VIDEO REVIEW: Tarpon
Growing up in South Florida in the 80s, my friends and I had a certain romanticized idea of what Key West should be, one that never quite met reality when we took the trip down US 1 and hit the bridge from Boca Chica. But it did exist at one time, and that Key West is captured perfectly in Tarpon, the fantastic documentary made by UYA Films in 1973.
Filmmaker Christian Odasso and producer Guy de la Valdene made the film to try and capture the vibe of tarpon fly anglers at a time when it was still generally a cult sport. In doing so they accomplished far more than creating fish porn, they encapsulated a cultural slice of Key West in the early 70s.
Tarpon contains a lot of cool stuff, from the sound track featuring old school Jimmy Buffett (before he became a corporation), to the sound bites from Thomas McGuane, Richard Brautigan, and Jim Harrison. It also shows many different parts of Key West life, from local characters and partyers to artists and treasure hunters. A lot of the guys have porn-star mustaches, shark tooth necklaces, and cut-off jeans, and you catch people in the background saying things like “Far out, man,” and “Made in the shade like lemonade.” It also has highlights from a roundtable discussion with tarpon guides and anglers interspersed throughout.
But the film mainly follows Guy de la Valdene on the hunt for tarpon in a platform-less Maverick flats skiff that he often poles from the bow. Much of the tarpon footage is contrasted against a party boat scene where the crew is thumping fish after fish and dumping them in buckets, helping clarify the pursuit of tarpon with a fly rod as something altogether different than just fishing.
The tarpon fishing scenes are awesome, with video as compelling as any of the HD clips found today. When Valdene is fishing with Gil Drake or Paige Brown, the instrumental “Brahma Fear” is turned down and the only sounds come from the skiff moving through the water or from the anglers whispering as they stalk tarpon.
If you’re expecting to see fishing footage of the three literary giants you’ll be disappointed. For the most part you see them partying or lounging around in hammocks. But Jim Harrison (with a Michigan accent) delivers one of the more memorable lines talking about how life produces diminishing enthusiasms, “…so you have to have something that gives you this electricity and freshens up your feeling about being alive.” Good stuff.
To order Tarpon, go to www.thebookmailer.com
Thanks for the heads up on the DVD . I used to buy tons of stuff from the bookmailer .They kinda fell off my radar .Then again I have fallen off a lot of other peoples.lol
I just watched the dvd. 2 observations. I would love to have some of the reels they were using .They would be worth a small fortune.
I haven’t seen that many cigarettes since I stopped smoking
Great DVD, I miss the old days, but not the equipment. Nice trip down memory lane.
Pete,
I think I was like 8 years old when I saw my first poon up-close and personal. Do you remember the days when they’d line up under the lights on the Card Sound bridge?
I watched a guy catch it by dragging a dead pilchard on the surface, against the current, from the top of the bridge. When he hooked up, he kept it away from the pylons and walked it (how many flights of stairs?) down to the fishing deck. Some cast-netters helped him bring it up.
I was astounded, and have been breaking fly rods on them ever since
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Funny, one of my first experiences was watching my friend hook one from a bridge while we were staying in Key Largo, maybe in 8th grade at the time. He didn’t have a big enough rod (we were fishing for snapper) and it spooled him. But we didn’t fly fish back then.
If I still lived down there I’d be making it a habit, but with global warming maybe they’ll be migrating to New York soon.