It’s never too early to start filling up your fly box for tarpon
season. I usually plant myself at the
vise right after the Playoffs and since the patterns I depend on are not that
sophisticated, I can have everything I need for the year tied up before the
Super Bowl.
I love the Tarpon Bunny and my go-to colors are red and
black or solid purple. This fly has been
around for decades and a quick Google search will provide you with dozens of step
by step tying instructions, which are nothing more than wrapping rabbit fur
around a hook. The Tarpon Bunny is one
of those rare patterns that is almost impossible to mess up, even for a
beginner.
But no matter what tarpon flies you prefer to tie, your
hooks should always be non-stainless with cutting points. My personal favorites are the Owner SSW in
size 2/0 for juveniles and 3/0 for adult fish.
These are chemically sharpened with a slight offset that can penetrate
the dense bone of a tarpon’s jaw like nothing else on the market. They have very small barbs that don’t need to
be flattened or cause unnecessary trauma when you remove them with pliers.
Best of all, these hooks rust quickly when they’re broken
off in a tarpon’s mouth. I dropped one
in a jar of saltwater as an experiment and after four days I could crumble it
in my fingers. They’ll basically
dissolve in a fish’s jaw and that’s why you should never use stainless steel hooks
for your tarpon flies. Keep this in mind
when you’re putting your box together for the upcoming season.
