On Friday Peter Rose and Barry Cohen fished with me. Neither had ever landed a Tarpon and really wanted to give it a try. It is not prime Tarpon season but the winds were down and conditons looked good. We were able to castnet a couple dozen live mullet for bait. I decided our best bet would be near Cape Sable which is quite a long boat ride. But it was worth it. Within 10 minutes after lines in Peter hooked up. Very exciting fishing with live mullet as the mullet sidesteps the Tarpon as he tries to gulp it down. Peter's battle lasted a good 30 minutes.
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| Pete's First Tarpon |
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| Peter's Tarpon estimated at 75lbs |
In between Tarpon bites we had quite a bit of action from agressive Blacktip Sharks. These fish often jump and do wild spins. We fought several of these on the light
Permit Trek rods matched with
Diablo 550 spinning reels. We use 30lb
Horizon Fox braid line so we can put some heat on them and get them in. It amazes me how the Permit Trek rods hold up under the extreme pressue we put them through.
Well next it was Barry Cohen's turn. He caught a nice Tarpon of 40lbs that put on a wild jumping show. We were able to take DNA samples from both fish for research.
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| This Tarpon put on a show |
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| Barry Cohen poses with his first ever Tarpon |
Later we tried another area and saw lots of Tarpon but only managed one bite which threw the bait.
To finish we stopped at a place called First National Bank. With an incoming tide now and Ballyhoo getting showered by fishy predators we spent an action packed hour catching a little of everything.
Ladyfish,Seatrout,Spanish Mackerel,Mangrove Snappers, and of course catfish. We had a big shark take a ladyfish at the boat as we were getting ready to release it. A fun ending to a great day.
Captain Skip Nielsen
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