Tide: 1.0ft @ 7:30am, 2.0ft @ 1:15pm
After an unsuccessful day fishing for tarpon off the beaches I decided to fish the inside today. I launched the kayak at 6:45am in Pine Island Sound and had enough bait by 7:30. I paddled to my spot and the tarpon were rolling all around. I put a pinfish out on my Baitrunner 4500 and within a couple minutes the popping cork went down. Immediately a shark broke the surface and the fight was on. I landed the 5' bull shark in under 2 minutes which was surprising. As the day went on more tarpon started to roll. Most of the fish were around 30-40# but there were quite a few over 100#. After seeing countless tarpon roll by my bait without a hit I moved a couple hundred yards away in shallower water. I hooked a 60#er in a few minutes but while taking pictures of the aerial display she spit the hook on the 6th jump. That was my last bait so I decided to tie on a super spook jr. topwater on my Redbone and give it a try. On the fifth cast in a school of finning tarpon one hammered it! My first tarpon on topwater! It jumped a few times then made a couple runs on the shallow grassflats. It was around 30#. It was getting hot so I decided to call it a day at 11.
