Pinfish

the Pinfish is a hollow fleye designed to imitate the ubiquitous prey fish found on every flat and in every backcountry cove or pond in Florida. studies consistently show that Pinfish make up a large portion of the diet of large Snook and Tarpon and my Pinfish is designed with these fish in mind. the Pinfish incorporates the magic of Popovics’ hollow fleye with a profile and color blend that will fool educated snook and tarpon. Tied about 4.5” long on a #1/0 Gamakatsu SL12s.

$16.00

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design details

a closeup photo of the hollow tied collars in the Pinfish fly by Two Aught Fly Fishing Co

I use a careful blend of bucktail and EP Sparkle flash to imitate the natural coloring of a pinfish

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a closeup photo of the Pinfish fly tied by Josh Idol at Two Aught Fly Fishing Co resting on its corresponding page in my tying journal

history of the Pinfish

the Pinfish is a new pattern for 2026. I recently listened to a talk Bob Popovics gave some years ago and in it he mentioned that he had a pattern designed to imitate every major prey species that he encountered fishing for striped bass. the more I thought about it the more I realized that I couldn’t say the same about the gamefish I chase. I decided that for the 2027 season I wanted to focus on brining high quality prey imitations to my catalog and the pinfish was the first species I thought of when I decided to start this little project.

I know from reading stomach content surveys that pinfish are one of the top finfish prey species year round for both tarpon and snook in all of south Florida’s shallow water fisheries. I also knew that my Pinfish imitation would use the Popovics’ hollow fleye technique; there’s no better way to imitate a baitfish. I wasn’t completely sure about profile and color so one morning I took the canoe and poked around in a mangrove creek armed with a dip net and my tying journal. I took notes on coloration and proportions and used that information to draw out a profile. for overall size I went back to the survey’s I’d read and came away with an overall length of 4-5”. once I had my design sketched out I sat down at the vice and began tying prototypes and testing them in the canal behind the house. the finished version here is very well balanced on a Gamakatsu SL12s #1/0. it has a ton of movement, lands softly, and sinks very slowly. I fished it quite a bit last winter and it already has a few snook over 30” to its name.