More Florida Flies

I am getting pretty excited about heading to the Sunshine State in April to chase a wide variety of fishes. Cordell was originally concerned about the cold weather snap that South Florida was having, but that seems to have passed and it has warmed up again. Fingers crossed that keeps up! 

Bugs Bunny eat your heart out!

I have been spending most of my time at the tying desk putting together a selection of flies to catch a bunch of flies to catch everything from peacock bass and snook to tarpon and redfish. I am focusing my tying on flies that will catch fish in the mangroves. They need to move some water and can get up into the mangroves without getting caught up too much. Check out these rabbit strip flies.  Should do the trick! 

Ain't no use if it ain't chartreuse!

Great colors for the 'groves.

I have also seen that a lot of EP fiber flies are getting used in the 'Glades these days. I have to admit that I am not much of a fan of the EP fibers but I love Flash and Slinky which can be used in a similar fashion. The Flash and Slinky and other similar materials are a bit thicker and stiffer and I like using them a lot more. Here is my take on that style of baitfish fly.

Mr Mullet!

Scampi anyone?

Shrimp are a favorite prey item of a lot of different fish in the Everglades. Can't head down there without a few shrimpy kind of patterns. I like the "critter" style flies so I did them in two different weights. Should get the redfish and snook's interest don't you think?  The deer hair heads move some water similar to how muddlers do. I suspect that smallies might like this fly in this area as well. Kind of like a sculpin or a darter I would say.




I didn't neglect the canal fish either. Plenty of colors of Clouser Minnows.
 

Canal Candy

 Epoxy minnows should get some attention from those fish too.

I also got some inspiration by looking at the flies of deer hair magician Pat Cohen.  I tied up a few Dahlberg Divers. They should work great for pike and musky too. I added some foam for flotation. I think it will add to the fly quite a bit.

Speaking of musky... I had to do a couple of really big divers to get one of my favorite predator's attention. So I upsized the divers from 2/0 to 5/0. The results are worth it! I am thinking of surface crashes already!

 I am sure there will be a few more flies coming! Stay tuned!