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Reel Time Homosassa, river of fishes

Reel Time: Homosassa, river of fishes

Written by Rusty Chinnis on . Posted in Fishing, Outdoors, Reel Time.

The great American artist Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was enamored with Homosassa. Homer regularly traveled to Florida, the Bahamas and Cuba during the winter months and this wild, spring-fed coast was high on his list of destinations. The name itself is derived from a Seminole Indian name, “river of fishes.” Fortunately, the natural beauty that attracted his artistic talent and the fish that he pursued (another passion) can still be found there. In 1904, Homer painted at least 11 watercolors during a stay. In a letter to his brother Arthur, Homer described Homosassa as, “The best fishing in America as far as I can find.”

More recently the area was known as a fly fishing mecca for anglers who found large numbers of trophy tarpon in the late 60s, 70s and 80s. While the tarpon fishing waned in the latter part of the 1900s (it’s on the rebound again) the region runs deep with redfish, trout, cobia, grouper and hundreds of other species. A quick look at a map makes it clear why this region has been and remains such a magnet for gamefish and the anglers that pursue them. It’s still one of Florida’s most pristine areas with thousands of islands, clear spring-fed rivers and a habitat rich in marine life.

While the upland areas have not been spared the unavoidable development that is changing the face of large portions of Florida, the coastal habitat is protected by the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge comprises about 31,000 acres along the Gulf coast from the Homosassa River south to Raccoon Point, including the mouth of the Chassahowitzka River. Spanning 12 miles along the Gulf of Mexico, it was established in 1943 to protect waterfowl and migratory birds, as well as marine life including the West Indian manatee.

While there are well-marked channels that access the Gulf, the flats that line the Gulf of Mexico are not for the uninitiated or the faint of heart, being studded with limestone outcroppings that can break a motor in half or take the bottom out of a wayward boat. These same hard bottom flats and ledges attract a plethora of gamefish including a surprisingly robust population of snook.

On a recent trip I had the pleasure of fishing with two of the area’s top guides – Captain Jimmy Long whose family has been in the area for six generations, and Captain Jim Farrior a “relative” newcomer from Lakeland who has lived in the area since 1993 and fished and hunted the area since the late 70s. Both Farrior and Long are well-versed in the lore of the “Silver Mermaid.”

During my visit, I stayed at McRae’s on the Homosassa River. Alex “Gator” McRae, my host’s father, was born on the property and the family still lives there in the home (former hotel) where Winslow Homer slept when he visited. McRae’s is the perfect accommodation for visiting anglers, situated right on the river with an adjacent public ramp, restaurant, tackle shop, dock space and downstream from the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. The park is a mecca for cold-stressed manatees as well as tourists, divers and sweat and salt drenched anglers who can enjoy a cool dip in the spring’s constant 76-degree water year-round.

On our first day, we encountered large numbers of snook and small schools of redfish that refused to bite. Although the fishing was challenging the natural beauty of the area captivated this angler/photographer. It’s refreshing to find a place less than a three-hour drive from home where you encounter few anglers and miles of natural coastline that’s changed little since Homer’s time.

On our second day, our fortunes changed. While the snook still proved elusive the redfish and trout were eager to take a well-placed fly. During the afternoon we encountered large schools of 10-15-pound jack crevalle that viciously attacked our topwater poppers. The fishing was about as good as it gets as school after school of large jacks crisscrossed the flats. Making it even more exciting, the water was crystal clear allowing us to see and get positioned for the jacks well in advance. We had planned to fish a third day but the weather turned rainy and windy with an approaching front.

The experience left me eager to return and further explore the region’s bounty. The amenities and hospitality of McRae’s provided me with a “home port” for a return trip I’m planning this summer. If you want an experience of the timeless beauty of an area that’s aptly named the Nature Coast, Homosassa should be a top priority! Captain Jimmy Long can be reached at 352-422-1303 or check out his website. Contact Captain Jim Farrior at 352-422-1992. Book your stay at McRae’s of Homosassa by calling 352-628-2602 and check out their website and their live river cam. It’s a trip that you’ll remember and will keep you coming back.

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The evolution of Homosassa tarpon fishing

Written by Rusty Chinnis on . Posted in Outdoors, Reel Time.

It was in the mid to late 70s when the floodgates opened up in the area. It was a time when the world’s greatest fly anglers and guides made an annual May migration to Homosassa. Billy Pate, Joe Robinson, Al Pflueger, Captain Eddie Whiteman, Carl Navarre, John Emory, Captain Bill Curtis, Captain Dale Perez, Captain Steve Huff, Captain Jim Brewer, Tom Evans, Captain Cecil Keith Jr., baseball legend Ted Williams, Captain Nat Ragland and Captain Lee Baker were regulars. The fishing was so incredible that world records never made it to the IGFA record books because they were broken day after day.

