Tarpon!

Took me a little trip to Florida this weekend. I have always wanted to catch a tarpon. I booked the trip and made it happen! It was similar to crappie fishn. haha! the only thing that was similar was the initial bite. It was a tiny peck, then 2 seconds later it is out of control fiercely angry, 150lbs of bad attitude fish that has your rod pinned against the gunnel and your now setting in the floor of the boat hopping for some relief! Quick! The drag is set so tight on this equipment that i could not pull it off by hand. These fish would make a 1/4 mile run at a time! that drag is screaming and you are too. At many times, your wondering if you really can hold onto the rod for this run! you can plan on 30 min of shin smashing against the gunnel and your forearms feel like they are going to explode! Keep in mind, this whole time, i believe this fish only playing with you. Then they want to play. they will jump 8' in the air and then do a 20 yard tail walk for you just shaking their head. Just because you get them to the boat, does not mean they are quitting. they always have about 3 more runs left in them. Our line has markers on them, it was the red line that you never wanted to see go out again. that was the 100' mark. These fish would go from zero to that red mark before quick could get ready.
Our Capt goal was to catch 2 or 3 fish. We ended up catching 10! He called this an epic trip. Of the ten, 4 of them got eaten by sharks before we could land them! Another one was eaten while he was next to the boat for a hook release. The smallest fish was about 100lbs. When we released him, he was about 10 feet from the boat, I would guess ten 8' sharks attacked him on the surface. There was nothing more than a couple scales and a blood stain within 10 seconds! The sharks were so fierce, they were running into the sides of the boat, bouncing off the motor, and splashing LOTS of water into the boat. It was something you see on National Geographic!
The last picture is a daylight shark feeding frenzy!

I'm out of breath just reading that. Sounds like a blast! Were you using live bait?

Ledge sounds like a lot of fun! A little bit like fighting a 40lb. blue?

crabs. the smaller the better. the best size we could find was about the size of your thumbnail. they would just come drifting by on the current. you would just dip net them out. Capt brought lots of crabs, but they were all 2-3", which is what the bait shop sold. we grabbed one by accident so he could show him to me. for fun he put him on a hook, and instantly got hit! so we started dipping crabs. it was great, they came to us and we saved them from going out to sea! it was a win win for everyone!

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Originally Posted by Papascruggs

Ledge sounds like a lot of fun! A little bit like fighting a 40lb. blue?

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Not even close! I have never had a blue whip me to the point of, not caring if another crab goes over the side of the boat or not, because you know whats going to happen!

, not caring if another crab goes over the side of the boat or not, because you know whats going to happen![/QUOTE]

When I was a kid I read every Outdoor Life and Sports Afield I could get my hands on. On the last page was a short anecdotal story that was my favorite and often had me lmbo! This post belongs there and would emerge as the story of the year in my book. Felt like I was there and I'm afraid to get up off the couch cause I might have thrown my back out! Tarpon fishing has long been on my bucket list but I'm not sure I need to go now- sounds painful and been there done that now.

WOW, how cool that must of been!! Memories to share for the rest of your life. :HandsClapping

That's the biggest minner I have ever seen....think of the crappie that would catch!!!!

Heck of a story !! Well written, feel like I was watching. I have fished in the gulf. Caught king mackerel, amber jack, barracuda and wahoo. Only hooked 1 tarpon. 1 tail walk and it was gone. Never want to catch anything big again.

Sounds like the tarpon were probably pulling drag and running hard to get away from the sharks. I can just picture the tarpon with a hook in his mouth and then see a shark coming. The sharks probably thank you TC for helping tie their meal up. LOL

Odie

As I remember the trophy from a big catch nd release tarpon is a scale the size of a half dollar. If you kept one show us a picture......after you catch your breath.

Great job on the write up!! As others have said, felt like I was there!

actually just the opposite Odie. when a shark was chasing them, they would almost freeze up. The head shaking would stop and straight pull with less effort would happen. they would get more lateral movement going on. i did not take a pic of a scale, but they are about 3" circle. i did feel bad for "killing" such a trophy fish, by just feeding it to the ruthless handouts.

those half dollar scales ciller is talking about is on the fry. that must be what he is accustom to catching! haha

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it sounds to me like you all caught all of the big ones fishin,,, cause all we caught were a bunch of smaller ones 50-70#which were still fun but if i had to reel in as many big ones as you did i would have to take another vacation to recoup ... good job and loved the read,, awesome story

Awesome Ledge!

when and where did you go crappie crazy?

We came out of Panama City and went out past shell island down towards Mexico beach,, it was super fun but doesnt sound near as fun as your trip though we only hooked 1 over 100 #s and he shook off at the boat

CC were you hooked up most of the time or was it slow going? Crabs for bait? Where did you go for the tarpon Ledge?

Ciller, it started a lil slow for us we used mostly pin fish and mullet we tried some crabs but like fishin said I imagine they were too big and we never thought to snatch some of the lil ones up. But it was a blast just the same kinda like a striper on steroids