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!
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!
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