Billy Pate, the most visible angler fishing Homosassa, was one of the first Keys anglers on the scene. Pate had been guided by Captains Hank Brown and Lee Baker in the late 70s before Captain Nate Ragland became his guide. Ragland remembers the parties Pate would throw at the Riverside Inn, the gathering place for the Keys guides and their clients. Pate’s seven-day stints in Homosassa would include six days of fishing and one day off.

reel time Norman Duncan
One of the many large tarpon caught on fly off Homosassa in the late 70s and early 80s. – Submitted | Sun

Ragland fished Pate over the course of 13 years. Ragland remembers some incredible days when there were few anglers and thousands of tarpon. One of Ragland’s clearest memories is of the day Pate fished with a broken foot from a water skiing accident. They hadn’t been seeing much until they happened on a laid up tarpon on a rock pile – laid up tarpon were rare.

Pate made three unusually bad casts, lining the fish three times. The tarpon ate the fly on the third cast even though it had 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, his push pole-caught in the bottom, and he lost it. After turning the boat around with the electric motors, they chased the fish down and caught it.

Another day that really stands out in my memory is the day Pate hooked six fish out of a seven fish string, says Ragland. 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 Florida Keys. The rod of choice was the Scientific Anglers Great Equalizer. The most popular reels were the #3 Fin-Nor Wedding Cake, the Sea Master anti-reverse and the Emory reel, developed by Miami’s John Emory.

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 an orange fluorescent head. The big rods required a large line. The most popular was a yellow Scientific Angler #13 with a green sink tip. Bite tippets were generally 100 to 125-pound test. In 1976, Evans backed John Emory to design and build his fly reel.

“I guarantee you that the Emory reel caught more large tarpon than any ever built,” says Evans. “I know because we caught them.”

It took them two plus 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 relates with a laugh.

This was a time when boats were evolving and the first anglers poled off of the cowling of their motors or backward from the bow. Eventually, boats with poling platforms and trolling motors appeared on the scene. Sidewinders, Makos, and Challengers gave way to Hewes Bonefishers, Dolphin Super Skiff, Shipokes, Mavericks and Silver Kings.

Local Homosassa guides began fishing tarpon from modern flats boats. Captain Mike Locklear learned the trade from Freddy Archibald, builder of the Shipoke and of St. Petersburg. He 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,” says Locklear. “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 80s 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 Captain Steve Huff fished three weeks every 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. “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 calculates that 10 percent of the tarpon he caught were 150 pounds or larger. By his calculations, he has landed 300 plus fish over 150 pounds.

Evans doesn’t know what’s wrong with the fishery now. “There’s no pressure,” he relates. Evans still puts in time on the flats every year with Captain Al Dopirak. “There are no Jet-Skis, few boats, no bait and very few fish.”

The tarpon still come to the Homosassa area during May and June, but their numbers are down exponentially from the 70s. Theories abound as to why they don’t return in the great numbers seen then. Some think the pressure of the ever-increasing boat traffic kept the tarpon from the shallow inshore waters. Others think the increase in shrimp boats off the coast was responsible for a reduction in the available forage food.

Probably the most credible explanation is that the outflows from the local springs are down by as much as 75 percent. Captain Dale Perez remembers when every fish they landed in the 70s spit up pieces of crabs. That doesn’t happen now according to Evans. Perhaps the mixing action of fresh and saltwater that created the perfect habitat for crabs is the problem.

One thing is for sure, we will never know why the fish stopped showing up in great numbers. Seasoned anglers know that there are cycles happening that are far beyond our comprehension. Next year, the large schools of the tarpon could return. If fly fishing has its Camelot, the waters around Homosassa were unquestionably a place where a magical time of almost mythological action is forever etched into angling’s collective consciousness.

Reel Time: The apex of angling

Written by Rusty Chinnis on . Posted in Outdoors, Reel Time.

Tarpon could be said to be angling’s Holy Grail. I’ve heard top Keys guides refer to catching a tarpon on fly as the apex of angling. While most Floridians think that it was crystalline blue water and white sugar sand beaches, coupled with the mild winters that attracted people to the state in the first place, it was actually anglers seeking tarpon.

As early as the late 1800s tarpon tournaments were hosted on Useppa Island.  In those days anglers with button down suits and ties fished from rowboats towed to Boca Grande and Captiva passes. Anglers are no longer wearing suits and rowboats have given way to technical skiffs and tower boats, but great schools of tarpon still invade local waters in May, June and July.

reel time Tarpon Time
The spectacular jumps of tarpon have held anglers spellbound since the 1800s. – Rusty Chinnis | Sun

Ninety miles to the north the Gulf flats that front the sleepy town of Homosassa were and are home to some of the most prolific tarpon fisheries in the world. Homosassa’s love affair with tarpon could be said to have started in 1882 when Anthony Weston Dimock hooked a tarpon in the Homosassa 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.”

