We made the commitment to try for 100 pound fish. So Ron Hyde and I spent two days hunting big tarpon in the Everglades from his Seminole Flats Skiff.
The web of channels weaving through the vast mangrove islands is God’s Country, beautiful and unrelenting.
Hyde has been catching big tarpon in this area since the 1950s. I have not–The biggest tarpon I have hooked on a fly weighed 60 pounds. These are different animals. Tarpon take 15 years to grow beyond the century mark and by that time, says Hyde, “they’re big intelligent fish that can eat whenever they want, and they’ve seen just about everything.” The big female tarpon can live into their 50s.
I’ve caught big tarpon by other means, but getting one to eat a fly has proven difficult. (Setting a hook in their bony mouths is another story. “Like trying to hook a bathtub,” says Hyde.)
We found them and they were not traveling in unison but spread apart, rolling and free jumping in random unpredictable patterns. We’d watch for their silvery backs to break the surface and for their tails. Then I’d load the 12-weight and place a leading cast to where we thought they were headed.
The game grew maddening as they started popping up here and there as with a sporadic albie bust.
“”Tarpon fishing is different every day,” said Hyde. “Today they’re like this and tomorrow you can do everything wrong and catch one despite yourself.”
Two days, two follows. I’m convinced that tarpon when they grow big become the devil, and I’m still looking to sin.
Tagged: Everglades, quests of futility, tarpon
Perseverance Pete!
Ditto Simon. The big pods will show themselves when you least expect it.
They’ll break all the 12′s you have in the boat.
Then you’ll really think they’re the devil.
go get ‘em brown brother!
This post is why I love fly fishing so much
Certain flies just have a look about’em…this one’s got it! Deadly!
Never surrender.
Damn nice post, Pete
AAHHHHH! That’s a war face! Now Lemme see your war face!
That sounds awfully huge for fish, I can’t even imagine catching a fish that size, I think that I would stick with the little one thanks.
But you stick to your guns and hang in there and I am sure that you will catch something that size.:)
Thanks for the comments. I can’t get a war face going when I’m on the water, though, it’s all too good. Only on the subway or the Cross Bronx.
Sneaky buggers……did the same thing to me in the Keys but i was using Mirrolures…..
Ahh… Pedro and the Poon. Sounds like an awfully cute couple. I think you two will find eachother one of these days.
Love that first shot man.