Author: Peter Smith

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The Best Tarpon Flies? Not What You Think.

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Catching tarpon on the fly is an extraordinary experience.  Crazy things can happen when a tarpon eats.  Sometimes they eat the fly and keep swimming at the boat, or eat and turn bolting for another continent.  They may gobble a fly and jump feet away leaving a hole in the ocean and the angler wet.  Line peels off the deck, errant loops wrap parting the angler from the fish, captains shout unintelligible orders, knees go weak, hands get cut and burned. 

There’s really nothing like it in the world of saltwater fishing. 

So far everything has gone right. A lot has to come together to get the first jump out or a tarpon.

To get geared-up for tarpon fishing is not a casual endeavor.  Twelve weight rods are almost essential, it needs to be quick and powerful enough to cut headwinds.  A tarpon fly rod also needs to put steady and predictable pressure on a running fish. The reel does much more than hold the line it needs to slow down 150 lb fish heading for the deeps, a sticky drag will leave the angler with suddenly limp line. Also when a fish runs at the boat the reel needs to pick up line quickly.  The backing knot has to be smooth and strong, the leader-line connection needs to be clean, perfect.  The smallest flaw in the tarpon rig can leave the angler with stories only about the fish that got away.

Foul Guards
Loop foul guard keeping the tails in place.

Choosing the right tarpon flies is important too. This may seem counter intuitive but the best tarpon flies are not the same as the best tarpon patterns.  Great patterns tied improperly won’t work well, an ugly captain’s fly tied well will work all day.  The most important thing about a tarpon fly is how the individual fly behaves in the water.  Tarpon don’t bother with a fly that sinks to the bottom, they might not eat a fly that sits on top.  They might look at a fly that’s floating just right in the water column but decide it isn’t food for NO reason.  To get everything just right tarpon guides often tie their own flies.  Fly tyers gearing up for a tarpon trip need to understand what a specific tarpon pattern is intended to do being attentive to techniques to make the fly fish right.  Try to copy the bulk and profile of a pattern with as little material as possible.  Rabbit tails need to be controlled to ensure they don’t foul, feather tails also need to be corralled too.  S.S. Flies uses an in-line foul guard on all our rabbit tails and a loop guard on feather tails. It’s also possible to employ stiff materials to keep tails in place. The stiff bucktail collar on Cockroaches can keep the feathers in place, we often veil flowing material like Cashmere goat with a stiff synthetic.

All of the captain’s favorites listed below require great attention to detail when tying them.  They all look pretty simple but if we get a batch a little off we hear back from the captains; they keep us on our game!

Keys Captain’s favorite tarpon flies: 

#1           Fox Fur Tarpon Fly – For many captains this is the fly they always reach for.  It works no matter the time of year or location.  This is a simple looking fly that actually is hard to reproduce.  S.S. Flies tracks down an uncommon variety of fox tails and dye them for this fly.  It is easy to use too much material making it float but too little make it look like a drowned small rodent. 

#2           SS T-Poon – Another tarpon fly that works from Tampa to Cuba and throughout Mexico, Belize and Hondorus.  The biggest secret to this fly is the ostrich herl tail.  It’s hard to find it long enough especially for the 4/0 version and it needs a lot of it to get a full flowing seductive fly.

#3           Cult Classics – With roots starting with Fritz Coker and Capt. Tom Roland these original Key West patterns have been catching tarpon for a lot of years.  Later in the season many Keys tarpon guides turn to this old style feather flies. 

#4           Duke of Poons – The worm colored version of this fly as become the only fly a number of S.S. Flies captains use through May and June when tarpon are focused on palolo worms.  The other colors are great on both cruising fish and laid up tarpon in the backcountry.

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Tarpon Fly Basics

In most situations the best tarpon flies land softly and sink slowly.  The fly needs to be able to land close to these spooky fish without making them nervous.  Once the fly gets on the water it needs to stay near the surface and in the fish’s view when stripped.  Laid-up fish, tarpon lazing near the surface motionless, see everything and can get grumpy at the slightest disturbance.  Laid-up tarpon flies have to land very softly and suspend near the surface.  Cruising tarpon also need an un-weighted fly but one that drops into their vision a little quicker.  Weighted flies are sometimes used for tarpon in deeper channels.

