Magazine Confluenze | fly fishing experience Number 8 Year 2 | Page 66

When you watch a tarpon follow and then grab
your fly into his huge mouth, before actually
setting the hook you will have to wait a couple
of seconds that the fish turns his head on one
side or towards the bottom.
Otherwise you will see your fly literally ‘spitted
out’ by the fish. The strike must be solid, with
rod kept low on the water and tight fly line, trying to set the hook as firmly as possible in tarpon’s bony mouth, with a couple of jerks. A
badly executed hook-up (not solid enough or
made with the rod only) will result in your tarpon getting unhooked after a couple of jumps.
All the above described situations are referred
to fly fishing with floating lines and leaders of
approximately two meters long (we shall detail

Photo Campeche flyfishing tarpon bay

66 Confluenze Salt

later on).
In some cases, it is necessary to fish two meters deep, sometimes more. Such situations occurr when we are trying to intercept tarpon in
canals or deep lagoons (deep canals among the
mangroves, manmade canals, natural canals
between flats and islands).
Some days the fish stay in deep water and roll
seldom. In such cases, intermediate fly lines
will be used and we’ll let leader and fly reach
the necessary depth prior to begin a stripping
retrieve.
This is certainly a much boring fishing, because
you are fishing blind, but it is often in such situations that you have the chance of hooking the
biggest specimen.