Tarpooned...

My buddy Edwin is a big redfish guy, and a very good one at that. He fishes many of the local area tournaments and holds his own rather nicely. Spending all the time on the water he does, he's hooked a few Tarpon, but hasn't had the chance yet to duke it out to the end and see who's left standing.

That all changed recently. We finally got our plans to line up and made it out here in Tampa. We got bait (threadfins) on the slack tide, and it was a task. With the water as clear as it is right now it's already tough, add the fact that the bait schools spread out on slack tide and now you have yourself a chore at hand.  Under those conditions, I try and follow the school while keeping my distance, then cut off the motor and let them turn into me. Then wait...wait...wait...until you see them packed together in the 1st 5 feet or so of the water column, then throw. Simply seeing a flash then throwing often ends up in more empty throws, and a sore back.  It takes time, but if your in position and let them give you a shot your ready to take, it eventually pays off.

We looked around for quite a while before seeing a few rolling fish before anchoring up.  We put a few baits back, then chummed live and dead baits to keep them there and after a little time, we were hooking up. We had a few solid runs on our baits before we hooked up, and finally stayed that way. Before he knew it, Edwin had his hands full with a bigger fish and he did a great job. He battled the 140 pound class poon for 30 minutes or so before she was lost at the boat. In his words, he stated, "that tarpon will remember me". I'm sure it will, and I'm sure he'll remember it too.