Capt. Bill Stockton with a beautiful Key West tarpon.

People first learning about tarpon flies are often surprised that the flies aren’t huge, Northeast striper flies are much bigger.  Certainly tarpon eat bigger prey, it’s common to see them crash foot long mullet but on the flats they seem to key in on flies around three inches long; 2/0 flies are by far the most common size.  Occasionally in the Keys captains will fish 3/0 or even 4/0 flies but unless an angler has instructions to bring big flies the smaller 2/0 is the right choice.  Actually more often than big flies in the Keys smaller flies are the ticket especially late in the season. 

Color can be important but often unpredictable.  Many captains start every day with a black and purple fly changing it only when a fish refuses; some captains really don’t change then either. There’s not a lot of black bait on the tarpon flats and the color that often works if black doesn’t is chartreuse!  It seems movement is more important than color.  (Years ago we tied some tarpon flies for a captain with stiff neck hackle, they didn’t fish well so we went back to the saddles we typically use and they work as always.  The stiffer hackle seemed to mess up the movement of the fly in the water.)  For a general tarpon box it’s important to have some black and purple flies and chartreuse complimented with tan and olive. 

Tarpon flies that work everywhere: Fox Fur Tarpon Fly right, SST-poons and Marabou Toads

Our top three tarpon flies are:  Fox Fur Tarpon Fly, SST-poon and Marabou Toads.  The Laid-up Bugs are great classics and the Duke of Poons is fast becoming a captain’s favorite.  The Duke of Poons along with the M.F. Dinner Shrimp and Cult Classics are good choices for cruising fish.  

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Redfish Fly Thoughts

Redfish are opportunist feeders, if they are munching grass shrimp and a pin fish shows swims by they’ll eat it.  Fly choice is typically a little less matching the hatch then making sure the redfish sees the fly.  Flies need to get down in front of redfish so most of them are weighted.  There are times when redfish are looking up, poppers are really fun when this happens.  In general bigger weighted bait fish flies are used for redfish in Louisiana.  In the Southeast crab and shrimp patterns are better.  Most redfish in the Keys are caught on crab flies but that might be because anglers have bonefish and permit in mind and a redfish swims by.  Small bait fish and shrimp flies are good from the Everglades up the Gulf Coast. 

Louisiana bull redfish
Louisiana bull redfish. Angler Steve Shaddock

Louisiana is the most well know redfishing destination.  Generally big flies are great for the Louisiana marshes, flies like Dinah-moe Drum and Willy the Pimp.  Large crab flies can also be great.  At times in Louisiana poppers or gurglers work really well.  When redfish are tuned into top water the fishing gets really fun, they will miss and circle back, miss again and finally eat.   Also in Louisiana the Woolly Toad, Lunch Lady and Simple Pimp are also effective.

Willy the Pimp and Dinah Moe Drum two great Louisana redfish flies

The Electric Chicken and black and purple crabs (black S.S. Merkin) are local patterns from the southeast Atlantic coast: North and South Carolina Georgia and northwestern Florida.  Most of the fly fishing in the Southeast is in the marshes where the juvenile fish patrol marshes.  The forage there primarily consists of various shrimp species and crabs.  Other effective flies are the Woolly Toad, I.P. Bone and Ugly Bug. 

Redfish have become an additional target species in the Florida Keys in recent years.  Most of those fish are caught on crabs although other flies work.  It’s just that most captains and anglers are going to have a crab fly on in case a permit or bonefish swims by.  The rest of costal Florida can be a great redfishing.  Much of the Atlantic coast fish like the rest of the Southeast with more of an emphasis on the Woolly Toad and S.S. Merkin.  In the Everglades the Woolly Toad rules but those redfish will eat Simple Pimps (a GREAT snook fly) and Rivets.  The Saint Alfonzo is a local redfish pattern in the Upper Keys and Everglades.   In the mangroves of Charlotte Harbor St. Alfonzo, Ugly Bug, Wooly Toad and S.S. Merkin are great flies. 

