When last I wrote about fly fishing for tarpon in this publication, I warned anyone considering taking up the sport that tarpon can be real assholes. Their unpredictability is maddening. Nevertheless, watching a tarpon eat your fly and then blow out of the water like a detonating bomb is exhilarating and addictive. I make an annual pilgrimage to the Everglades in June to get my fix.<\/span><\/p>\n During my four days of Christmas each June, I desperately want to make the most of any shiny gifts I find under the tarpon tree. But if you only get to fish a few days each year, as I do, it is difficult to maintain\u2014much less improve\u2014your tarpon game from year to year. Think about it: If you didn\u2019t pick up a golf club for a year, would you expect to walk to the first tee and maul your drive down the middle of the fairway? Of course not. So why would you expect to hook the first tarpon you get a shot at if you haven\u2019t cast to one in a year? And unlike a yearly round of golf, during which you can work off some rust in your swing by the tenth hole, you might only get a handful of legitimate shots at tarpon during an entire trip. Your first shot might be your only shot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you want to catch more tarpon on a fly, you have to improve your tarpon game in the offseason. In order to do so, you need to replicate casting to\u2014and hooking\u2014tarpon when you practice. (<\/span>Um, wait<\/span><\/i>, you might be saying. You can practice <\/span>hooking<\/span><\/i> a tarpon on a fly rod? Is that even possible? Yes, and I\u2019ll explain.)…<\/span><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_raw_html]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI5NTglMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjI1MzklMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGQXNQWVIwWVc5NEElMjIlMjBmcmFtZWJvcmRlciUzRCUyMjAlMjIlMjBhbGxvdyUzRCUyMmFjY2VsZXJvbWV0ZXIlM0IlMjBhdXRvcGxheSUzQiUyMGNsaXBib2FyZC13cml0ZSUzQiUyMGVuY3J5cHRlZC1tZWRpYSUzQiUyMGd5cm9zY29wZSUzQiUyMHBpY3R1cmUtaW4tcGljdHVyZSUyMiUyMGFsbG93ZnVsbHNjcmVlbiUzRSUzQyUyRmlmcmFtZSUzRSUwQSUwQQ==[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]…If you don\u2019t own a dog who retrieves, find someone who does. My preferred breed for this drill is a Labrador retriever. Labs are obsessive retrievers and couldn\u2019t care less if you tie your fly line to their collar before they race off to get their precious ball or Frisbee.<\/p>\n Regardless of the breed, tie the end of your leader to the collar of a dog that tips the scales in the 50- to 100-pound range. I have found it helps to tie the line to the collar and then put the collar on the dog. Stand back about 10 yards, throw a tennis ball, and release the hound. As the dog races away, you\u2019ll get to practice funneling excess line shooting up from an imaginary deck through an \u201cO\u201d you make with your forefinger and thumb….(continued)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]In the March issue of Tail…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,3049],"tags":[46,45,78],"yst_prominent_words":[1346,330,374,314,315,371,377,1293,585,373,372,370,1960,567,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-7279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fly-fishing-tips","8":"category-saltwater-fly-fishing","9":"tag-fly-fishing-magazine","10":"tag-saltwater-fly-fishing","11":"tag-tarpon"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/saltwater-fly-fishing-for-tarpon-1.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7279"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Saltwater](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tailflyfishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/TAIL-COVER-52-reduced-e1616044411561.jpg?resize=300%2C390\")
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