Safely home from the tarpon wars.
It certainly has been a blessed summer for me. After making ALL of the rookie mistakes over the last couple of years, it has been special to have things click the past two trips. This trip was a different deal than the Captiva fishing. Those fish were pretty much "laid-up", "resident" fish (although they will move out and migrate at some point). On Pine Island, there was a little time to make an extra backcast to present the fly exactly where it needed to go. And, due to their smaller size, they were fantastic teaching tools in fighting tarpon for me. Both were a lot of FUN.
Monday down in the Apalachicola area was a different deal. My fishing buddy and I were fishing migrating tarpon that were swimming west the majority of the time. These fish have been tracked up from south Florida, through the Bend, and all along the Gulf Coast. In Texas, they have been tracked going in an offshore, circular direction. The migratory patterns are still being researched, but, they can travel a great distance. My guide told me yesterday about one that was tagged in the Apalach area that was caught in a trawler in Maine. That is a pretty long trip.
The fishing we were doing involved setting up in shallow water trying to intersect the swimming path of the migrating tarpon so we could cast to them as they swam through. Although they tend to hug the shallow water bars to stay away from the large sharks, they don't very often just have one swimming path. So, you are frequently seeing fish swim by out of range of a cast. We had several large groups come through, and, best guess, is we spotted over a hundred tarpon swimming through on Monday. That was by far the best day for numbers that I have had down there. But, the downside of "swimmers", is they often are more concerned about moving on than eating, and getting them to take a fly can be an exercise in frustration. And, although we saw a bunch of fish, a lot were in the same pods, so we didn't get to cast a hundred times.
Since I had already scored this summer, I was hoping that my friend would hook up first, and he was first in the cage. He had a few shots and made great casts, but the fish just wouldn't eat. He finally had a fish take his fly, but, just didn't get hooked on his hookset. It happens a lot. Since he was battling a bad back, he finally insisted I get up in the "tarpon cage "(enclosed casting platform so you can stay on the platform in rough water). I cast once or twice with the 11wt and got no takes. Then we had a pod that probably had 30 tarpon in it start working their way to us. The guide spotted them probably 600 yds away. As I said before, the eyesight of a good tarpon guide is unreal. I certainly didn't see them at that distance. When they started getting close, I could see them, and started my presentation. Unlike Captiva, I had to work the fly several feet to finally get one to pull out of the school and eat. I saw the fish wake on top after my fly, but, did not see the actual take. But, when I felt it, I did manage to get a good hook set, and then got to enjoy the jumps like you see on Silver Kings. Seeing a 90# fish jump clear out of the water is an awesome sight.
The immediate job after the first big run is getting the backing and line back on the reel. To put maximum pressure on the fish, you want to be pulling with the thick, very front section. My guide helped that with some nifty boat work. Then, it became a test of wills between me and the fish. The first 15 minutes of the battle were OK, maybe even fun. After that, not so much. Tarpon have a way of demoralizing fishermen that are tugging on them. You will have them coming to the boat, only to watch them come to the top and get a gulp of air. It is like giving an over-exerted athlete a shot of oxygen on the bench. You can immediately feel that the fish is stronger. And, the fight goes on. At a certain point, it more resembles hand to hand combat than fishing. And, at that point, at least for me, it wasn't fun. But, TN hillbillies can be stubborn as well, so the battle continued. I got it to the boat three times and Capt. Stacy would lip the fish but couldn't control it. Since it is considered a "caught" fish once the guide touches the leader much less the fish, I told him on try four to grab or pop at that point as I didn't want to give a shark an easy meal. The leader popped where the fish had worn through as he was trying to lip it again. The whole concept of tarpon fishing is catch and release, so gaffs aren't used with the rare exception of a potential world record by someone fishing for such with a tarpon tag. To give you some idea on how bad that fish worked on me, I had to have my buddy open the bottle of gatorade when I sat down to rest and reflect. My 50 year old dream of catching a "grown" tarpon on a fly rod like I saw Stu and Curt do on American Sportsman MANY years ago had been realized. And, my respect first for the fish, and then the fishermen that routinely catch them went up several notches.
We got set up again, and my buddy got back in the cage. He had some more great shots with no takes, had a fish eat his fly twice and spit it out before he could set, and had another fish try to eat only to have a wave push her past the fly. His back needed to be iced, so, very reluctantly, I climbed back in. We had one group come through that were just a little too far to reach, and then we watched another pod swimming by. At about 60 feet, they turned and were coming right at the bow. I was lucky enough to dump a cast in front of one, and finally got to see one open its mouth and eat. At the hookset, she came out of the water not more than 25 feet away and cut a trail. The fight was a replay of the first one with a little more pain to it. But, after about 30 minutes and some hands on coaching from Capt. Stacy, she rolled over and Capt. Stacy got her controlled. She was bigger than the first fish, and Capt. Stacy put her in the 100 pound range. I'm not sure she would have quite made it on scales, but was definitely a grown fish. I think I was as beat as the fish was, but, we both survived the tangle.
Day two was a trip back to tarpon fishing reality with rough, dirty water, fewer fish, and only a few shots with no eats. But, it was still a great day on the water.
For the comments from those wanting to try this, I was fishing with Captain Jason Stacy with Shallow Water Expeditions (
http://www.shallowwaterexpeditions.com/). Jason is the ultimate professional and works EXTREMELY hard to get you into some fish. SWE has a bunch of other guides that are great as well if Jason is booked on the day you want to fish.
Thanks all for the comments and support!
