homosassa's love affair with tarpon could be said to ... - Outdoor Travel

52 MARcH / ApRIL 2009
lefty Kreh hoists one of the first tarpon
ever taken on fly at homosassa. Kreh
was introduced to the area in 1971 by
harold leMaster (right, with rod).
History
Homosassa
of
A Stroll through the YeArS in the lAnd
of the Silver MerMAid
Winslow Homer (1836-1910), the great American sporting
artist, also came under the spell of Homosassa. In 1904,
he painted at least 11 watercolors during a stay there, and in a
letter to his brother Arthur he described Homosassa as “the best
fishing in America as far as I can find.”
Indeed, many anglers of the 20th and 21st centuries have
experienced a love affair with the mermaids of Homosassa.
While the history of this region runs deep with redfish, trout,
cobia, grouper and hundreds of other species, it was tarpon that
made Homosassa a legendary fly-fishing destination. A quick
glance at a map makes it clear why: Homosassa remains one of
Florida’s most pristine areas, with thousands of islands, clear,
spring-fed rivers and a habitat rich in marine life.
By Rusty Chinnis
homosassa’s love affair with tarpon
could be said to have started in 1882,
when Anthony Weston Dimock
hooked a silver king in the Homo-
sassa River. “At first I thought
the wonderful being was a mermaid,” Dimock
recounted. “As I noted her fierce display of activity
and strength, I pitied the merman who
came home late without a better excuse than
a meeting of the lodge.”
SchoolS Upon SchoolS of fiSh
Homosassa is the place most commonly bathed in tarpon
lore, but it was actually a large area — from Crystal River to
Pine Island near Bayport — where anglers fished. The greatest
concentrations of tarpon were located between Chassahowitzka’s
Black Rock and a legendary flat known as Oklahoma near Pine
Island. It was Black Rock, Lower Rack, Upper Rack (named for
dilapidated net-drying racks) and Oklahoma that dominated
discussions both on and off the water.
The first anglers who pursued tarpon in this region used conventional
gear, but they paved the way for fly anglers. Eustace
Locklear, a native of Homosassa and a man remembered by
everyone who fly-fished there, learned how to fish for tarpon
FLY FISHING IN SALT WATERS
Lefty Kreh; Stu Apte (inSet)
53

CourteSy normAn DunCAn (photogrApheD by gAry mArConi)
from Jonnie Elmer of Crystal River. Elmer caught his tarpon by
trolling the river with an inboard boat.
Although anglers had fished for silver kings since the 1800s,
it was Harold LeMaster and Kirk Smith of St Petersburg’s L&S
Lure Company (MirrOLure) — along with their friend and doctor
Dee Mitchell — who can be credited with introducing the
fly-fishing world to Homosassa. But it was quite unintentional.
The trio regularly fished plugs for tarpon near Honeymoon
Island. One particularly slow day, however, they topped off
their tank and decided to head north in search of fish. When
they reached the area north of Pine Island, they suddenly ran
into giant schools of tarpon that would forever change the
history of saltwater fly-fishing.
But it wasn’t any of those men who caught the first tarpon
on fly at Homosassa — it was Lefty Kreh.
Kreh had just moved to Largo from Miami after having spent
several years managing the prestigious MET Tournament and
was now outdoors editor of The St. Petersburg Times. LeMaster,
Smith and Mitchell had taken Kreh into their confidence and
introduced him to their secretive find in 1971.
54 MARcH / ApRIL 2009
norman duncan released this huge tarpon (l=77"; g=44")
during the earliest fly-fishing days at homosassa. the
monster ate a homer rhode divided Wing shrimp fly.
“The tarpon were everywhere,” remembers Lefty,
“and they ate well!” By all accounts, Kreh took the first
silver king on fly in these waters and then introduced
these men to the long rod, quickly putting LeMaster
on a 100-pounder. “He wanted to learn how to cast,
though he always preferred plug casting,” Lefty says.
