Grand Slam Season: Open Dates Available With Will Benson

As the big tarpon migration winds down and all the out-of-town guides pack up their skiffs and head back out west, I feel a sense of relief.  Although the quest for big tarpon is the most exciting thing in saltwater fly fishing, it’s always nice to be done with the crazy rodeo atmosphere and on to quieter more relaxing days ahead.  Don’t be mistaken, there are still big poons around, but that game is usually over by about 10:00, which leaves the rest of the day to chase Permit and Bonefish with the fly rod, and Hogfish and grouper with spear guns.  Some of my favorite fishing is during this time of the year.  Most of the pressure is off, and the fish really sense that.  Things return to the normal lazy summer rhythm and almost everyday there is the potential for a Grand Slam.  Not to mention that with a few days of calm winds the water visibility will get up to 80′-100′ in some of the better dive spots.  Last week Bryan “Big Bear” Holeman and I took our youngest interns, Ron and Reese out for an adventure to check on some of these dive spots.  The boys “manned up” and covered my back as I went down to check for resident grouper and inspect the areas.  A lot changes from year to year with the bottom and it’s always important to do your homework if you want to shoot a big Black Grouper.  They braved barracudas, stingrays and sharks in the water then put the hurt on some permit late in the day going 5 for 8 with 3 double hookups!  It really was one of the best days you could ever hope for with youngsters and I am very thankful to Bear for coming through with a bad-ass ride for us.  If any of you out there haven’t had your fill of fishing for the year, or would like to spend a day with me working on the next installment of the WorldANGLING Drake Video Awards submission, the following dates are open:  July 9,10,11,12, August 6,7,8,9,10,11,20,21,24,25,26,27,28, September 1,2,3,4.  Just email me at the Contact Us page if you are interested.  Thanks to everyone so far this season for their continued support; Dave and I are really pumped for this year’s Drake Video Awards and can’t wait to unveil the new website and videos very soon!

W

South Florida Tarpon Fishing: Everglades, The Keys Are Heating Up

I’m not too sure where to start… its been a busy spring/early summer.  Jeff Legutki and I have been using every available day to chase tarpon here in the everglades and get it on film for our upcoming everglades movie.  Our main focus has been the laid up fish that show up in the spring and float high in the water on calm days.  One problem, there haven’t been too many calm days.  We went from dry and windy to wet and windy in the blink of an eye.  On the few calm days that we were given, we made the most of them putting some big fish in the air and in the boat.  We can’t wait to show off some of this footage, and show everyone the best tarpon fishery in florida in my opinion.  Laid up fish, rolling fish, and cruising tarpon can all be found here, and the best part about it…they eat flies really well.

We are currently filming for our submission to the Drake Magazine 5 minutes of fly fishing video awards which is due in August.  On a shoot last week in Key West the fishing gods were good to us.  Tarpon, bonefish, permit, all came to hand, even though the shoot didn’t go exactly as planned.  Thanks to Bill Faulkner, Raul Montoro, Honson Lau, an Mijo for the help, and hope those that weren’t able to make it got their heads out of their asses and ot their issues sorted out.

A final note, our movie, Drum, is coming along.  The only hold up right now is music.  Anyone have any we can use?  We have been making connections to get some, but need more.

thanks to Honson Lau for the pic

Saltwater Fly Development: Think Inside The Canal.

