Fly Fishing for Tarpon

I have to say this is one of my favorite times of the year. Tarpon season is grueling and we are not only on the cusp of summer, it just dawned on a new day and whala! it was summer! Hot, hot, hot and sweaty. But with the summer heat comes the glory of flat calm days, rolling tarpon and the best action for fly fishing you can ever imagine.

This week I had the pleasure of fishing with a gentleman from New York. He and I had a lot of fun and I saw some very large fish gulp his fly. We had a couple super great days of fishing with one day racked up at 14 tarpon hookups and 5 fish landed. We had some other great days under our belt too but that was the best.

If you have ever heard anyone talk of a "guppy hatch" in the Keys, I believe that is what we witnessed. It seems as though thousands of small baitfish come off the flat and seem to have a lack of oxygen from the water that they are dying and foundering everywhere. The tarpon stay in deeper water just off the edge of the shallow flat and gulp these baitfish by the mouthfuls. We had the right color fly on to replicate a small baitfish and the tarpon just loved it.