GenCon
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- Joined
- Jan 15, 2013
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As many of you know I went on a Tarpon trip last week. It was really great to be back in the Keys. The fishing was not epic. But it was not horrible. A tropical storm had just passed North of the keys. It pushed a lot of fish off the flats in the back country. The weather was great all week. So we fished hard all week.
I landed 1 fish per day for 5 - days straight. Got the skunk on the last day. I also had 2 - break me off and a couple more eat my fly that I could not get a hook in. Goes that way sometimes. The fish I had ranged from 55 to about 90lbs.
I am happy to say all the fish I got were on a fly of my own design. In fact it was the fly I tied in the tying jam last Feb. The idea was for it to look shrimpy and it did. It looked awesome in the water.
The fish seemed to like it as well.
The fish of the week was on Wed. we were staked out on the ocean side several hundred yards off the shore in about 7' of water.
The fish seemed squirrelly that day. I tried a number of different retrieves, from long strips to fast twitches. Finally I tried a very slow strip. The fist fish I got my fly in front of with a very slow strip ate my fly. I hit him with a strip set and all hell broke loose. After a couple of awesome jumps he took off and ran straight in shore. There was s series of boat docks against shore. He ran right between 2 docks that were about a 100 yds. apart. We took off after him. He ran about 100 yds. then turned and went right through the dock. I quickly backed off the drag. Robert pulled his boat to the dock. Good thing it was low tide. We made it under... only to find out had had gone around another pilling. We backed the boat up and I handed my rod around it to Robert only to find out he had done it again. We backed up again. This time we were on a tough angle. I tried to hand my rod around again. It was tough. I thought for sure my rod would break. After much stress we got it around. He was still on. Something should have broke. My rod, my line, my backing. But it did not. I got him back on the reel and proceeded to have a 25 min. battle. He was a great fish about 90 lbs and gave a very memorable battle. I fought him to the boat and got his picture. What a Chinese fire drill.
A few pics, the fly I was using, the fish that couldn't get away, me putting serious side pressure on that fish. A beautiful shot of the back country on a calm morning.
I am intending to go back next year and do it again. Tarpon fishing is addictive. Trust me. Hope you enjoy my long winded story.
GenCon
I landed 1 fish per day for 5 - days straight. Got the skunk on the last day. I also had 2 - break me off and a couple more eat my fly that I could not get a hook in. Goes that way sometimes. The fish I had ranged from 55 to about 90lbs.
I am happy to say all the fish I got were on a fly of my own design. In fact it was the fly I tied in the tying jam last Feb. The idea was for it to look shrimpy and it did. It looked awesome in the water.
The fish seemed to like it as well.
The fish of the week was on Wed. we were staked out on the ocean side several hundred yards off the shore in about 7' of water.
The fish seemed squirrelly that day. I tried a number of different retrieves, from long strips to fast twitches. Finally I tried a very slow strip. The fist fish I got my fly in front of with a very slow strip ate my fly. I hit him with a strip set and all hell broke loose. After a couple of awesome jumps he took off and ran straight in shore. There was s series of boat docks against shore. He ran right between 2 docks that were about a 100 yds. apart. We took off after him. He ran about 100 yds. then turned and went right through the dock. I quickly backed off the drag. Robert pulled his boat to the dock. Good thing it was low tide. We made it under... only to find out had had gone around another pilling. We backed the boat up and I handed my rod around it to Robert only to find out he had done it again. We backed up again. This time we were on a tough angle. I tried to hand my rod around again. It was tough. I thought for sure my rod would break. After much stress we got it around. He was still on. Something should have broke. My rod, my line, my backing. But it did not. I got him back on the reel and proceeded to have a 25 min. battle. He was a great fish about 90 lbs and gave a very memorable battle. I fought him to the boat and got his picture. What a Chinese fire drill.
A few pics, the fly I was using, the fish that couldn't get away, me putting serious side pressure on that fish. A beautiful shot of the back country on a calm morning.
I am intending to go back next year and do it again. Tarpon fishing is addictive. Trust me. Hope you enjoy my long winded story.
GenCon