Winslow Homer, (1836-1910) the great American sporting artist, also came under the spell of Homosassa. In 1904, Homer painted at least 11 watercolors during a stay there. In a letter to his brother Arthur, Homer described Homosassa as, “The best fishing in America as far as I can find.” In the 21st century, many have experienced a love affair with the mermaids of Homosassa. While the history of the region runs deep with redfish, trout, cobia, grouper and hundreds of other species, it is the tarpon that have made Homosassa a legendary fly fishing destination. A quick look at a map makes it clear why this region has been such a magnet for tarpon and the anglers that pursue them. It’s still one of Florida’s most pristine areas with thousands of islands, clear spring-fed rivers and a habitat rich in marine life.

While Homosassa has been the place most mentioned in tarpon lore, it was actually a large area from Crystal River to Pine Island, near Bayport where the anglers fished. The greatest concentrations of tarpon were located between Chassahowitzka’s Black Rock and the flat known as Oklahoma near Pine Island.

It was Black Rock, Lower Rack, Upper Rack (dilapidated net drying racks) and Oklahoma that dominated discussions both on and off the water. The first anglers that pursued tarpon from Crystal River to Pine Island used conventional tackle, but they undoubtedly led the way for fly anglers who discovered one of the world’s greatest fly fisheries. Eustace Locklear, a native of Homosassa and a man remembered by everyone who fished the area with a fly, learned to fish for tarpon from Jonnie Elmer, of Crystal River. Elmer caught his tarpon by trolling the river with an inboard boat.

Although anglers have been fishing for tarpon since the 1800s, it was Harold LeMaster and Kirk Smith, of St Petersburg’s L&S Lure Company (MirrOLure), and Dee Mitchell, their friend and doctor, that can be credited (unintentionally) with introducing the fly fishing world to Homosassa.

The three anglers regularly fished plugs for tarpon near Honeymoon Island. On a day when the tarpon weren’t showing, they topped off their tank and headed north in search of fish. When they reached the area north of Pine Island they ran into schools of tarpon that would forever change the history of fly fishing.

Fly fishing legend Lefty Kreh was introduced to Homosassa by Mitchell, LeMaster, and Smith after he moved to Largo from Miami in 1971. Kreh became the outdoor editor of the St. Petersburg Times after heading the prestigious MET Tournament in Miami. By all accounts, Kreh caught the first tarpon on a fly in the Homosassa area. Kreh introduced these anglers to fly fishing.

“LeMaster wanted to learn how to cast, although he always preferred plug casting,” says Kreh, who remembers him being a good caster and led him to a 100-pound tarpon on fly at Homosassa.

LeMaster and Smith also introduced Clearwater homebuilder and rod maker Gary Marconi to Homosassa during the early 1970s. Marconi fly fished the area with his college buddy Norman Duncan from Miami. Duncan, the creator of the Duncan Loop, was one of Florida’s original saltwater fly fishers.

Marconi made Captain Dan Malzone aware of the area’s phenomenal tarpon fishing. Marconi was building fly rods for Malzone in the early 1970s when he learned that Malzone had built a house on Pine Island, south of Chassahowitzka.

“Marconi turned white as a sheet when he realized where the house was,” says Malzone. “I had built a house overlooking one of the area’s most famous flats, one that Marconi and Duncan had been secretly fishing for several years.

“He then asked me when the house would be ready, and 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 and his friends Neil Sigeartsen and Pete Centerrno.”

To say the fishing was spectacular is a bit of an understatement according to Marconi, who kept a log book in the early days. His best day, April 29, 1975, shows that he and Duncan jumped 56 tarpon by noon.

Captain Dale Perez, a Tampa native and Keys guide, heard about Homosassa from Duncan.

“Captain 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 relates, “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,” says Evans. “Despite the conditions, we saw enough big tarpon to realize the area’s potential.”

Stu Apte was another angler who had heard about Homosassa well before it became a destination.

“Ray Donesberger, one of my best clients, had stopped by Homosassa on his way to the Keys to fish. 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 Lefty Kreh.

“He’s the one that really lit my fire,” says Apte. “I made my first trip to Homosassa in the early ’70s.”

Apte never guided at Homosassa, choosing instead to share poling and fishing with his good friend Captain Ralph Delph. One of Apte’s fondest memories is the day he landed two world records on one day.