“Tie this on”. The words that when commanded by a fishing guide flood you with two consecutive feelings. First defeat – in that your choice of fly didn’t work out. Then hope – that now with the guide’s fly you stand a chance. If the words are coming out of Capt. Mark Giacobba’s mouth, the fly soon to be attached to your tippet is listed here.
Capt. Mark is well aware that the fish of his home waters in Everglades National Park are extremely opportunistic and a wide array of flies will work. Nevertheless he’s spent many years learning these fish’s habits while refining his own flies down to four patterns. A simple arsenal in which he has total confidence that he has the right fly for the job no matter what the target species or conditions are.
If you plan on stepping onto Capt. Mark Giacobba’s boat, he’ll appreciate you having his patterns at the ready. Otherwise these tried and true patterns will serve you well on your next backcounty adventure.
A tailing redfish fly that lands softly, is weedless, and has an incredible “edibility factor”. Meaning a redfish seeing the Blue Claw for the first time after lifting its head out of the grass will often hunt it down even if it has to go out of its way.
It’s a gurgler, for the backcountry! It’s shrimpy, it rides high and makes a solid bloop. With two pieces of foam it’s pretty durable for a gurgler as well. Always have a gurgler in your backcountry box.. always.
Capt. Giacobba’s go-to tarpon fly. For fish size small and large. A backcountry tarpon usually just has to get a good look at something possibly edible, and he’ll eat it. With a blend of chartreuse and natural brown, the Doofus is just that – something edible the fish can see.
It’s very difficult for a gamefish in Florida Bay to resist a shrimp. Whenever there’s snook or tarpon around, especially when the water is on the clearer side of the spectrum for the area, the Skrimp is going swimming.
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