Got an invite to go tarpon fishing Friday. A buddy of mine is going about 2-3 times a week and they are on fire right now. I have never boated one before. Hope to have some good pics to show
He had a bull shark on one last weekend. Cranked the drag down and let it break off
Had a blast. Caught 2 tarpon. Well, had one to the boat (about 100#) and hook pulled out, and jumped another one (a lot bigger) that straightened a hook.
Ended up getting into some big bonito too that were fun as hell to catch. Will get pics up later. I need a power nap now. 3:45Am came mighty early
Sounds like a fun day.
We left Lutz at 4:20 this morning. We got to Oneill's and put the boat in the water at 5:15 Am. Shot over to the skyway pier, threw the net three times and had a baitwell full of kickin threadfins.
Shot across the bay to Anna Maria island in the pitch dark and got to the north end just as the sun was coming up
We went on the west side of the island about 100 yards off the swim bouys, and within 5 minutes we spotted a school of a few dozen silver kings
I pitched a bait in the middle of them and got slammed. Had several spectacular jumps and had the fish boatside in about 15 minutes. We estimated her at about 100-115#. Unfortunately my buddy did a wonderful job operating his $20k boat, but can't operate an $89 camera. So I got no action shots of me fighting the fish or any boatside pics
We got back on the school, he pitched a bait in the middle of them and had a big ole gal slam his bait on the surface. He got about 4 good jumps out of her and she straightened a 6/0 Owner. It was bigger than mine so we guestimated 130#ish
For the next three hours we tried to set up on surfacing fish, but they would come up and roll for about 30 seconds and disappear. we never could get up on them to throw on them
As we were free lining threadfins, I caught and landed three Bonita. They are worthless, but were an absolute blast to catch. All were in the 12-15 pound range
we cruised down by Egmont, went around Fort desoto, thru Bunces Pass, and had the boat back on the trailer at 11Am and home at noon
It was a blast, and can't wait to do it again
Here is a link to some pics from this morning. I am not going to upload to photobucket, so you can just click tha link to see them
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26420&id=1301416326&l=5d24590d5d
