Gary Meyer | Tuesday, 14 August 2018
I managed to fish down the Everglades mangals a few times over the last couple weeks. I had not been fishing there for a while. I was hoping that time will sooth the situation that Hurricane Irma left us. It is hard to see much improvement yet. The water is still very tannin stained and full of algae, but there are some fish playmates willing to have some fun.
It's not like the water in the brackish ‘glades was crystal clear to start with. The water usually carried some or a lot of tannins depending on the time of year, but sighting fish cruising along in the shallows used to be possible. Not now. It looks like it will take some time for things to settle out. The good news is some fish have habits that allow them to still be targeted.
One is an unusual critter called a Trippletail. It spends part of its life floating on its side at the surface relying on an odd shape and impressive camouflage to mimic some sort of flotsam. Pity the small fish or shrimp that is fooled as it soon becomes food. The Tripletail make fun fly casting targets and they are extremely good on the table.
The other fish that offers hints to its whereabouts is the tarpon. They break the surface performing their famous rolls, which appears to be some sort of rudimentary breathing, but they also aggressively attack their prey at the surface too. Some sky-rocket completely out of the water, for fun or what reason I don’t have a clue. The smaller sub-mature ones are a common summertime fly target, and this year seems to be no different. They are famous for not being bothered by foul water.
While the larger adult fish are much tougher to find this time of year the juveniles are a wonderful target with lighter rods. Like, say, a new Hot Torpedo 6wt! I’ve been yard casting the rod for while now and fully appreciate the custom tool that Paul has created, but I had yet to pull on a fish with it. Well, that took about 10 minutes once it got near water. I’m happy to report my HT6 lost its virginity to a young and handsome tarpon in the 5# range. I think that romance will be getting along quite nicely for years to come.
I also had the opportunity to field test the 6wt Thunderbolt fly line. As would be expected it fits the HT6 like a glove. Could it be the rod and line were made for each other? Personally, I really like the long belly and the extra hard and slick coating. The outstanding aspect of the line though is the color. I’m sure Paul designed it for nighttime fun casting and I doubt he had any idea what a great line it is for one particular niche type of casting we do down here.
Years ago a local celebrity angler, Flip Pallot, came out with his own flyline specifically for casting into the mangroves. It was white, and for a good reason. When casting back under the dark shade under the mangrove branches your eyes need all the help they can get. Trust me on this. I once tried fishing a shore with a black fly on a clear floating line. Black flies work particularly good back in the shadows BTW. But that combo was absolutely impossible to cast accurately and keep out of the branches simply because it was damn near impossible to track visually.
As far as I know, Flip’s line is no longer available, but this Thunderbolt may be even better. If only it was available in say a true 9 weight for the average snook fly! Hint, hint.