Catching Up On Catching Poon: Tarpon Season In A Nutshell

Posted under fly fishing reports by Will Benson

Wow!  Where has all the time gone?  Consumed by 12-16 hour days, 4:00 AM wake up calls and a hazy recollection of giant schools of tarpon, aggressive permit and the always elusive bonefish to complete the grand slam…I seemed to have forgotten to post a fishing report.  Darn!  The fishing this season would be best described as intense.  It never seemed to want to settle into its’ normal rhythm.  We worked hard for the fish we caught…and oh yes, we did catch!
Late April brought some terrific tarpon action and we fished a mix of backcountry fish and ocean side swimmers.  Dale Dashiel finally landed his beast after hooking many with me over the last couple of years.  Then, he did it again the next day! Watching his buddy Jim Schneider land so many monsters year after year finally pissed him off enough to get one.  Congrats Dale!  Now you have to catch a permit.  Speaking of which, Cliff Snydor landed his first ever on fly with me in early May.  We had just released a tarpon moments before hooking the permit so a slam was certainly on the table.  About an hour later cliff and I were celebrating the first slam of the year! Then the fishing got tough…My longest clients and best buds George Haley and John Davis had true technical fishing.  The waters out west shut down and we were confined to Confrontation Basin off Sugarloaf and my home waters out back.  Although we did manage to hook and land fish the difficulty and patience level was much increased from  early Mays of past.  The whole week culminated on the last day when J.D. finally managed to wiggle a fly seductively enough to feed a fish that clearly didn’t really want to eat.  We all screamed very loudly and thanked the Gods for blessing us.  Mike Allen and I had some good fishing wading for tarpon and permit.  We almost had a slam but couldn’t stay glued to the tarpon.
For 2 weeks every year I live and work aboard the mothership Outpost.  Fred and Penny Wheeler own and run this terrific operation here in the keys as well as in the Bahamas.  If you’re really serious about your fishing this is the way to do it.  Contact the Outpost at www.outpostexpeditions.com for more details.  On week 1 I fished with Woody Woods and his buddy Bobby Strawbridge who was guided by the talented Capt. Scott Irvine.  The week was terrific.  Woody set yet another high for most fish jumped in a single week.  Last year during this time we experienced some of the worst weather I’ve ever seen during the month of May.  Thankfully the gods took piety and the seas smoothed to bring some really impressive schools of fish.  On week 2 I fished with the fly guru Peter Smith and his cousin Frank.  Although the weather wasn’t quite as good as the previous week there were still plenty of fish to be caught.  Peter and I had our annual sit down on the skiff where we looked over flies and talked about what the next generation tarpon flies are going to look like.  We’re hoping to have some to try out by the fall but, as Peter tells me, it’s quite a bit more complicated than just putting the materials on a hook and trying it out. I hope all the great ideas we have come together because the next generation flies are going to take the whole game to another level.  You can check out the best flies in the world at www.ssflies.com .  The 2 weeks ended for me with another near miss on a grand slam as Frank Smith broke off a permit and missed another eat to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  I fished with Jim Nichols during the first 2 days of June and again we nearly missed a slam as the permit mysteriously got off while Jim was clearing the line.  All that came to a screeching halt on Thursday June 5th as Mike Allen and I proceed to set another personal best for permit on fly.  Mike hooked 6 and landed 5 and yours truly stepped up to the plate and hooked one while Mike was fighting his fish off the front.  The incredible part is we could have hooked more fish!  It was one of those magical days when all the conditions come together and the permit decide to inhale anything that crosses their path…so long as it’s the secret pattern!  No pressure for Cort Dehart the next day as we set out to post as many points as possible in the annual Broken Oar fishing tourney. We had a great day hooking and landing 3 tarpon, loosing a couple of bones and barely missing several permit.  The guide competition was fierce with Capt. Jeffery Cardenas and I neck and neck on day three.  Then, from out  of nowhere, my buddy Capt. Aaron Snell posts a monster score to eclipse every record for the tourney and take home the prize.  Congrats Aaron!  Remind me to kick your ass next time I see you at the Parrot.  The good Dr. Gannon Dudlar and Dr Bill McCoy rounded out the month of June so far.  As always Gannon and I managed to hook a few fish to keep things interesting; including a very big permit in skinny water and some other cookie cutter sized fish that were schooled up.   Dr Bill and I closed out our season with some great eats from singles off David’s Island and a fine tequila with salt and lime; the traditional reposado of “El Pescador.”   I’m looking forward to some time off and a chance to try out my new underwater housing for the HD camcorder.  We are taking a trip to Fort Jefferson on Friday aboard the Yankee Freedom II with some friends of ours from Indy and their 2 boys Ron and Reese, who have just finished watching Tarpon Season and now want to see one close up. Lets hope I can make it happen.