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Flies for Snook

Most fly fishing for snook is in the mangroves.  The casting is fun requiring a side arm cast under the mangroves and pin point accuracy.  The eats are explosive and then the fish needs to be stopped from going into the mangrove roots.  Snook are one of the most fun fish on the fly! 

Effective snook flies have to have good weed guards not so much for the weeds in the water but the mangroves the angler is trying to cast under.  When the fly doesn’t go under but into the mangroves a good weed guard will allow the angler to gently pull it out and let it plop into the water sometimes a fish eats it but at least the fly comes free without taking the boat in and spooking any lurking snook. 

Snook are ambush predators.  They’ll cruise a shoreline looking to surprise a ball of bait or stay still in shallow water waiting for some small baitfish to swim by.  When they eat they surge and crash, it’s one of the most fun things and angler can do with a fly.  Flies need to match the size of the available bait.  They also need to suspend near the surface or float.  The most popular snook fly we sell is the Backcountry Sweeper, it’s great throughout Central America as well as in the pattern’s native Everglades.  The Rivet was also designed for the mangroves of the Everglades, far up in the Everglades there are often very small bait, that’s what the #2 Rivet is for but the larger Rivet is good everywhere.  The first Simple Pimp we tied was originally tested in the Everglades winning over a skeptical captain in just a couple hours.  Snook love surface flies too.  Our poppers (Weed Walker and Wake-n-Shake) are great fun on snook as well as the Boehm’s Gurgler. 

Tim with a nice Everglades snook that eat a black and purple Simple Pimp. Capt Jeff Legukti photo.

In Florida, on the Gulf Coast, snook hunt along the beaches for small baitfish in the surf.  These fish are exposed, moving and spooky an angler needs to stay out of sight in a place where there is way to hide.  Learning the tides, light and location of this game takes time.  The fly choice for this fisher is easy though the D.T. Special.  We’ve worked up all kinds of custom patterns for beach snook for local anglers but they always come back to the D.T.’s.

When anglers think of Central American fly fishing bonefish and permit are the focus.  There’s also tarpon fishing in much of the area.  But there are snook everywhere!  Boehm’s Gurglers, Backcountry Sweepers and Simple Pimps will give anglers enough choice to make these fish come out to play.

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Permit Fly Recommendations

Imagine, you’re going on a permit fishing trip.  You know when you’re going.  You know the tides will be perfect, the guide extraordinary.  But you can only bring one fly pattern in one color, different sizes and weights but, just one fly.  This could be a crippling dilemma. 

Over the years with all the permit anglers we’ve worked with it doesn’t seem that hard.  I’d simply pack tan Permit Crabs.  It is by far the first choice of captains all along the Keys.  It’s a great Bahamas permit fly, effective throughout the Yucatan and into northern Belize.  It’s a great compliment to the Avalon Fly in Cuba. The Permit Crab or its look-alikes has become a staple indo-Pacific permit fly.

But who wants to just bring one fly on a permit fishing trip?

We’ve been setting up anglers destined for permit flats since 2006.  Here’s our recommendations:

Angler Evelyn fed a this permit a Camo Crab at Tarpon Caye Lodge

Florida Permit Flies: 

The Permit Crab is essential.   Except for Biscayne Bay tan is the color.  The tan Permit Crab works well in Biscayne Bay but sometimes the olive one is the ticket.  The tan #1 Crab Cake has become an important back up fly.  Both flies have consistently help teams to the top of tournament leader boards. The Quivering Fringe is also a pretty effective permit fly and does double duty as a bonefish fly.

Sometimes in the Florida Keys permit key on shrimp patterns.  The two long time favorites are the tan Bad Tail Squimp and tan I.P. Bone.  Our tan Goat Belly Shrimp has been pretty effective too.

A rare but great time is finding permit eating crabs being tumbled off the edge of a flat.  The permit sip the crabs off the surface like a trout taking a spinner.  A version of Capt. Simon Beckers Hover Crab is the fly to have.  We don’t stock them but often tie this foam crab fly as a custom order.  If you’re fishing the Keys when this is happening you guide should have a couple favorite floating crabs on board.

