Stuff I Like: Clouser Minnows

There isn't a better fly for either salt or fresh water than the Clouser Minnow. It would be easier for me to list the species that I haven't caught on it so far. That list would be one fish; a permit. But I've seen someone else do it on my boat a few years ago, so I kind of count it, too.

Up here around Pine Island, everything eats Clousers. Snook and sea trout love them unconditionally. Back down on Vieques, bonefish and tarpon grab them with a vengence. They're easy to tie and just as easy to use. An added bonus is that they can also be cast short distances by very light spinning rods. If you're heading to anywhere in Florida or the Caribbean in the near future, your fly box should by 3/4 full of Bob Clouser's perfect fly.

Calm Between the Storms

Fay left us with a pile of neverending rain and some pretty good snook fishing between the showers. Now Gustav is forming to the southeast of Cuba and should be in the Gulf by the weekend. No telling yet whether it will make its way up here. After a two year break, Florida has to pay attention to Hurricane season once again. Putting up shutters and tying down boats is a tremendous pain and something I didn't miss the last three years in Vieques.

TS Fay

Fay never became a hurricane and came ashore just north of Naples early this morning. No damage here around Pine Island but plenty of rain. This will screw up the fishing for a few days but things should be back to normal by the weekend.

This storm formed directly over Vieques last week and followed me all the way up here to south Florida. That was very weird and had me a little concerned that something I owned was going to get smashed. I had newly built boat destroyed by Hurricane Georges ten years ago in Key West and was worried the same this was going to happen up here. I got really lucky this time.

Pine Island before the storm.

Here are a few shots I took of the island from the air this morning, just before Hurricane Fay comes and smashes us to pieces. I'm kidding about that part, but the first storm of the season is always a pain and messes up the fishing for several days. It's been exactly four years since Hurricane Charley nearly destroyed my parent's house up here so we're keeping our fingers crossed for this one.

Montana in August

Here's a few thoughts about the recent trip Amanda and I took to Montana:

Bozeman is the cleanest city on Earth. I walked an entire block without seeing a single piece of trash on the sidewalk. Not even a cigarette butt.

In addition to not smoking, no one in Bozeman is overweight. So if you are even the least bit out of shape, get the hell out of Bozeman!

Every third car in Bozeman is a Subaru.

Some of the best beer in the entire world is brewed in Montana. It goes down very well with buffalo burgers.

Montana trout eat tiny, tiny little flies. Don't sneeze when tying one on your tiny, tiny little leader or it's gone for good.

I have tarpon flies that are bigger than some of the trout I caught in Montana.

Those tiny, high mountain trout are the most beautiful fish that swim, and are worth all the pains in the ass that it takes to catch them.

The trout streams of Montana are also some of the most beautiful places on the planet, but that water is freaking cold! They should do something about this.

Summer Tarpon

Now that we’re making our summer home up here in West Florida, I’m lucky to be living just a half hour boat ride to the famous tarpon Mecca of Boca Grande Pass. Separating the two islands of Cayo Costa and Gasparilla, dedicated anglers know this mile wide spot and its history well. Along with Islamorada and the Lower Keys, Boca Grande helped kick the sport into the national spotlight several decades ago and is currently the home to the most high dollar tarpon tournaments on the water.

Tarpon fishing in Boca Grande Pass couldn’t be more different than how we do it on Vieques. For starters, the Pass, as locals call it, is very deep. It drops down to almost seventy feet and has a swiftly running current caused by the tides being squeezed between Gasparilla and Cayo Costa. The tarpon occasionally feed off the surface but they mostly hang near the bottom of the water column. Hooking them is done by dropping heavily weighted lead jigs down to their level. On the right day it’s possible to hook half a dozen fish in a few hours. It helps to have a big skiff with a powerful engine to hold position while racing with the current.

During the season when the fish are running thick, the Pass is simply a madhouse. On a tournament weekend the Pass can be choked with nearly a hundred boats literally bouncing off of each other while fighting their fish. Every command, cheer, or threat is shouted at full volume on and between the boats in order to compete with engines revving constantly in and out of gear. It’s basically NASCAR on the water, with teams decked out in identical outfits covered with sponsor patches, and their $50,000 to $100,000 boats painted to match. Loosing the wrong fish on Tournament Day can be the equivalent of loosing a year’s pay, let alone the steep entry fee. From a distance it looks like a lot of expensive, stressful fun, and I want nothing to do with it.

Tarpon are one of the greatest species that swims and if I was given one last day to fish, they’re what I’d choose to target. But for my money, big tarpon on heavy tackle aren’t very much fun. The hook-up and first couple jumps are really outrageous, but then it quickly becomes an endurance test. After two hours of pulling a heavy weight in the hot sun, a broken line is as entertaining as getting a swift kick in the groin.

As far as I’m concerned the best way to experience all that tarpon have to offer is by hooking them on a fly rod in shallow water. This is how we catch the majority of them on Vieques and how I prefer to catch any tarpon. Just before we headed for the States, the island’s north shore from Mosquito Pier to Green Beach was really producing some nice fish. Many were what I’d consider babies of under ten pounds, but quite a few were either mid-size females or full grown males up to fifty pounds. The really clear water just east of Punta Arenas held several schools of this size during early June.

The best thing about these small to medium tarpon on Vieques is how quick they are to eat almost any fly placed in front of them. This is the main difference between our island and a fishery like the Keys or Boca Grande Pass. Seeing a single boat on the Vieques flats is unusual, and when you do it’s often a local cast netting bait, not fishing for tarpon. The complete absence of fishing pressure makes Vieques tarpon the most angler friendly in the world. When I find a school of rolling fish on a calm morning, I know I’m going to get a hook into one of them. This is something I couldn’t always say during my years up in Key West.

Despite our cooperative tarpon, Vieques is never going to be compared to the Keys or the Pass. We simply don’t have the numbers of fish or the predictability. Vieques tarpon show up when the feel like it and leave just as quickly. Throw in the fact that there are only three captains on the island to charter for them you have nothing to build a $100,000 tournament around, which is fine with me. I was never much of a competitive angler anyway. My only first place victory in over a dozen Florida tournaments I fished netted me a t-shirt. That’s a pretty far cry from the giant checks and new boats handed out at the Boca Grande championship. But it was a nice t-shirt and I still wear it every now and then.

Someone is going to make $100,000 catching tarpon up here in West Florida on the right day, but it won’t be me. I’ll make a lot less than that doing the same thing on Vieques next year without all the noise, stress, and swearing. Fair trade.