Equipment
List 
Fly Rods
You can bring any fly rods you have from #7 to #10 weight if you like. Rods that are in line sizes 8 and 9 weight are the most useful. We prefer 9' rods for fishing from a boat with three and four piece models being the most popular and practical for air travel today. Rods with a fast action are best for casting larger flies from a boat with the winds that prevails in salt water situations. Rods with larger salt water guides and a fighting butt are what you need. Our favorite combinations are a 9' #8 weight rod with a WF9F tropical line and a 9' #9 weight rod with a WF10F tropical line.
Fly Reels
Have a solid fly reels with
a larger diameters spool and a smooth adjustable disc drag.
Most of the tarpon are 5 to 35 pounds so having 150 yards
of 30# backing would be sufficient.
Fly Lines
99% of the time you will be
using a weight forward tropical (stiffer core for heat) full
floating line. We prefer one size larger fly line than your
fly rod calls for. Most major brands of tropical salt water
floating lines are good.
Leaders & Tippet
There are many ways to go here. We have always used a simple three piece leader built out of stiff clear mono. First have a 4-5 foot section of Mason 25# mono for the butt section. Next you can Albright on 2 feet of 20# Mason for the breaking tippet. Lastly you can Albright on 2-3 foot shock/bight tippet of 30# Mason. Some will use 60# Rio FC for shock tippet which is the same diameter as 30# Mason. The fly is attached with a Homer Rhodes loop knot.
We also like the
Rio 'Big Game' leaders that are 20# breaking tippet and 60#
shock or bight tippet.
Our friend Leo Gutterres of Stockton , CA has been working
on a new twisted leader system that works very well.
We can help you
with all this too.
Flies
Marco Ruz has developed his
own variations of Chico Fernandez's "Seaducer"pattern. These
light weight patterns are tied smaller than the norm on #1/0
stainless steel salt water hooks. The flies are not over 2.5
inches in length. The flies should be as light as possible
so they cast easily, land softly and sink slowly in the shallow
water. We have these flies tied special by Bob Scheidt with
very sharp Japanese stainless steel hooks for this destination
and other similar shallow baby Tarpon fisheries.
Some of the best
colors for the Seaducer for Baby Tarpon are grizzly died orange,
yellow with a red collar, white with a red collar, black with
a red collar and barred ginger. Most commercially tied Seaducers
we see have a hackle tail that is about twice too long. Put
a few strands of flash down both side of the tail.
Top water patterns
like the new Floating Puglisi streamers, Lee Haskin's new
Slideball, small Snookaroos, small Gurglers, Crease flies,
and small salt water poppers will work at times. This is more
exciting than you can imagine.
For safety we highly
recommend removing the barbs from all your flies before going
on this or any salt water trip. It actually helps with penetration
on the Tarpon's bony jaw.
**Be
sure to come in a let us help you with all this. We would
rather spend the time here at home getting everything together
properly so you have a great trip. If you are out of the area
you can ship you reel(s) to us so we can properly install
the right fly line on there for you.
Another
good idea is to get a tune up lesson with a good fly casting
instructor and practice some before any salt water trip.
Misc Equipment
- We like light weight synthetic long sleeve shirts and
long pants for sun protection. Any light colors are good
but not white as it scares the fish. If you want to travel
light, you can have two shirts and two pants so you can
wash one pair in the sink and hang to dry in your room.
- Have a couple sun hats with chin straps so you don't lose
them while traveling in the boat. Having the under side
of the bill dark is good for glare.
- Have two pairs of light colored Polarized glasses with
side shields. If you need a prescription for distances you
might need Polarized glasses with your prescription in them.
Light brown and amber/yellow are the two most popular colors.
The light brown lenses is best in the bright sun and the
amber/yellow is good in overcast (low light) conditions.
Be sure to have straps on your glasses so you don't loose
them. Have a cleaning cloth and liquid spray to clean you
lenses. Seeing the fish is very important in this type of
fishing.
- Have some good water proof sun screen and some lip balm
with UV protection as well. We recommend putting your sun
screen on in your room in the morning so you don't forget.
Then you can wash you hands after too.
- Have some insect repellent for going into the mangroves
just in case. It was not buggy at all while we were there
the last three years which is amazing to me. The new 3M
Ultrathon is very effective.
- We fish on the front deck barefooted or with socks so
we can tell when we are standing on the fly line. This is
a very popular way to fish out of a boat in the tropics.
Just be sure to put sun screen on the tops of your feet.
Sandals are good for getting around most of the time. You
won't need any wading booties.
- I would have a camera with new batteries and extra batteries
too. Digital cameras are very popular and sharing the photos
on a CD after the trip is wonderful.
- It is nice to have your own little boat bag. You can carry
all your fishing gear in it.
- They do have standard AC voltage the same as the USA .
- Other things to bring are a small pair of binoculars,
snorkel & fins, books for reading, first aid kit, light
weight rain jacket, fly tying kit
***If
our date doesn't work for you or our trip is full we can book
you into your own trip anytime from April through November.
We do like to pick out weeks with a good tide and moon phase.
Baby Tarpon fishing is one of our specialties.
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