Some are born into tarpon fishing, and others find tarpon fishing along the way. Monte Burke falls into the latter. Burke is an author and angler who has written profiles on Nick Saban, George H.W. Bush, and other iconic figures. He was a reporter and journalist for 14 years at Forbes and continues to contribute to publications such as Forbes, Garden & Gun, The New York Times, and numerous other outlets. Burke has also authored multiple books and is a New York Times bestseller.
It wasn’t until he went on an assignment with legendary guide Steve Huff that Burke discovered tarpon fishing and its rich history. He went on to write Lords of the Fly, exploring the early history of tarpon record fishing in Homosassa. Recently, we had the chance to catch up with Monte Burke and talk about tarpon fishing, Lords of the Fly, and his newest book, Rivers Always Reach the Sea. Check out the full interview below:
Flylords: When did you first get into fly fishing?
Monte Burke: My father was a fly fisherman, and more importantly, my grandfather was really into it. He had a little lake outside of Birmingham, Alabama, which he called Lake Tadpole, rather grandly. It was more of a pond, but he would take me out there, and he taught me how to cast with these old cane Orvis fly rods. We’d catch a bunch of little bream, but every once in a while, as I became a little bit better, we’d put on a bigger popper and catch some nice bass.
I was probably seven when I really started getting into it, and then we moved to North Carolina. We lived on a farm, and we had a pond in the back, and if I didn’t have sports after school, I’d go down there and try to catch big bass. Then I started trout fishing and followed the normal evolution into saltwater stuff, stripers, then bonefish and tarpon.
Flylords: When did you first start writing? Do you have any authors or outdoor writers who inspired you to start writing?
Monte Burke: I always wanted to be a writer, but after college, I thought I should be more responsible, so I applied to business school and got in. I was writing a bunch of essays for the application, which is an interesting thing to do at 25 years old, because you take stock of where you’ve been, where you are, and where you want to go. It was during the writing of those essays that I realized I did not want to go to business school and would, instead, try this writing thing out.
At the time, I lived in D.C. and became infatuated with the Letort Spring Run and its glory days with people like Vince Marinaro and Charlie Fox, some of the early innovators in the fly fishing game. I mean, Vince almost single-handedly pioneered fishing with terrestrials on that creek. So, I wrote a 3,000-word story on spec for the Letort and sold it to a magazine for $200. From that point on I said screw business school, I’m gonna do this.
I did everything I could to make myself a better writer. I read everything I could get my hands on, but I never really loved the old school Hook and Bullet style of pounding your chest type of writing. But I did love the people who wrote about fishing in almost a literary fashion; someone like McGuane comes to mind most there. McGuane was a huge influence, and still is. Whether it was bonefishing, tarpon fishing, permit fishing, or trout fishing, he took that writing just as seriously as he did his novels and short stories, and that kind of opened my eyes a little bit to what could be done.
Flylords: Can you tell us about when you first started tarpon fishing?
Monte Burke: I first discovered tarpon fishing after an assignment for Garden & Gun, in which I profiled Steve Huff. I call him the DiMaggio of fishing guides, I mean, he’s a hero to everyone who’s a guide. We spent three days together chasing snook and redfish and had a blast. A few years later, I found myself on Steve’s boat again, working on a story about Carl Hiaasen.
Steve was notorious for not taking on new clients. He even turned down George H.W. Bush. But I boldly called him one day and said, “Hey, if you got an open week, man, I would jump on it.” Steve said to come on down. On my first day of tarpon fishing, I was a nervous wreck, blowing casts at giant laid-up fish. The next day, I calmed down and made a good enough cast to a humongous 140-pound tarpon who took the fly. I fought that fish for way longer than I would today, and after I landed it, I thought I was gonna barf from dehydration, my hand was stuck like a vice grip, and my back hurt. But I couldn’t wait to do this thing again. It was so awesome, and from that point on, I’ve just been a junkie.
Flylords: In your words, what keeps you coming back to tarpon fishing?
Monte Burke: There’s an interesting feeling I have every morning before I go out for big tarpon. The possibility is there that I might look at and cast to a 120 to 150-pound fish. I have a weird combination of feelings; I’m totally pumped, but also wary because I know what it’s going to take out of me and the fish if I hook one. To me, they’re the coolest thing because they are the only thing that we hunt or fish that actually fights back, like, really fights back. You realize you pull as hard as you can; it’s a really physical act. I’ve always loved that.
I love where they live, too, especially in the Everglades. I mean, the Keys and oceanside fish are great. It’s very cool to see them, but they feel like a jungle fish back in the Everglades. I’ve read everything about tarpon, and I’ve never seen a perfect description of what it feels like to hook a giant tarpon. I mean it’s truly an otherworldly thing. Richard Brautigan, the poet, probably got it best or closest anyway. He called it “immediate unreality,” which is my favorite description of that moment of the take.