Not long thereafter, LeMaster and Smith introduced
Clearwater homebuilder and rod maker Gary
Marconi to Homosassa. Marconi went on to fly-fish
the area with a college buddy from Miami, Norman
Duncan, creator of the Duncan Loop and one of the
Sunshine State’s very first saltwater fly-fishers.
Around that same time, Marconi was building fly
rods for Capt. Dan Malzone when he learned that
Malzone was in the process of building a new home.
“Marconi turned white as a sheet when he realized
where the house was!” remembers Malzone. “I had
built a house on Pine Island overlooking one of the
area’s most famous flats, one that Marconi and Duncan
had been secretly fishing for several years. He asked me
when the house would be ready. When I told him May,
he said that would be perfect. As it turned out, we slept
in the house with no furniture, along with Marconi’s
friends Neil Sigeartsen and Pete Centerrno.”
To say the fishing was spectacular is an understatement,
according to Marconi, who kept a log book in
those early days. His best day, April 29, 1975, shows
that he and Duncan jumped 56 tarpon by noon.
the floodgateS open
Capt. Dale Perez, a Tampa native and Keys guide,
heard about Homosassa from Duncan. “Capt. Steve
Huff and I were having breakfast at Stout’s in Marathon
when Norman Duncan came in and showed
us a picture of a huge tarpon he had caught in Homosassa,”
says Perez. Duncan was one of the early anglers who made the
Keys guides aware of Homosassa’s fly-fishing potential.
Perennial tarpon angler Tom Evans remembers a day soon
after this encounter when he was
fishing with Huff in the Keys.
“The weather was terrible,” Evans
recalls, “and Huff asked me if I
wanted to go check out a place
on the west coast of Florida
that he had heard about. We
spent two days there and had
terrible weather, but despite
the conditions, we saw eno-
ugh big tarpon to realize the
area’s potential.”
eustace locklear, one of homosassa’s
earliest tarpon guides,
paved the way for fly-fishers.
Stu Apte was another angler who had heard about Homosassa
well before it became a destination. “Ray Donnersberger, one of
my best clients, had stopped by Homosassa on his way to fish the
Keys. While he was there, he went out with Eustace Locklear and
four other anglers. When Locklear spotted a school of tarpon, he
would position the boat with a paddle and cast a MirrOLure to
the fish. He had given everyone a number, and when he hooked
up, he would set the hook and say, ‘Number one, your turn!’ ”
Apte next heard about the area from Kreh. “He’s the one who
really lit my fire,” Apte recalls. Apte made his first trip to Homosassa
in the early ’70s, but he never guided there, preferring instead
to share poling and fishing duties with his good friend Capt.
Ralph Delph. One of Apte’s fondest memories at Homosassa is
the day he landed two IGFA world records in a single day.
It was in the mid- to late ’70s when the floodgates truly opened
up. The world’s greatest fly anglers and guides soon began making
annual May migrations to Homosassa. Billy Pate, Joe Robinson,
Al Pflueger, Capt. Eddie Wightman, Carl Navarre, John Emory,
Capt. Bill Curtis, Capt. Dale Perez, Capt. Steve Huff, Capt. Jim
Brewer, Tom Evans, Capt. Cecil Keith Jr., baseball legend Ted
Williams, Capt. Nat Ragland and Capt. Lee Baker were all regulars.
The fishing was so incredible that world records never made
it to the IGFA books because they were broken day after day.
pate emergeS —
and techniqUeS are honed
Pate was one of the first Keys anglers on the scene and eventually
became the most visible figure at Homosassa. In the late
’70s, he was guided by captains Hank Brown and Lee Baker
before Ragland ultimately became his guide. Ragland remembers
the parties Pate would throw at the Riverside Inn, the
What a fish! Capt. Dan Malzone captured an incredible
moment, as this monster tarpon took to the
air. such fish were commonplace at homosassa.
