Take Your Fly Rod to Florida 



by Dick Splaine and George X. Sand . . . 

 photographs by Paul Burr ess 



THE JUDGE of this court is a sunburned man wearing hip boots 

 and a hat with streamer flies stuck in the crown. Directly be- 

 hind the bench is a mounted tarpon. A brass plate attests the fact 

 that the tarpon was caught on a fly rod. The courtroom is packed 

 with men and women, many of whom are dressed like the judge. 

 It is evident that a hearing is taking place, and that it concerns 

 salt-water fishing specifically, fly-rod fishing. The judge, after 

 an affectionate glance at his mounted tarpon, addresses a witness. 



"You say your name is Dick Splaine?" 



"Yes, Your Honor." 



"Is it true that you caught a bonefish on a fly rod, using a fly 

 as a lure?" 



"No fooling, Your Honor. My bonefish broke the world's fly- 

 rod record, too. But then Joe Brooks caught one on a fly rod, and 

 his bonefish weighed 10 pounds 9 ounces. That's the current 

 record." 



"Who is Joe Brooks?" 



"He is an authority on salt-water fly fishing." 



"Now, Mr. Splaine, there are many sportsmen who fish exclu- 

 sively in salt water by other methods. Yet you specify fly fishing. 

 How long has this fly-rod fishing been going on?" 



"Well, Your Honor, it has been going on in isolated cases for 

 many years a few men, here and there. There was a man in 

 Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, who took striped bass on a fly rod. 

 Some others on the Pacific Coast. A few down here in Florida. 

 They were looked upon as strange characters, with loose bolts 

 in their noggins." 



"Ah," says the judge, "this is interesting. I hear that four short 

 years ago a lone angler strode forth on the bonefish flats of the 

 Florida Keys to learn if this great fighting fish would take a fly. 



44 



