Tarpon Quest 3 - Aug. 12,11

Tarpon Quest 3 Aug. 12,11

Typically, the pogies are gone by this date but Monday (the 8^th) I had to make an inspection over at the beach and I used the trip to do a little recon. To my surprise there was still plenty of bait pods making their way along the beach. I couldn’t get off work to fish until Friday morning and I did not have anyone to accompany me but with the bait still here I couldn’t resist.

As usual I made my way glassing down the beach and decided to put in on a nice pod of nervous bait way up north at the edge of the city limits. Before I could get in the water I had already seen several tarpon strike into the helpless little pogies.

Pogy school.

The surf was flat and glassy and the launch was just like I like it…uneventful. I paddled for the school and snagged my first bait. The water was as clear as I have ever seen it. You could see the bait schooled up 6-8’ down. The conditions were ideal!

Tarpon strike, bustin' bait!

It did not take long before I noticed something swimming away with my line. I eased up on the rod until I felt the weight of the fish and then lowered the rod as he swam. Once the rod was back down at the water I let him have it!….Two hard hook sets and the fight was on. The big tarpon immediately made a jump that had to be a record. He launched straight up and his nose had to have made the 15’ mark. Incredible. From there it was dive, dive, dive and of course head for deeper water.

A tarpon jump I managed to photo myself.

My tarpon fishing partner Rick Was working on a house nearby so I called him on the cell to let him know I was hooked up and heading east. Everything was going good and I was 47 minutes in when all of the sudden….pow, the main line broke. I was putting some pretty serious heat on him in an effort to break him before he got me to far out. I knew I was pushing the limits of the equipment. When the line gave way I almost tumbled out the other side of the yak!

It was disappointing but I quickly recovered and got a fresh leader on. I spotted another bait school and paddled over to snag a new bait. In less than 10 min. I was hooked up again. This fish did not jump at the hook set and it pretty quickly became evident why…..Shark! It was a 48” spinner shark. I got a few pictures as best I could without being overly risky and cut the leader. Even a small shark is nothing to fool around with in a kayak.....all kinds of things can go wrong. I originally thought this was a black tip. It’s a good thing I did not keep this one as the spinner has a 54” fork requirement where the blacktip has no minimum. Shark ID can be pretty difficult, be careful if your going to keep one. The main difference (I later discovered) between the blacktip and the spinner is the anal fin. The blacktip’s anal fin is white and the spinner’s is tipped in black.....go figure.

Nice Spinner Shark!

Once again I tied in a new leader, snagged another pogy and was back in the game. It did not take long to hook up with my third fish of the morning….another big 115-125# silver king. He made two big tail walks at the hook set and the fight was on. It was an epic battle. The fish headed south east pulling me along for the ride. I called Rick again…..”hey man, I’m hooked up again!” Rick said “I’m almost wrapped up, as soon as I’m done I’ll put the boat in and get some pictures for you.”

Rick lucked up and caught this jump. very hard to get photo.

At one point the Tarpon pulled me thru a school of big yellow fin Jacks that numbered over a hundred. It was an incredible sight to see them swarming around the boat in the clear water with those bright yellow fins shinning.. Man, I would have sure liked to have tossed a jig in the middle of those guys. Maybe next time.

By the time Ricky arrived I was so far out he could hardly see me. There was a shrimp boat anchored out beyond me culling his catch and there was some bird activity down current from the boat. The tarpon was headed that way and my first thought was oh, no! there’s probably going to be a bunch of sharks hanging around there and I didn’t want my tarpon, or me for that matter, anywhere around them.

By the time Rick caught up with me I was over an hour into the battle. Little did I know we were just getting started!

Hooked up!

I had the leader up to the boat a number of times but he was far from caught. He would come up and get a gulp of air and dive, stripping line as he headed for the bottom. I just could not break him! Every time he gulped air he would regain his energy. Rick was getting anxious to get this over with and was pressing me to put some more heat on him. My go to guru for ocean and flats fishing, Capt. Rick (another rick) gave me some advice on how to deal with these air gulpers. I'll see how this works out of the kayak and report on this technique in another post.

It was time to do something, incredibly, we were approaching the 3 hour mark and my rod hand was trying to go to sleep on me. We had almost made a complete circle around the shrimp boat and had been as much as a ½ mile beyond him at one point.

At 2 hours and 51 minutes in, under my straining Ugly Stick, the main line gave way and I was free! It was disappointing and a relief all at the same time. What a battle. I still can't believe how long I was on that fish.

I have since revised my rigging to help eliminate break offs like this on these long bodied fish. When your after fish in the 100-150# range, leaders, knots and line become critical.

We took a short rest and started our journey back to the beach. When we arrived a couple guys came over and asked “We have to ask….what were you guys hook up with? We’ve been watching you for three hours getting pulled around out there!” Two words…..Big Tarpon!

It was close to 2 PM and I had been hooked up to fish almost the entire morning. From our vantage on the dune we could see the tarpon action was still going on with some aggressive strikes into the scattered bait schools.

Its was an incredible morning to be fishing in the surf with the glassy conditions and clear water. You don’t get to see it like this very often.

Here’s a few pictures from the trip

Good Luck,
Larry S.

See that tiny shrimp boat in the distance....little did I know I'd end up on the other side of him!

All the water that looks wind blown is actually disturbed from the bait school

That's some glassy ocean water, perfect conditions!

Headed east!

Look at that bent rod!

There's the anchored shrimp boat during the fight.

Spinner shark.

A pogy I just snagged with a "j" hook.