Flylords: Your book, Lords of the Fly, follows the history of early tarpon record fishing in Homosassa. When did you first discover this story and decide this was the story that needed to be told?
Monte Burke: I first heard about the story when I was fishing with Steve Huff. He’d tell me about his client, Tom Evans, and a place called Homosassa. I didn’t even know where it was, but I loved its cool, poetic Native American name. Steve told me these stories about guys spending all their time there in the late 1970s, chasing fish that were 20 to 30% larger than the ones they’d seen anywhere else.
It wasn’t until I did a story on Andy Mill that things started to come together. Andy was insistent that someone needed to tell the story of Homosassa. The guys were getting older, and some had already passed. So Andy gave me Tom Evans’ number, and I drove up to his place in Vermont for a couple of days. Tom is this big, cantankerous guy, and he sat there and told me all these stories, and I remember driving home in a snowstorm, thinking, ‘This is a book.’ It had every big name in saltwater fly fishing, but more importantly, it was about becoming obsessed with something other people really don’t care about, but to these guys, was everything. I love writing about people like that.
Flylords: What was the process like in creating Lords of the Fly?
Monte Burke: For two straight years, I spent a few weeks in May with Tim Evans, who was in his 80s at this point, in Homosassa. I also interviewed Steve, but the exciting thing about the whole process was that it gave me an excuse to talk to other icons. I met with Chico Fernandez, Flip Pallot, and Stu Apte. I’ll never forget knocking on Stu Apte’s door, and we had this great long interview. In fact, the interview went on so long that he took a nap in the middle of it; we had sort of a halftime.
What’s cool about these projects is that they give you license or, really, an excuse to go down rabbit holes that you might not otherwise go down. Sometimes you come up with just dirt in your face and nothing to show for it, but other times you come up with a guy like Bobby Erra, a gangster who was intimately involved in the Homosassa world record-chasing scene and helped found Abel Reels. These crazy characters, that I had never heard of and would not have heard of had I not kept digging, were fascinating. I think I spent about a year researching it, and then another year or so writing it.
Flylords: This book covers many great icons, like Steve Huff. Were there any anglers or guides that really stood out to you, and why?
Monte Burke: It’s hard to narrow down. I mean, what’s interesting about this book is that there are a lot of ways to tell this story. I could have told it through Billy Pate’s eyes. Al Pflueger was still around. And I could have told the story through someone like Stu Apte’s eyes.
I felt like Tom Evans was the most intriguing character because he was the only one really still going down there, all these years later. But also, Tom was the least well-known of everyone there. Billy Pate dedicated his life to record angling, and Al Pflueger, Lefty Kreh, and Stu Apte were professional fishermen at that point. Tom was just an unknown guy from the Northeast who was obsessed with Tarpon. So, to me, he was the most interesting way to tell this story. But meeting all these guys in person and hearing their stories was incredible. I suppose I didn’t really answer your question; it’s like trying to choose which of your children is your favorite – you can’t. You love them all, for different reasons.
Flylords: We noticed on your social media that there are various images of dogs, cats, and even a pig reading Lords of the Fly. Where did this idea come from?
Monte Burke: That was completely out of left field. A friend of mine actually sent a picture of his golden retriever wearing glasses and reading the book. I just posted it because I thought it was funny. Then I put up a picture of my new puppy chewing on the book. Next thing I know, I started getting close to 30 people a week sending me pictures of their animals, whatever they would be, “reading the book.” There was a huge hog, if I remember correctly, and there was a one-eyed hedgehog, and there was a goldfish. In a good way, it got out of control after a while, but I’m not great with social media, and I am uncomfortable with the promotional aspect of the book process. This was a sideways way to help promote Lords of the Fly, which was a little more enjoyable.
Flylords: You’re currently getting ready to publish your newest book, Rivers Always Reach the Sea. Can you give us some insight into what to expect from this book?
Monte Burke: The book contains 31 stories collected from various magazines where I have worked, including Garden & Gun, The Drake, and Forbes. It’s a mixture of profiles and short stories. I was fortunate enough to do a profile on Lefty and spend a couple of days with him. Nathaniel Linville, Andy Mill, Steve Huff, and George H.W. Bush’s profiles are also included. I also share essays from different fishing excursions I’ve been on. There’s a story from a trip to Russia and Labrador. It’s basically as if I took my journal of observations from a fishing life and turned it into a book.
An Inside Look at “Lords of The Fly” a New Book From Monte Burke