Crystal
Bay
Homosassa
Bay
GULF OF
MEXICO
Chassahowitzka
Bay
Crystal
River
Homosassa
Pine Island
Bayport
FLORIDA
Chassahowitzka
River
FLY FISHING IN SALT WATERS
CourteSy CApt. DAn mALzone
55

56
gathering place for Keys guides and their clients. Pate’s sevenday
stints at Homosassa would include six days of fishing and
one day off.
Ragland fished Pate over the course of 13 years and recalls
some incredible days when there were few anglers and thousands
of tarpon. One of Ragland’s clearest memories is a day
Pate fished with a broken foot from a water-skiing accident.
They hadn’t seen much that day until they happened upon a
laid-up tarpon on a rock pile, which was rare.
Getting There, Doing That
if you’re planning to experience Homosassa in the
near future, here are a few guides and lodges to consider
calling.
Guides:
■ ■homosassa
guides Association — www.homosassa
guidesassociation.com
■ ■Capt.
dan Malzone — 813-831-4052; captdanmalzone
@tampabay.rr.com
■ ■Capt.
Mike locklear — 352-422-1927; captmike
@homosassafishing.com
■ ■Capt.
Al dopirak — 727-234-7746
Accommodations:
■ ■the
Chassahowitzka hotel — 352-382-2075;
dstrickland18@tampabay.rr.com
■ ■Mcrae’s
of homosassa — 352-628-2602;
www.macraesofhomosassa.com
■ ■Best
Western Weeki Wachee resort — 800-490-8268
getting it done, old-school-style:
Seamasters, side pressure and big
fish were the rule at homosassa.
MARcH / ApRIL 2009
Pate made three unusually bad casts, lining the fish each time.
The tarpon ate the fly on the third cast despite having been lined.
When Ragland noticed the fly line going under the boat, Pate
jumped down from the platform just as the boat pitched, bringing
him down on the bad foot and breaking two more bones as
well as the handle off the reel.
Not to be defeated, Pate had his wife Patti remove the handle
from another reel and replaced it. To make matters worse, as
Ragland was chasing the fish, the push pole got caught in the
bottom and was lost. After finally turning the boat around with
the electric motors, they chased down the fish and caught it.
“Another day that stands out in my memory,” Ragland says,
“is the day Pate hooked six fish out of a seven-fish string.” Ragland
and Pate’s favorite flies included the Dirty Nellie, Purple
Pimpernel, Black Death and the “Little Brown.”
Anglers fishing Homosassa used tackle and techniques developed
in the Keys. The rod of choice was a Scientific Anglers
Great Equalizer. The most popular reels were the #3 Fin-Nor
Wedding Cake, the Seamaster anti-reverse and the Emory reel,
developed by Miami’s John Emory.
Tom Evans had backed Emory in 1976 to design and build
his reel. “I guarantee you that the Emory reel caught more large
tarpon than any reel ever built,” Evans says. “I know because we
caught them.” It took them over two years to sell 220 reels. “If
I had known that the worse the fishing gets, the more reels you
could sell, I would have gone in the business!” he laughs.
CourteSy CApt. DAn mALzone
Flies were big by today’s standards, tied “Keys Style” (based
on the Homer Rhode Divided Wing shrimp fly) on Eagle Claw
4/0 to 6/0 254 SS hooks. Anglers experimented with color combinations
tied with three splayed grisly hackles on each side,
palmered hackles and a fluorescent-orange head. The big rods
required a large line. The most popular was a yellow Scientific
Anglers #13 with a green sink tip. Bite tippets were generally
100- to 125-pound test.
