Tide: 1.0ft Low at 9am, 2.3ft High at 3pm
After yesterday’s solo tarpon madness I had to get out and try again, this time with my dad tagging along as the photographer. When my alarm went off in the morning I took a peak outside and was greeted by 20 mph winds and dark clouds moving towards the west. I cogitated for an hour and was set on passing for another day but eventually tarpon fever prevailed and set me straight. It took me about a dozen throws to load up on bait which was rather difficult with the unrelenting wind pushing the Pro Angler across the flat. The visibility was pretty much nonexistent with whitecaps and stained water covering the tarpon grounds. I started drifting baits, essentially blind, and hooked sharks and catfish on the first two drifts. I could see my dad in the distance finally make his way over while catching bait along the way. I got back into the game and threw a pilchard five feet behind my kayak, placed the rod in the holder and started pedaling away. My reel started clicking after no more than 5 seconds of pedaling...I turned my head and there in the sky was a big silver king! He spit the hook before I even touched the rod but just seeing him go airborne so close to the kayak was worth it. We continued fishing the same area for another hour but the tarpon just weren’t there. We split up and tried a few more spots to no avail.
While being dragged around the flats by one of the tarpon yesterday, I saw quite a few fish in the skinny water where I’ve never seen them before. Since we were now approaching high tide, the last resort was to find one of those stray fish in the skinny stuff. I poled across the flat and in between the short windows of sunlight saw two tarpon create surface disturbances. I lost sight of the first one but the second one continued working the edge of the flat. I setup a fair distance away and quickly put a bait out. This type of scenario is about as guaranteed as it gets in tarpon fishing. About a minute went by and the tarpon slowly took off with it..I set the hook hard and he went ludicrous, clearing the water four times in twenty seconds and then made a 100 yard jolt across the shallow grass. My dad saw the jumps and was already making his way over to me. This tarpon was fired up and showed incredible strength and stamina by towing us anywhere and everywhere..from the deep waters of the ICW to within 20 yards of the mangrove shoreline! After a backbreaking battle, we landed the tarpon on a three foot deep grassflat just as the wind let up. With a length of 74”, we estimated it to be about 115lbs.
