Mega Tarpon caught on the Mega-Bite !!!
Sorry I haven’t posted this sooner, but I had to wait on the photos, because I actually forgot my camera, but luckily my buddy came through with these great shots.
I was fishing a couple weeks ago with a paying charter. The family was celebrating their son, Allen’s, birthday. He had done a little saltwater fishing in the past, and earlier that day he had told me how he wanted to catch a redfish and a tarpon. I told him that I would do my best to put him on a redfish, but getting tarpon was going to be tough, but we’d keep our fingers crossed.
We started the day going after schools of Spanish mackerel, and then hit a few docks for redfish. After the docks came up empty, we went after schools of ladyfish and bluefish in the pass. We were having a great time, and when I asked if they would like to go catch a shark, they eagerly agreed that sounded like a fun way to end the trip.
Not long after I started chumming at my bay spot for shark, my good buddy Capt. Ballard showed up and anchored up just to the north of me. He and I have caught some good sharks there in the past and I was hoping to catch a few sharks and let the birthday boy have a few good fish stories for his buddies back home. It wasn’t long before Capt. Ballard was hooking up on some sharks, and then it was our turn. Allen was having fun with these sharks and his mom and dad even got involved with the smaller catches.
But Allen’s dad’s arm just wouldn’t let him do much with the heavier fish, as he was recovering from an injury, so he watched as his son pulled one shark in after the other.
I had just deployed cut whole menhaden on bottom rigs when all of sudden we heard a very loud commotion behind the boat. My first thought was we hooked us a spinner shark and then all of a sudden the culprit rose 6 ft out of the water for everyone to see. My eyes almost popped out of my head. I yelled, “Tarpon!” I handed Allen the rod and ran up to the bow of the boat and pulled the anchor in record time, fired up the boat and began to back down on the fish, the whole time thinking there was no way we just hooked a tarpon in Pensacola Bay. Amazed, Allen watched as the fish had jumped 3 times before I got the boat turned to chase down the beast. Allen did a great job fighting the fish, but his arms started to cramp up and he was getting very tired.
This was no small spring trout he was fighting, this big bruiser had to be over 100lbs. Allen’s dad walked up to me and whispered in my ear, “Would you help him land the fish?” Although I really wanted Allen to fight this fish by himself, he really didn’t know how, so he and I took turns on the rod. The fight lasted over 45 minutes. Allen did a great job fighting the fish but had a hard time getting the fish close to the boat, so I assisted him when the fish was giving him trouble. We got the fish to the boat three separate times and on the last time I told Allen to help me out so I could grab the fish and get him ready for pictures. I went to get my camera and found out that I had left it at home, and Allen’s mom’s camera battery just died. We couldn’t believe our luck!
Fortunately, Capt. Ballard had a camera on his boat, so I carefully towed the fish back to Capt. Ballard’s boat while keeping the fish in the water to help revive him. By the time we got to Capt. Ballard’s boat, the fish was well revived. Capt Ballard tossed the camera over to my boat, and we hauled the fish in the boat, snapped a few quick pics, and put the fish back in the water and spent a few minutes to revive him some more.
Don’t worry, the fish swam off and everyone on my boat and on Capt. Ballard’s saw this fish swim away. What a special treat seeing Allen battle this fish and it was also a special treat that they let me help their son land this magnificent fish.
Allen and his family are coming back this fall to go after some big bull redfish in November, and I hope when Allen blew out his birthday candles, he wished for an equally spectacular day on the water.
Most people that have seen this picture along with myself think that the fish was around 140 – 160.
Hope you enjoyed the story.
Here are a couple of pics.
Tight Line.