Tarpon and Redfish Toads

[kenmorrow]

The following are pictures and recipes of my tarpon and redfish toad patterns. Feel free to ask questions, etc. We can discuss here. Also post your own pics, suggestions, recipes, etc. for tarpon and redfish toads here.



Chartreuse and Olive Tarpon Toad





Gray and Black Tarpon Toad

[3spots]

I know as much about flies and toads as I do about women, but those look nice Ken!

[nubby]

I do not know anything about women (thought I did but the wife changes that every day) and I know less about the toads. But as 3spot said those do look tempting.

[kenmorrow]

Recipes

Chart + Olive:

Gamakatsu 3/0 Tarpon Hook
Danville Flymaster Plus (chartreuse) thread
Stainless dumbell eyes (medium)
CCT Body Fur (magnum) olive
Blood quill marabou (chartreuse)
Pearl UV Crystal Flash

Gray + Black:

Gamakatsu 3/0 Tarpon Hook
Danville Flymaster Plus (black) thread
Stainless dumbell eyes (medium)
CCT Body Fur (magnum) black
Blood quill marabou (shad gray)
Black olive UV Crystal Flash

Thanks, fellas. Toad flies are actually loose imitations of crabs. They are nearly neutrally buoyant (sink very, very slowly and appear to suspend for several seconds when allowed to sit still). They generally are fished within 1-2' of the surface, and are ideal for laid up tarpon, tarpon feeding on crabs, and redfish on the flats. The difference between a tarpon toad and a redfish toad is mostly the size of the fly, but most redfish toads are also tied with a double weed guard made of monofilament.

The original tarpon toad was tied with a strip of rabbit fur as the tail and a marabou collar ahead of that, but anglers soon realized that a solid marabou tail performed better in a wider variety of situations. So the rabbit strip is now pretty "old school" on tarpon toads, but you will see it used more on redfish toads. In fact, my redfish toads are tied with two shorter rabbit or squirrel strips alongside a longer marabou center. The fur strips simulate crab claws very well.

Rabbit and squirrel strips wiggle really well in the water when a fly is twitched or stripped. Marabou "breathes" exceptionally well when sitting still and wiggles when stripped. The fur is much heavier than the feathers, and when wet this characteristic is magnified. That is the main reason that the fur has been dropped from the tarpon toads. The marabou versions are much lighter and more neutrally buoyant. Tarpon seem to find this suspending, twitching, pulsing, crabby sort of thing in front of their faces pretty hard to resist.

[gabreamyaker]

wow nice ties ken. did you weave the front part of the fly? or spin it?

[kenmorrow]

Neither.

CCT Body Fur is a garland - like Estaz, chenille, etc. But it consists of a very high grade poly yard and flashabou woven into the garland rope.

So you tie it in, wrap it forward, tie it off, and trim it to the shape you want. You can tease/comb/pick/brush it to get different consistencies.

It's awesome stuff!

[troutman]

Sweet Ken!

[kenmorrow]

I'll put some pics up of the redfish toads soon. I tie them in rust/tan and black/gray. The big difference is they're tied on a #2 M34007 hook, have a double weed guard (fork style), and have a rabbit strip down each side of the tail to simulate crab claws. Otherwise, they're about the same.

[troutman]

I may need to purchase a few of those from ya?

[kenmorrow]

Jul 4, 2011 9:51:49 GMT -5 troutman said:

I may need to purchase a few of those from ya?

Let me say this publicly and then I'll PM you:

I do not just take orders for custom tied flies without restrictions. I only tie for a handful of people, and am not actually looking to expand the list. It isn't a profitable use of my time. Because of that and because my flies are WAY better quality than store-bought flies, my custom flies are not inexpensive. However, neither are good plugs, crank baits, spinner baits, etc. And when you price store-bought saltwater flies and other custom tiers' saltwater flies, if you get a quote out of me you won't be terribly shocked.

My normal guidelines for taking orders are as follows:

1. I only tie for hire for people I know who are professional guides and a few relatives and close friends.

2. I only tie my own patterns and custom Puglisi Minnows.

3. EP Minnows sell for $5-8 each at retail...off the rack. Mine are far superior to those. So be prepared for sticker shock.

4. Most other saltwater flies sell for $3-6 each in fly shops. A few are $1.50-3 each. My own patterns fall into the same type category as the $3-6 flies, and I price them fairly competitively if ordering a dozen flies or more (not all one type).

5. I won't take an order without payment in advance. Shipping inside the continental US is included in my quotes.

If someone really wants to do some good and buy some quality custom flies hand-tied in the USA, I have a couple of very good friends and colleagues in FL who are excellent tiers and tie commercially. One is a full-time guide who supplements his income that way. The other doesn't need the money and donates it to a charity that funds medical research into a rare bone disease that afflicts his 3 daughters. He is a fellow member of the Peak Pro Fly Tying Team with me, and a fellow Contributing Editor to Florida Fly Fishing Magazine. Both of these guys are more reasonably priced than I am and would love to get more orders.

[usckayak]

Ken, where do you get your Estaz from? I been looking off and on for this type of material but cant really seem to find it. Ive tied some flies for salt a few times but havent ventured in the yak to try them out (mainly clousers, and some of my own design). Ive also heard that black and purple are good colors for reds...

[kenmorrow]

usckayak,

That is a material called CCT Body Fur. It comes in several different diameters. This is the "Magnum," which is about 2". I am a CCT Body Fur dealer. I don't really advertise this fact because it's very labor intensive without much profit, but I have wholesale dealer agreements for almost every fly tying material and many tools on the market. So I have the ability to run a virtual fly shop, if you will. And if I wanted to tie up about $20k in inventory, I could run an actual fly shop.

The wholesale to retail mark-up on fly tying materials is horrible. You have to really move some serious volume to make it worthwhile. I have these agreements because of all the teaching and charity work that I do. I've been known to buy as much as $10k worth of fly tying materials at a time, several times per year to support fly tying programs for disabled people around the country. $10k worth of tying materials is as much as a lot of fly shops buy in a year.

But if you want to buy the stuff from somewhere else, you can order it from 2 sources that I know of. CCT stands for Cascade Crest Tools, a company that makes fly tying tools and has expanded into a few specialty tying materials. I'm pretty sure they sell direct via the web. Hook & Hackle also sells CCT Body Fur via their website. The price is the same either way. Frankly, if you order it from me the price is about the same, too. Like I said, there isn't much wiggle room in fly tying materials. When you see the stuff on sale it is because someone is trying to clear out inventory that's been sitting around in order to make room for new stuff, or because another shop went out of business.

Purple and black (Peanut Butter) is a great color combo for a lot of different fish species, mostly in low-visibility situations: dingy water, cloudy days, early morning, late evening, and night.

[usckayak]

Yea Ive dealt with Feathercraft and J. Stockard on some other items and they are ok, I may have to check if they have the items you listed. I will just have to dig around the internet some more.

[kenmorrow]

J Stockard has good prices. Feathercraft is a premium catalog/on-line seller. So they're not known for their bargains. But they are a great company that's been around for a long time. I know the owner and knew his deceased father (passed away a couple of years ago) well. He was a legend in fly fishing circles in the Heartland of the country. Ed Story's Feathercraft catalogs actually set the standard in high-end mail order fly fishing catalogs in the mid-20th century. He kept producing them himself until the year he died.