a few flies for the fall... Everglades style

lemaymiami

Finally have some fly anglers coming shortly so back to the tying bench... 
All of these are either free-handed (not done to any established pattern or recycled (the two in the middle.  All but one have wire weedguards...

These woolheaded mullet flies are specifically for snook that are just killing small finger mullet right now along the gulf coast of the 'glades.... The only wool is the colored nose on each fly... The remainder of the body is palmered and shaped Dan Bailey's Body Fur.  The hooks on these two?  Tiemco 600sp 1/0's.  

When I'm free-handing a few bugs I make a point of varying hooks, materials and colors... If one proves particularly successful I'll do a small production run to make sure I have a supply on hand (production tying is about four times faster than just fooling around at the bench..) but it is fun to come up with something a bit different... 

Spineyman

Excellent work.

sunflower

Nice flies. They look like they seriously push water.
I just came back from a difficult trip to Key West after permit.
(a great deal of the frustration angler-induced!)
Their business seems to have recovered somewhat since they re-opened in June.
Why do you think the Everglades are coming back slower?

lemaymiami

The Everglades always slows way down in summer due to the very tough weather and insect situation there,  winter is our prime season...  In fact if I’m lucky enough to have one or two bookings each week during summer that’s the deal (and that’s been the routine for me these past 25 years).  Back when they still had a motel at Flamingo they’d close it down each summer (the reverse of everywhere else)... This year though, with all the late winter and spring cancellations it’s been tough.  Normally in March and April I hardly have a day off.  This year every time the phone rang it was for a cancellation...

Were finally coming back to life and with a bit of luck we’ll have
our usual customer flow back, then come June it will slow a bit then shut down again for July and August...

Funny thing ... the actual fishing in summer just gets better and better.

sunflower

That was part of the problem on the Key West flats last weekend.
Dead flat, glassy calm, Super-hot. Super-hot water. Deep tides.
Plus, I cast like ****.

Yeah, that's the thing.