THE PALOLO WORM HATCH
by Capt. Tom Rowland
Described as one of the strangest and most unexplainable events in nature, the Atlantic Palolo Worm waits deep within the hard coral of the Caribbean and Florida Keys until conditions are absolutely perfect and breaks itself in half and swims to the surface to propagate. The little red worm that becomes culinary nirvana of Megalops atlanticus is a creature that has no eyes and no means of communication yet manages to spawn en masse at very specific tide and moon phases once a year.
Anglers have pursued tarpon with a fly rod for many years and have become quite adept at catching the explosive and spectacular fish. Casting has to be accurate, guides stealthy and conditions perfect to actually catch a tarpon on fly on most days, however, Mother Nature has a way of rewarding anglers who find themselves in the right place at the right time. Late May and early June afternoons on the strongest tides transform the ocean from a lonely, flat stretch of water to a massive orgy of hundreds of thousands of squirming worms mixed with a healthy dose of eating and frenzied tarpon in a matter of hours.
Many anglers who have heard about the worms envision a bluefish style blitz with tarpon crashing and flying through the air. Tarpon may go flying but that will probably be at the end of a fly rod more likely than through their own natural actions. Tarpon feeding heavily in a worm hatch are more likely to be lazily sipping and slurping dozens of worms at a time with a signature tail quiver that sends chills up the angler’s back who knows how to read the signs. Moving in waves, the fish act noticeably different than normal. Instead of shying away from the skiff or bolting from the least noise, these fish feed right past the boat and off into the sunset. Guides routinely hook these fish with the motor running ready to run around a large pod in preparation of hooking more fish.
The first time I saw a worm hatch I thought that the fish looked like a bunch of drunk ladies at a cocktail party. Nothing seemed to bother them and the more hatches I see, the more I am convinced that the worms actually do have a narcotic effect. It would seem easy to catch a bunch of drunk tarpon, but many worm hatches prove to be difficult for some anglers. While it appears that they would eat anything placed in front of them, this can be anything but the case.
I tie a version of Fitz Coker’s original worm fly that is as close to an exact match as I have seen. Because of the potential of hooking and jumping dozens of fish in a session, I tie my flies on the stash of hooks that I have rejected for tournament and charter usage, in other words all the ones that bend out easily. It has been my experience that the worms may look as if they are zipping in all directions but the majority of the worms are moving in one particular direction. Determine which way most of the worms are moving and try to mimic that direction, motion and speed. When done correctly, anglers can hook more fish in a two hour window than others will in their lifetime.
I have given up on trying to determine how the worms and the tarpon predict
the exact time and place that these hatches will occur but I can not help
but wonder why another predator seems noticeably absent. The Great Hammerhead
Shark is responsible for thousands of hopeful anglers to leave the Keys
with only half of what they came for. This predator can sense the tarpon
migration and place himself squarely between an angler and his prize but
when it comes to the Atlantic Palolo Worm hatch, they have missed the boat.
Never have I seen a shark attack of any kind on these fish who are incredibly
vulnerable in this state.
If the sharks can not predict it, the guides can. A new year begins with
the purchasing of a new tide book whose spine has barely been broken before
the worm tides are circled. Hatches happen throughout the Keys and can
often be visible from bridges. Doing it yourself is as easy as predicting
it, getting in the boat and finding yourself amongst the greatest feeding
event in the Atlantic Ocean. It is easy to be off a day of so or miss the
hatching spots by hundreds of yards so investing in a guide who has experience
with the hatches may prove to pay big dividends.
