Tarpon legend Stu Apte remembers “in the 1950s and 1960s you could hit the last fish in a string in the tail with a 4/0, 5-inch long fly and it would wheel and eat the fly. Do that today and the whole pod heads for Cuba.”
Over time, as the fish learned what was food and what was bogus, the game became more difficult and flies got smaller; flies built on 4/0 or 5/0 hooks that were 5-inches long were eventually whittled down and were being tied on 3/0 hooks with 4-inch long feathers. Today, we fish feather wing flies on 1/0 hooks and the feathers are 1-1/2 inches long and we catch the same fish as before, but the shrimp-size flies fool them.
