Lets talk a little about flies that I like to use when fly fishing in the Everglades. I like to break down my flies to species that we target. So I will start with that. Redfish- I use a fly that was shown to me that is really simple but very effective. It has a marabou tail with a Chenil body and then a merkin style head. Since we are fishing so shallow it is important to keep your fly up in the water column. That merkin style head does just that. This is without question my go to fly. It can resemble a shrimp, crab. or small baitfish. That covers everything a redfish eats on the flats. I like using a stinger hook because it also a light wire hook and very sharp. Make sure you tie a weed guard if you are fishing down in Flamingo with all the floating grass on the flats.
Now lets talk about Snook. I also use pretty much 1 fly when snook fishing. The backcountry sweeper, which was created by Capt. Steve Huff, is one of my favorites. It has a rabbit tail with a marabou collar and deer hair as its head. It also sits high in the water column, which is perfect the way a snook eats. I will also use a popper fly that my good friend Capt. Ned Small showed me. It has a different style head but is really effective.
My next blog post will be about tarpon flies I like using in the Everglades….
