Even Burke, a passionate and experienced tarpon fisherman, admitted: “The really big tarpon are equal parts beauty and terror.”īurke’s book is meticulously researched and extremely well written. Hard, bony mouths and muscled bodies make the silver king a challenge for any angler attempting to catch one with a fly rod can lead to madness. Their ancestors swam the oceans during the Cretaceous period 100 million years ago. Tarpon-with their broad mouths and slightly upturned faces-are capable of weighing more than 300 pounds and have lifespans that exceed 50 years. It’s often called “the silver king” because its scales reflect bright flashes of light when the great specimen leaps in the air. Megalops atlanticus is the ultimate game fish. Tarpon, commonly referred to as “The Silver King,” are the ultimate game fish and a challenge for anyone trying to land one on a fly rod. Some of the fly fishers who congregated there were legendary for their pursuit of tarpon on fly others were better known for their actions off the water. Both men soon found Homosassa’s flats pressured and swarming with crowds. They discover a new spot, a secret place that teems with fish, and they find that they just have to tell someone else.”Įvans is considered one of the greatest big-tarpon anglers of all time Huff is arguably the best tarpon guide-ever. “But it’s also sometimes the case that fishermen are the most foolish of truth-tellers. “All fishermen are liars, as the saying goes, and that’s likely true to some extent,” writes Burke. It wasn’t long before the secret got out. Evans and Huff arrived in search of huge tarpon, and that’s exactly what they discovered and caught. Derived from the Seminole phrase “river of fishes,” Homosassa was relatively obscure-only a few locals knew about its abundant tarpon population.
The adventure begins in 1976 when a stockbroker named Tom Evans and guide Steve Huff journeyed from the Keys to Homosassa, a small town on Florida’s west coast. New York Times best-selling author Monte Burke’s new book is a fitting tribute to tarpon fishing’s greatest generation.
The thrilling tale also chronicles the plights of dreamers who chased giant tarpon during the sport’s heyday-in the late 1970s and early 1980s. “Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for the World-Record Tarpon” (Pegasus, 278 pages, $26.95) by award-winning, New York Times best-selling author Monte Burke, details the pursuit of fly fishing’s greatest challenge: catching tarpon on fly. The best ones often involve the biggest fish and the greatest struggles. These realities have always lured anglers. Tradition and lore have created a history flush with ripples and currents that rival those actual movements in fresh and salt waters.
Fly fishing means more than simply catching fish.
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