Boats were evolving around this time, as well, and the first
anglers poled from the cowling of their motors or backwards
from the bow. Eventually, however, boats with poling platforms
and trolling motors appeared on the scene. Sidewinders, Makos
and Challengers gave way to Hewes Bonefishers, Dolphin Super
Skiffs, Shipokes, Mavericks and Silver Kings.
greatneSS giveS Way to mediocrity
Local Homosassa guides began fly-fishing tarpon from modern
flats boats. Fred Archibald (builder of the Shipoke) was one of the
first on the scene. Archibald led Capt. Phil Chapman (a guest of
Dick Pope Jr.) to his first big tarpon on fly in 1974. He also gave
Capt. Mike Locklear (Eustace’s son) his first introduction.
Locklear remembers Archibald loaning him a Shakespeare
Wonder Rod and practicing fly-casting a few days before he got
his first opportunity. “I had five tarpon eat the fly before I ever
jumped one!” Locklear remembers. “He would just laugh and let
me try again. I was trying to set the hook like I had a bass on!”
Other local guides, including John Bazo, Earl Waters, Steve
Kilpatrick, Jimmy Long and Billy Hampton, also began leading
anglers to tarpon in the 1980s and ’90s.
Probably no other angler has experienced more of the evolution
of Homosassa tarpon fishing
than Tom Evans. From 1977 to
1980, Evans and Capt. Steve Huff
fished three weeks each May, a time
that produced six world records on
four different line classes. “I’ll never
see fishing like that again in my life,”
says Evans, who calculates that 10
percent — or more than 300 — of
the tarpon he’s caught exceeded 150
pounds. “Homosassa gave me the
best fishing I’ve ever experienced,
and recently the worst fishing I’ve
ever seen.”
The numbers Evans reports reveal
the weight of his words. “In the ’70s,
we landed 200 tarpon a season; in
the ’80s, 100 fish; during the ’90s,
the number dropped to 50; and
within the last 10 years, numbers
have fallen to five to seven fish.”
Evans doesn’t know what’s wrong
with the fishery now. “There’s no
pressure,” he says. He still puts in
plenty of time on the flats each year
with Capt. Al Dopirak. “There are
no Jet Skis, few boats, no bait and
very few fish.”
FFSW tiPPet
Billy Pate caught this 188½-pound homosassa tarpon
with Capt. rick doyle. it stood as a record for 21 years.
Apte’s Best Day
how good was the tarpon fishing at Homosassa in
the early days? Stu Apte caught two world records
there on May 28, 1982, fishing with capt. Ralph Delph. He
took a 162-pound, 12-ounce fish on 12-pound tippet in
the morning, then returned
later that afternoon to land
a 164-pounder.
After catching the first
fish in complete darkness,
Apte and Delph passed
capt. Steve Huff and Tom
Evans on their way back
into the Homosassa River.
“That evening at dinner at
Riverside Villas, Steve and
Tom both laughed, saying
they thought we had a problem
or forgot something!”
remembers Apte.
The tarpon still come to the Homosassa area during May and
June, but their numbers are down exponentially from the 1970s.
Theories abound as to why they don’t return in the great numbers
seen in their heyday. Some feel that pressure from the everincreasing
boat traffic keeps the tarpon
from the shallow inshore waters. Others
think that the increase in shrimp
boats off the coast is responsible for a
reduction in the available forage.
Probably the most credible explanation
is that the outflows from the
local springs are down by as much as
75 percent. Capt. Dale Perez remembers
when every fish they landed in
the ’70s spit up pieces of crab. That
doesn’t happen now, according to
Evans. Perhaps the absence of the
mixing action of fresh and saltwater
that created a perfect habitat for
crabs is the problem.
One thing is certain: We’ll likely
never know why the fish stopped
showing up in great numbers. Seasoned
anglers know it’s cyclical and
far beyond our comprehension. Next
year, the large schools could return.
If saltwater fly-fishing has its Camelot,
the waters around Homosassa
were unquestionably it: a place where
a magical time of almost mythological
action is forever etched into angling’s
collective consciousness.
FLY FISHING IN SALT WATERS
CourteSy igfA; Stu Apte (inSet)
57