Pogy school down below.

At this point we were at least a 1/2 mile past the anchored shrimp boat!

Tarpon making a circle...Look at the bobbles coming off the wake! 

Nice spinner shark!

Tarpon Quest! 7-30-11

Well, this past saturday was a mile stone for me. I have been wanting to catch a tarpon from my yak in the surf for 3 years now and it finally all came together like shooting fish in a barrel. The way this is normally done is snaging a pogie out of a big pod of bait and pitching him back in, free line.

The first year I jumped one tarpon in the 110 to 120# range and there was a lot of tarpon action but the bait schools were gone pretty quick. This past year the schools of pogies never showed up that I know of. However, this year they are here in force. An electrician friend of mine called me last week to tell me he was wiring a house at the beach and the bait school in the surf stretched as far as the eye could see!

I scouted it that day and he was not lying. At the first spot I pulled over to glass the surf.....I couldn't believe my eyes....the pogy pod was 2-300yds wide and stretched as far as I could see with my 10X32 nikons.


                                          Just a corner of a large school of pogies!

             

                        That's solid pogies except the little sliver on the right at the skyline, Unbelievable!

I did not see much for striking action but I figured with that much bait there had to be some predators under them.

Thursday I fished by myself and saw 30-40 tarpon strikes but there was so much bait I could not get a tarpon to find the pogy with the hook in it. I had one strike so close to me I could have touched it....I had pogies blown all into the boat! I came close to walking on water! I promise you that will get your attention.

Friday the tarpon action only lasted til about 8:00 and there was no more striking. I did catch two small sharks in the 36-42" range.



Saturday My electrician buddy borrowed a yak and we were in the water a little after 7:00AM. Rick had never been in a kayak before but he did a good job with the surf entry. I snagged us two pogies on the first cast into the school and Rick paddled over to another pod 40-50yds away. About the time he went to make his first cast I hooked up with a monster. There was two big charging tail walks and the battle was on! I probably didn't have a bait in the water more than 3 minutes.

The mammoth tarpon pull me over 3 1/2 miles and took 1 hour and 51 minutes to land. We ended up over 2 miles out and in 55' of water. The fish was 69" to the fork with a 40"girth and a whopping 144#!!!!



 

                                    Look at that bow wake!

When the fish finally rolled to the top Rick pulled his boat alongside and hefted him onto his yak for a picture. He slid him back in the water and I pulled the tarpon over for my shot but before I could get my had in his mouth the hook popped out! He turned nose down and slowly swam away. So, here's Rick with my tarpon! What a monster!





This thing put up one hell of a fight. By the time it was over we decided to work our way back and we fished a pod or two for just a minute but we had about had enough so we called it a day.

The pogies are moving south and I have not seen any more pods since Monday But I got a report today that the tarpon are thick as flies near Cocoa Beach.

Larry S.

That's some glassy water, perfect conditions!

Man that thing was pullin' there!

What a day!
.

Tarpon Report - 8-19-11

One of my surf fishing partners and I converged on Flagler Beach just after daylight to give the tarpon a good workin over. I spotted bait schools as soon as I could see the water. I pulled over and saw a tarpon roll in a small pod just behind the breakers. I glassed down the beach and counted 8 other pods.

Rather than jump right on them, I headed north along the beach looking for something even better but the farther I drove the weaker it got so we headed back and decided to put in at N. 6th St.. We could see tarpon aggressively busting bait as we assembled out gear.

The only problem was the surf!! There were some serious breakers pounding the beach with as many as 4 at a time lined up one behind the other. I timed my launch as best I could but in short order there's a wave that's over my head coming right at me and I could see it was going to break right on me!  I took a 36"er right in my lap that swamped the boat. I kept stroking and made it to the next just before it curled over. The nose of the yak rose up sharply, came out the back of the wave and did about a 1' free fall. Two more of those and I was home free.

We paddled to the closest bait pod and snagged our baits. It was probably 20 minutes before a tarpon picked up my bait and the line started departing the area. In our rush and excitement to get on the tarpon I had neglected to  set my drag for the hook set. I started tightening the drag but the big tarpon got to the end of the line before I was ready. He felt the hook and rocketed out of the water. With one big jump he was free. Man did I drop the ball on that one. Little did I know that would be our one and only shot for this day.



The tarpon were aggressively striking the bait schools this morning and we easily saw over a hundred blow-ups with bait flying in all directions. Once Rick was trying to snag a bait when a tarpon struck beside his yak and pogies jumped in his boat. He hooked one on and tossed it back in the pod!





The problem was the bait  was not bunched up tight and was scattered over a large area. This scattered the tarpon. To make matters worse the rough surf had muddied the water and the pogies were all real close to breakers in 10-12' of water. The tarpon couldn't see the bait unless it was right in front of their nose.

                           The pic is a little blury but you get the idea.....one massive strike!!

We only had one other bite this morning and it was a blue fish.

By 10:00 the striking had slowed quite a bit and the swell was building so we decided we better cut bait and run.

Man were those breakers big! I tried to time it but they were just rolling in to close together. I looked back to see a big one bearing down on my 6. I applied the brakes to the strong side but it was no match for that wave.....up went the back, down went the front with the nose sheeting water out both sides. Then came the roll over. I had everything leashed and quickly got on my feet and flipped the boat before the next breaker arrived.

Rick had bailed out when he saw it coming, grabbed the back of his yak and floated in.

Back on the beach, we could still see an occasional tarpon strike in the bait and it was all I could do to keep from putting back in! There's always tomorrow.

O.E