Doug Jeffries' Fly Box for Tarpon Cay

If you've always wanted pursue baby tarpon at Tarpon Cay or on the Tarpon Coast out of Campeche, you should pay attention to this post. There is some great info on what flies to bring for your next trip.


I had just got done loading a BIG fly box for my trip this Saturday to Tarpon Cay on the Yucatan Peninsula. I was ready thinking, "Baby tarpon here I come…"


MY BOX


...then I got this e-mail from my friend Doug Jeffries who is joining us in Cancun this weekend. Doug is an excellent and prolific fly tier. I've presented his flies many times on this blog! After I got his e-mail, I thought, "Geez, maybe I'm not as prepared as I thought I was!"

Here is Doug's e-mail:
Scott,
I'm done tying flies for the Tarpon Cay trip.  My main box has exactly 100 flies:

Doug's Box
  Top row, left to right:
- a few baitfish patterns with EP fibers (Sardinia, mullet)

- all black and Black Death, some lightly weighted, some unweighted (never go tarpon fishing without all black flies)

- a few misc. tarpon flies from previous trips
- floaters and surface flies, incl Lee Haskin's neutralizers and gurglers (one booby fly, the big pink eyed purple thing)

MIddle rows:
- grizzly & red, some weighted, some unweighted (obviously one of my favorites)
- misc rabbit strip tarpon flies in various colors
- a few more misc tarpon flies from previous trips incl white lightnings, lime lightnings
- three baby needlefish flies (there are usually lots of baby needlefish around, works really well in Campeche)
- two coq de leon tarpon flies
- two green zimas (tied after Scott caught his big tarpon in the Bahamas)
- a few more grizzly/white/red

Bottom row:
- a few smaller and more sparsely tied flies
- brown dyed grizzly/grizzly and red
- all white/ grizzly & white
- yellow/grizzly yellow & red (another of my favorite patterns for Yucatan)
- TCL Specials
- light cockroaches (tied with fox squirrel rather than grey squirrel collars)



Also tied 10 of those slider / poppers we talked about.  Some in orange & grizzly; some yellow & orange; and some in black.



Finally, a small ziplok bag with some other small baitfish patterns; a few different floating flies; some stuff we had for arowana in Brazil.
So all told, I guess I have around 130 - 140 flies. Should be enough...
Doug
Gosh Ya think Doug?!!!

Next: Doug adds a few more flies in the next e-mail. I'll post this tomorrow.