Hunter was hot to get after the tarpon wanting to duplicate his past tarpon experience here off the Alligator Point.
After previous scouting reports we have determined that the tarps seem to be in on a high tide. So, we headed to the barrel to wait out the high tide and to try and catch some trout and some pinfish morsels.
We fished the area and didn't put anything in the boat, although Nancy and Charlotte kept saying "I had a little one."
I did manage to put some grunts and pinnys in the livewell.
We headed to the flat between the sticks at the mouth of the Ochlochnee River, Charlotte and Nancy put a couple of small trout in the boat.
I rigged up the rods for tarpon and spanish, since we had seen some large pods of Spanish earlier in the week.
Our ride down to Mud Cove was a choppy one, but the wind was appreciated, poor man's air conditioning is underrated.
As we slid across Lighthouse Pt. we could see a few birds diving but not like our previous trips. As we made it to the shoreline we could smell the bait and see the tarpon rolling, not as thick as earlier in the week, put they were there.
Hunter was throwing his popping rig with the mirrorlure and I had rigged up a rod to drag behind the boat with the previously caught pinfish and grunts.
The first bait in the water was a pinfish. Nancy had honors and it wasn't long until we heard the clicker just screaming. She made a sweeping hook set and it was on. Unfortunately the fish didn't jump on the hook set, so the thought was SHARK, and a really big one.
After an half hour in the heat of the morning she finally got the shark to the boat (with a little help from the Captain and mates) and Hunter got to the leader for the cut.
We figure this little guy weighed around 100 lbs. A nice bull shark, 100 yards off Alligator Pt. beach. Mama, don't let your kids swim there!
Next up on the live bait drag was Charlotte and her fishing experience garnered from her days on the water in Beaufort, SC.
After the obligatory instructions on how to use the baitcaster, the bait runner was screaming and soon so was I, "It's a TARPON" as the fish felt the sting of the hook a cleared the water in a single bound. A nice 80 lber. was on, a Charlotte with her 10 minutes of tarpon fishing experience was on the first tarpon of the season!
As the fish emptied her spool, we cranked the old Merc and started chasing it for a bit. We stopped and suddenly the line began to rise and Hunter was yelling "Here it comes" and he was right.
After a 1/2 hour fight the tarpon was getting tired and Charlotte had sweated out all of her bottled water, she got the tarpon boat side. I got the fish gripper ready, looked at them and figured these better be tough! I locked down on the fish, and the silver sided monster didn't like it. The fish gripper busted and the fish got off and was fighting again.
You can see the grips at top and the bottom of the fish as the grips gave at the boat.
After another 10 minutes, Charlotte got the beast boat side again. This time with gloves on, I got to the lip and began to pull him up and suddenly the frayed 48 lb. leader broke.
What a day! But it wasn't over since a BIG grunt was left to go into the water with the hope of tracking down a tarpon for Nancy.
Soon, the bait caster was singing and Nancy had hooked up again. Again, it didn't jump, so we know the shark really love grunts. It was hot and we were out of water and we decided to chase this one down, get to the leader, cut the line and head to the hill. Only problem was this was an even bigger shark. We followed this fish for 15 minutes got as close as we could and cut the line. This shark was double the size of the previous shark.
It was a successful day of really, really, big fish and first tarpon of the year.
The film crew had an off day as the tarpon got to the boat, so they apologize. Probably nerves.
Anyways, a broken depth finder, broken Penn reel, one lost mirror lure and three cut off circle hooks later, priceless!!!
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