Lords of the fly : madness, obsession and the hunt for the world-record tarpon

Lords of the fly Madness, obsession and the hunt for the world-record tarpon

Monte Burke

Book - 2020

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, something unique happened in the quiet little town on the west coast of Florida known as Homosassa. The best fly anglers in the world--Lefty Kreh, Stu Apte, Ted Williams, Tom Evans, Billy Pate and others--all gathered together to chase the same Holy Grail--the world record for the world's most glamorous and sought-after fly rod species, the tarpon. The anglers would meet each morning for breakfast. They would compete out on the water during the day, eat dinner together at night, socialize and party. Some harder than others. The world record fell nearly every year. But records weren't the only things that were broken. Hooks, lines, rods, reels, hearts and marriages didn't survive, either. The... egos involved made the atmosphere electric. The difficulty of the quest made it legitimate. The drugs and romantic entanglements that were swept in with the tide would finally make it all veer out of control. It was a confluence of people and place that had never happened before in the world of fishing and will never happen again. It was a collision of the top anglers and the top species of fish which would lead to smashed lives for nearly all involved, man and fish alike. In Lords of the Fly, Burke, an obsessed tarpon fly angler himself, delves into this incredible moment. He examines the growing popularity of the tarpon, an amazing fish that has been around for 50 million years, can live to 80 years old and can grow to 300 pounds in weight. It is a massive, leaping, bullet train of a fish. When hooked in shallow water, it produces "immediate unreality," as the late poet and tarpon obsessive, Richard Brautigan, once described it. Burke also chronicles the heartbreaking destruction that exists as a result brought on by greed, environmental degradation and the shenanigans of a notorious Miami gangster--and how all of it has shaped our contemporary fishery. Filled with larger-than-life characters and vivid prose, Lords of the Fly is not only a must read for anglers of all stripes, but also for those interested in the desperate yearning of the human condition.

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Subjects
Tarpon fishing.
Fly fishing.
Published
New York : Pegasus Books 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Monte Burke (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xvii, 278 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9781643135588
  • Introduction
  • 1. The Babe
  • 2. God's Great Fish
  • 3. The Knights of the Corner Table
  • 4. Bone Island
  • 5. Hidden in Plain Sight
  • Interlude 1. Moral Exam
  • 6. Character Sketches
  • 7. Collision at Homosassa
  • Interlude 2. The Glossary
  • 8. Homosmasha
  • Interlewd
  • 9. Look at Mother Nature on the Run
  • 10. The Erra Era
  • Interlude 3. A Brief Discussion About Gear
  • 11. Mr. 200
  • 12. The Ashes and the Phoenix
  • Interlude 4. The Log Book
  • 13. Too Many Motherf * %ckers
  • Interlude 5. Catch-22
  • 14. The Old Man and the Sea
  • Acknowledgments
  • Selected Bibliography
Review by Booklist Review

The tarpon is a remarkable fish; it is brilliantly silver, long-lived, and jumps out of the water spectacularly. It is also huge, and provides the ultimate high for any angler who hooks and reels one in. Burke (Saban, 2015), who covers sports, including fishing, presents a collection of stories about larger-than-life anglers who gathered in a very special place on the water off Homosassa, Florida, to catch the biggest tarpon around during the golden age of fly-fishing in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Burke paints a vivid picture of the clear water and white sands that made Homosassa such a nexus of world fishing record holders, drawing in the history of the place, the tarpon, the sport of fly-fishing, and the famous anglers who name their names over a century. Burke also stresses the need for conservation, encouraging all pursuing outdoor adventures to participate in efforts to protect and restore wild places at sea and on land. This tarpon chronicle will appeal to all anglers and everyone fascinated by marine life.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Sportswriter Burke (Saban: The Making of a Coach) takes a fascinating deep-dive look into the world of tarpon fishing and the town famous for it. In the more than 40 years since Tom Evans, a New York City stockbroker, first caught a world-record fish in Homosassa, Fla., in 1977, he has returned to the area and landed six more record tarpons in the surrounding waters. His success made this small town the hub of saltwater fly-fishing in the 1970s and '80s, and attracted professional anglers (Stu Apte, Lefty Kreh, Billy Pate, Ted Williams) as well as fishing enthusiasts including writers Jim Harrison and Thomas McGuane and landscape painter Russell Chatham. Burke wonderfully captures their stories as well as those of their unsung guides, detailing the alliances and rivalries (local outfitters disliked the growing number of guides coming up from the Keys; and Keys outfitters felt "the manner in which fished the place was rather primitive"). Burke's writing is vivid and lyrical, as when he describes how "the roots of the mangroves... gripped the river bottom like the fingers of witches." Told with an angler's eye for detail, even the glossaries of fishing terminology and fly-fishing techniques will engage readers (a fish is icicled when it "is totally spent from a fight and is motionless in the water, its tail suspended over its head"). Fly-fishing fans will be hooked. (Sept.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A fascinating look at the narrow but wild world of tarpon fishing. Forbes and Garden & Gun contributing editor Burke indulges in his boundless enthusiasm for fishing, showing how storytelling is an important part of the fishing experience. "In angling, as in life," writes the author, "it is the ones that get away that haunt our dreams, that push us over the brink into a lustful madness. And Homosassa [Florida] was the first place in these anglers' lives where, hot damn, those dreams just might come true." In Sowbelly (2005), Burke chronicled the search for a record largemouth bass. Here, he focuses on the less-known arena of tarpon fishing, discussing its most prominent practitioners as well as the extraordinary fish itself, a behemoth that can weigh more than 250 pounds and live to be 80. The book is also about a specific time and place--late-1970s to early-1980s Homosassa--and the colorful fishing culture that thrived within it. Burke brings readers to this infamous hot spot, where the biggest names in fly-fishing--including baseball star Ted Williams and a cadre of other tough characters--would converge to try and out-angle each other. But it wasn't only about the purity of fishing. "The egos involved made the atmosphere electric," writes the author. "The difficulty of the quest made it legitimate. And the drugs and the women that were swept in with the tide made it all veer out of control." By the mid-1990s, the Homosassa tarpon craze began to peter out. Climate-unfriendly governance in Florida led to an ecological crisis that helped drive the tarpon from Florida's coastal waters. Burke constructs the rise and fall of this unique fishing tale with impressive narrative control and an obvious reverence for its vivid characters. Ably captures the swagger, attitudes, and angling derring-do of a golden age of fishing history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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