Those bonefish were donated to the University of Miami bonefish tagging program and placed in a tank at the Miami Seaquarium for observation.