Channel 02 on the old VHF handheld radio does not sound good right now.  A STRONG ATLANTIC RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL EXTEND ACROSS THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES OVERNIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT. THIS RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL SLOWLY WEAKEN AS IT SLIDES SOUTHWARD WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. A SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT FOR ALL KEYS WATERS OVERNIGHT DUE TO SUSTAINED EAST SURFACE WINDS OF 20 TO 25 KNOTS. And we’re already a couple of days into it!  It started to blow thursday afternoon and it seemed like the fish just knew what was going to happen. The last 2 weeks were  really good for tarpon.  One day in particular was epic, with hundreds of fish moving through.  But alas, all that is gone.  Now we’re forced to tuck away somewhere on a high tide and look for surly laid down fish; my least favorite tarpon.  Unless we just don’t feel like it, and have more constructive things to do.  Especially when Peter Smith from SS Flies is in town.  It might be just the kind of day that’s good to tie some new prototypes and try them out in the canal. It was good to have Peter’s cousin Frank and a small barracuda to bounce ideas off of.  I jumped in to take a bit of video and look at the ride of a different shaped hook that we’re trying out.  I know it’s corny but I do think it helps to look at the fly from the fish’s perspective.  Hopefully it will lay down a bit before friday so we can actually have a chance to try out some of the new stuff.   On another note, Congratulations to Steve Trippe for winning his own tournament (which is always cool) and taking home the hallmark yellow jacket of the Trippe’s Invitational Tarpon Series or TITS.  Steve caught a great fish on friday that we measured next to the boat to eek out ahead of his brother Tom Trippe.  Thanks to Bill, Bear, and Meho for their hard work in the wind and Richard Berlin for his money. W

Guadeloupe Fly Fishing Report: Tarpon, Snook, Bonefish and Permit

2009 has been on on fire.  Bones, Snook, and Tarpon said “yes we want to play”. The bones have been more than willing to play in good numbers, and I have had the pleasure to guide all “newbies” to their first bonefish on the fly.  Some bones above 7 pounds were lost, but many schools of 6+ lbs average were on most flats. Baby Tarpon where numerous in January, but the water did not warm up enough to make them stay.  They thinned out in Feb, but we managed to jump some nice ones in those early months, from 8 lbs to 15 lbs. With the summer months coming and the water warming up, some big tarpon have started to show up sporadically, and laid up babies from 8 to 20+ lbs are now waiting along the mangroves to smash flies! June is coming and I’m awaiting it eagerly as it’s one of the greatest times to catch tarpon up to 150+ lbs in channels and some rivers.  when the conditions are right we even catch them up to 100+ lbs on the flats at sun rise.  On the snook side, the fishing has been top notch!   Sight fishing for them on shallow mud like what Jeff, Kevin, Bill and Dave do in the Everglades is just one of the most thrilling games we have here in Guadeloupe. Some spots where crawling with fish up to 20+ lbs. We’ve caught mainly snook from 8 to 13 pounds and Mr. Wallner’s son, on his first day, with his second cast, hooked up and landed a 17 pounder 10 feet from the front of the skiff.

Tarpon season will be on heat in June, and until end of October.  September and October being the months after June that I prefer to fish for Tarpon.  For those who can’t make the move in June, September and October often have great fishing as well.  The summer months of July and August are a great time to wade for bonefish and permit…take your chance on Guadeloupe flats, you can’t be disappointed!!!

Alex Ducros

Spring 2009 Florida Fly Fishing: Waiting Out The Wind

I don’t know where to begin…its been a long two months since we got back from Louisiana.  I found myself sitting in the Rathole for about 6 weeks, just waiting on the weather.  When it finally came together, we made the most of it.  We fed 7 permit in 2 days, my friend Shane Smith landing his first, and friend from up the road, Capt. George Wood, came down for 1 day and got his paws around his first permit on fly in 18 years.  We also whacked a bunch of bonefish.  Jeremy Cameron caught his first Florida Keys bone on fly, and I caught my first ever in the Keys using nothing more than man power – my kayak, some wading boots, and my favorite 10wt.  Jeremy was also lucky enough to catch his first laid up tarpon on a calm afternoon.  I think there is a video and fish tale coming this week on fliesandfins.com.

Jeremy’s tarpon was my cue to head back north.  The tarpon are showing up, and I needed to get back home to put in some serious bow time for the tarpon portion of the Everglades movie that we are filming.  Before I could go home, I stopped by the Fly Fishing Film Tour events in both Stuart and Orlando.  Both shows were rocking, but the venue in Stuart was epic.  Thanks John and Mike, RA, and Chris’s crew at Orlando Outfitters for throwing down.

So now, back in Naples, I once again await the good weather.  We play this same game every year, and its always worth the wait.