Tie by the Trip
by Mike Conner, editor
It always seems to come down to rigging and tying flies at the last minute, though I do like to plan ahead. May is here, and in Florida, it seems that everything with fins comes on strong from May until mid June.
Running a publishing company and editing this iPad magazine demands carving out time to fish, and as I write this, tarpon are calling me to Florida Bay. So today I'm doing the office chair shuffle, wheeling my chair across the "track" from my Mac to my flytying bench and back, about a hundred times so far today.
My host in Miami has found a nice bunch of fish, in the same places they were last May, and baitfish patterns on the small side, and white jigs for spin, are usually the ticket. Luckily, I have a few that I use for snook in my home waters, but its going to take another half dozen, or more like a dozen, to be on the safe side, before I drive south for the day. And it's a long day that means driving 250 miles in 15 hours if I don't spend the night. And that drive is across Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties on a weekday. Thats a daunting gauntlet, among the worst traffic in the U.S.
Just testament on the spell that big Everglades tarpon put on me, and it's understandable, if you've ever done it. So I'm on a roll here, and passed a dozen 'poon flies as the noon hour passed. I'll keep tying until I empty this spool of thread. That way, I'll come back with a few flies, but I hope most of them make a one-way trip, and end up, as Billy Pate used to say, "garbaged" by some silver kings.