Bahamas Permit Flies:

Most anglers think only of bonefish when planning a trip to the Bahamas but we have customers who have had some great permit fishing from Grand Bahama to Crooked Island.  Virtually all the fish have been caught on the #1 or #1lg tan Permit Crab.  The #1 is also a great bonefish fly.

Yucatan Permit Flies:

There’s a lot of permit fishing from the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula to northern Belize.  Both tan Ragheads and Permit Crabs are staples on the permit flats, get the 1/0 and #2 Ragheads and #1 Permit Crab.  The Avalon Fly can be really effective in deeper flats. 

There is a custom version of the Raghead Crab that’s very effective in Ascension Bay.  It’s light tan/beige with white legs and painted yellow eyes.  We work with a couple outfitters who love this fly, they insist on it.

Belize Permit Flies:

Belize is probably the most complex destination to recommend permit flies to anglers.  That’s mainly because the permit fishery in northern Belize is very different from southern Belize.  From Ambergris Caye south to Turneffe the fly selection is much like that for the Mexican Yucatan, tan Ragheads and Permit Crabs size #1 will be good. 

In southern Belize from about Hopkins to Punta Gorda the primary permit forage is a small dark mottled crab, they are smaller than a nickel and permit seem to look for nothing else.  Most of the guides poling those permit flats look for and will likely choose is our #2 Camo Crab*, it’s always a toss-up between the olive and tan versions.  A distant second is the #2 Crab Cake.  If you’re going on your first permit trip to southern Belize you really don’t need any other pattern but the Camo Crab in those two colors. 

Turneffe is somewhat of a transition from northern to southern Belilze.  The same flies that work further north are great, Ragheads and Permit Crabs.  Permit might be keyed in on the smaller crabs so Camo Crabs are also necessary.

*The Camo Crab comes only in size #2.  That sounds big, most recommendations call for #6 Bauer Crabs.  We put the Camo Crab on very short shank hook, the shank is not as long as the typical #6 hook but the gape is that of a #2 hook.  This leaves a lot more space between the body of the crab and the hook point.  That translates to a better chance of actually hooking one of these fish.

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Choosing Permit Flies

It’s a reasonable notion, picking the right fly for a day of permit fishing is the easiest thing about actually catching a permit.  These black tailed sirens lure anglers across baking flats to the edges of jungles mangroves and remote atolls.  Defeated permit anglers teased and torture and tossed slog home after chasing permit resolved to improve; to get better at fishing into the wind, to be more accurate or maybe to learn how to actually hear directions when a permit appears.  Luckily fly choice is easier than figuring out where “two o’clock” is when the word “permit” is shouted first. 

The S.S. Flies Permit Crab

Permit come onto the flats to eat and not much else, otherwise it’s a pretty dangerous place to be.  They are looking to gobble down a crab or a shrimp or some bottom critter.  If a permit sees something that says “snack” it will gobble it down quickly.  It’s pretty easy to tie a fly that looks like a crab or a shrimp but that’s not the most important features of an effective permit fly.   Permit flies need to act like permit food.  A crab fly needs to dive like the real thing heading for cover.  When it hits the bottom a crab fly should have its claws up defensively, when stripped it absolutely cannot twist or tilt.  Likewise a shrimp fly needs to fish true, a shrimp fly that lists side wards no longer looks like a shrimp.  Permit are not going to waste their time chasing something that doesn’t look like food.

Effective permit flies also need to be properly weighted.  A permit cruises the flats tuned both to dangers and food with its eyes scanning the bottom, a fly needs to get down to the bottom quickly so they can see it.  Of course the heavier the fly the more likely it will land with a splash.  Unexpected splashes are very scary to permit, the right weight can be more important than the right size.  It’s important to have a variety of weights in most permit fisheries.  One of the finest permit guides ever to pole the Lower Keys (Captain John O’Hearn) labels every individual fly with its weight to a tenth of a gram!

