I loved the article in the Wall Street Journal about brownlining, and was glad to see props go out to Fat Guy, Gracie, JP, et al, and for the esteemed Mr. Chandler and Mr. Barton getting credit for coining a new name for a fly fishing genre. But the article stopped a little short. Before brownlining there was ditch fishing. The concept of casting flies in less than pristine settings goes back decades. In Florida, many well known fly fishing luminaries and pioneers cut their teeth fishing the Everglades and the vast network of man-made backwater canals that carve up the southern tier of the state. It is well documented that anglers such as Flip Pallot, Chico Fernandez, and Norman Duncan–who invented the Duncan…
Posts tagged “tarpon”
Cast, surf, eat, drink, sleep. *[Typing is not one of them]
Tagged: east coast break, live in saltwater, redfish, snuke, speckled trout, tarpon
Nothing on the water looks normal at 2 am. Land masses that provide depth perception in daylight warp into ominous light-flecked shapes. Reflective channel markers pop up unexpectedly in front of the boat moving too fast through black water. But tarpon feed at night and people sleep. The dates are picked, the strategies are being worked out; it’s happening again. Night Ops 1: Drifting live crabs,big water, big-fish. Night Ops 2: Casting flies, light pools, little fish. (Never thought about the light babies until a note from Flies and Fins regular Marshall Demott. Now we know.) Then the tide dies and it’s back to the ramp. The guides are all there mainlining coffee in the dark while they wait for their clients to show.…
Tagged: black keys, coming soon, megalops, night ops, old school hetfield, oysterhead, poon, silver king, tarpon
This is what I’m looking at right now out of my hotel window. Not bad, but I should be looking into the prehistoric glowing eye of a night time tarpon. Plans get cancelled, beers get purchased, balconies get occupied. Plan B is in effect. Sneak off for a pre-work scramble after some freshwater invasives. Show up to the 10 A.M. bidness junket with fish slimed clothes; shake hands with a sandpaper thumb.
Tagged: boat show, Miami, peacock bass, snakeheads, tarpon
Tarbone sends a letter to Florida Fish and Wildlife asking for better bonefish, tarpon, and permit protections. Capt. Gordon sends word of more news in his battle against Carolina gill nets. Coastal Voices blog has a link to a map showing the extent of human impact on the oceans. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has a petition to the EPA to keep its promise to clean up the bay by 2010.
Tagged: bonefish, Chesapeake Bay, EPA, Florida, gill nets, North Carolina, permit, redfish, tarbone, tarpon
Tagged: bad taxidermy, birds nest, tarpon
Cool tarpon video from the National Geographic Channel’s new show “Hooked.”
Tagged: fishing shows, Hooked, national geographic, tarpon
You know potential is good when there’s a stuffed tarpon in the hotel office.
Tagged: tarpon
I’m looking for funding from someone willing to sponsor my proposed research project, where I will spend the next year living in the Everglades National Park studying what happens to fly hooks after they’ve become embedded in the jaws of baby tarpon.* For control, I will use resident snook and redfish populations, and eventually move onto full grown adult tarpon. Practice will occur up here on northeast striped bass and bluefish concentrations until budget and supply needs are met. I’ll need 300-500 weedless mangrove bugs, several pounds of beef jerky, and a drum barrel of DEET. As far as corporate sponsorship, so far I have generated interest from the American Mustache Institute, and several other heavy hitters. Interested parties can contact me directly. *I haven’t…
Tagged: Everglades, tarpon
In many places the great river of grass that flows south from Okeechobee through the Everglades and out to Florida Bay is, depending on time and tide, ankle deep. But it is still navigable. The Seminoles and later the cracker Gladesmen criss-crossed the skinny-water labyrinth by poling in long narrow dugout skiffs. It is these historical canoes that Ron Hyde used for inspiration in designing his new Seminole Flats skiff. I spent time last week running the Glades with Hyde in a Seminole, and it is unlike any other modern flats skiff. The one-time owner of the Goodnews River Lodge in Alaska, Hyde has also fished the back country in the Everglades and Biscayne Bay longer than I’ve been alive. He likes to get…
Tagged: Everglades, flats skiff, Seminole, snook, tarpon