Color can be important.  Seldom are olive crab flies effective in the Lower Keys, a dark olive crab is important to have in Belize.  It’s likely to be a tough day if there aren’t any olive crabs around and that is what’s on the end of the line.  Often that’s as complex as color choice gets for permit flies.  A tan crab on nearly any permit flat is a great choice, worth fishing until something refuses it.  There are times when permit seem to prefer a fly with some bright orange or a touch of blue, and discussions about just the right accent colors can be exhaustive.  Many permit guides and anglers carry a couple markers to put accents on a fly. 


Peter with a Keys permit with a Permit Crab in its lip. Photo Capt Will Benson

Confidence might be the most important factor when choosing a fly.  Permit angling is hard enough but if the captain or angler doesn’t trust the fly it gets a lot harder.  Permit refuse all the time for no apparent reason but if the fly is a known factor the refusal is blamed on something else: the strip was too fast, the cast too short or too long, hull slap, too many false casts, the pole crunched the bottom, the rod flashed in the sun…

But the fly stays on the end of the line if it’s caught fish before.

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Tarpon Fly Basics

In most situations the best tarpon flies land softly and sink slowly.  The fly needs to be able to land close to a fish without making her nervous.  Once the fly gets on the water it needs to stay near the surface and in the tarpons view when stripped.  Laid-up fish, tarpon lazing near the surface motionless, see everything and can get grumpy at the slightest disturbance.  Laid-up tarpon flies have to land very softly and suspend near the surface.  Cruising tarpon also need an un-weighted fly but one that drops into their vision a little quicker.  Weighted flies are sometimes used for tarpon in deeper channels.

Playing with a Keys tarpon.

People first learning about tarpon flies are often surprised that the flies aren’t huge, Northeast striper flies are much bigger.  Certainly tarpon eat bigger prey, it’s common to see them crash foot long mullet but on the flats they seem to key in on flies around three inches long; 2/0 flies are by far the most common size.  Occasionally in the Keys captains will fish 3/0 or even 4/0 flies but unless an angler has instructions to bring big flies the smaller 2/0 is the right choice.  (Actually more often than big flies in the Keys smaller flies are the ticket especially late in the season.) In Cuba and much of Central America larger flies are much more common than in the Keys.

Color can be important but often unpredictable.  Many captains start every day with a black and purple fly changing it only when a fish refuses; some captains really don’t change then either. There’s not a lot of black bait on the tarpon flats and the color that often works if black doesn’t is chartreuse!  It seems movement is more important than color.  (Years ago we tied some tarpon flies for a captain with stiff neck hackle, they didn’t fish well so we went back to the saddles we typically use and they worked great.  The stiffer hackle seemed to mess up the movement of the fly in the water.)  For a general tarpon box it’s important to have some black and purple flies and chartreuse complimented with tan and olive. 

Our top three tarpon flies are:  Fox Fur Tarpon Fly, SST-poon and Marabou Toads.  The Laid-up Bugs are great classics and the Duke of Poons is fast becoming a captain’s favorite.  The Duke of Poons along with the Grizz Bugs and Cult Classics are good choices for cruising fish.  

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Choosing Bonefish Flies

Big Bonefish

Bonefish are many angler’s introduction to saltwater fly fishing.  The Bahamas have all kinds of bonefishing.  From Acklands to Abaco and west to Andros there are unknowable numbers of populated bonefish flats.  Most bones in the Bahamas are moderate sized, six pounders are nice fish, impressive double digit fish are always possible if hard to feed.  Belize is another popular bonefish destination.  Most of the fish in this part of Central America are pretty small, a couple pounds.  They travel in schools and are known to eat flies with abandon.  Belize is a great place to be introduced to fly fishing for bonefish.  There is also very good bonefishing along the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.  Of course the Florida Keys is great place to chase bones.  For years Islamorada was the bonefish capital of the world, in recent years the better bonefishing has often been further west, big bones patrol the flats from Marathon to Key West. 

Generally recommendations for bonefish flies emphasize smaller sizes, #6 being the most common.  There is a great emphasis on soft landing flies for bonefish, the size six recommendation often has as much to do with the pursuit of stealth rather than matching the bait. Over the years we have come to recommend larger flies, #4 being the most common.

Large flies seem to catch more and bigger bones.  When tied carefully the larger flies land just as gently as one size smaller but are a bigger morsel for fish to focus on.  Some of our most committed bonefish anglers fish their go-to patterns in size 2!   These experienced anglers have caught plenty of small bones, they enjoy the challenge of feeding big fish cruising the flats.  Big bonefish often hunt the flats on their own or with a couple other fish.  They are spooky and don’t travel a long distance for a small snack.  These bigger flies show up better and inspire fish to eat.  Even when fishing over schools of bonefish big flies are effective. Little bonefish on the edge of a school will pick off the quick snacks but when there’s a big meal served up the largest bones in the middle get aggressive bursting out of the school to feast. 

Belize is an exception to the rule.  The bait there is small, the fish aren’t big and importantly, the flats are shallow with deep turtle grass leaving just a few inches to a foot of water to fish the fly in.  Size 6 and 8 flies are the ticket.  All bonefish flies for Belize need weed guards.

Bonefish eat everything on the flats often feeding opportunistically.  Various shrimp species, crabs and baitfish make up the bulk of their diet.  If a school of bonefish are snatching grass shrimp and a big crab scuttles along the bottom a bonefish will eat it!  Shrimp patterns like the Peterson’s Spawning Shrimp, Super Sim Ram, and the Missing Link are patterns that every bonefish angler should carry no matter where they are fishing.  Nearly every lodge recommends Crazy Charlies (Cree Charlies at S.S. Flies) and Foxy Gotchas.  Crab flies are very successful on the bonefish flats but not as commonly fished. Nearly all the S.S. Flies captain’s fish crabs for bonefish, pics of big bones sent to us often sucked up a Permit Crab.  In fact if there was one fly an angler should always have on any saltwater flat anywhere in the world is a tan #1 Permit Crab, everything eats it. 

Bonefishing requires a certain skill set but they are more cooperative than permit (most fish are) and often travel in schools so an errant cast can still result in a bonefish eating a fly.  Certainly casting is an important skill to get bonefish on a fly.  If an angler can consistently turn a fly over casting sixty feet into a 15 mph wind they will do well.  Unlike both tarpon and permit the strip of a bonefish fly is relatively straight forward.  Quick short strips usually work, but if the fish aren’t eating most often the fly just needs to be stripped faster. 

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The Five Best Bonefish Flies

Every bonefish destination recommends Crazy Charlies and Gotchas (our versions are Cree Charlies and Foxy Gotchas).  These are classic flies that work predictably throughout the Caribbean and Central America.  They get fished a lot and catch a lot of fish.  S.S. Flies recommends these two pattern partly because they are effective, partly because they are flies guides see consistently and they have some confidence in them.  They are very good bonefish flies but not necessarily the best bonefish flies.  The following five flies can be considered essential.

Peterson’s Spawning Shrimp – We have the most reports of multiple fish days with this fly.  One report of a 19 fish day on the exact same one (our flies are pretty durable).

Peterson's Spawning Shrimp
Peterson’s Spawning Shrimp
Mantis Shrimp, tan
Mantis Shrimp, tan

Mantis Shrimp – The #4 tan Mantis Shrimp is a favorite of our most committed bonefish anglers.  It’s a little heavy for shallow flats (get the #6 for that) but it is built to land softly so you can get away with the weight.  The white Mantis Shrimp is a great mole crab imitation, essential at times in the Bahamas.

Missing Link – Again tan is the most productive color but at times the pink is really effective in the Bahamas and Belize.  The olive is good in Belize and anywhere fish are focused on grass shrimp or certain species of mantis shrimp; it’s also a good for stripers feeding on grass shrimp.

Missing Link, tan
Missing Link, tan
Goat Belly Shrimp, tan
Goat Belly Shrimp, tan

Goat Belly Shrimp– This fly was in development for a while with us but once anglers started fishing it the Goat Belly quickly became one of our most effective patterns.  It is very shrimpy, lands softly and sinks well.  Very good on permit too.

Permit Crab, tan
Permit Crab, tan

Permit Crab:  Maybe the best flats fly anywhere.  Everything that swims in shallow water and eats critters is likely to eat this fly – and probably has.