Doug Vs. Tarpon, and Doug Won

7.18.14

Destination Unknown or they will come to kill me.

Doug came up from Crystal River to try and slay a  tarpon.  I had some good intel that there was a good bite.

The tide was right on Friday morning and the sunrise was magnificent.  The journey to the fishing grounds was a beautiful ride as fog was rising off the water.  An unusual sight in late July.

We found the tarpon scattered with gar and after about an hour and 1/2 of slinging Bomber Long A's the moment occurred that we had hoped for.

As I was leaning down to grab a water, Doug yells, "Here is comes!"  Usually for Doug that means he is about to pull the plug away from the fish as he hasn't digested all the coffee he drank that morning, but not this time.

The monster fish exploded 30' in front of the boat.  It is amazing to see a fish as long as you are jump up and look you in the eye.

The 45 minute battle had begun.

The big tarpon was really getting some air early in the battle.

Then the long slog of the fish pulling the boat and occasionally coming up for a big gulp of air and then back down again for another long pull.

Doug stayed after him as I handed him water to keep him from dehydrating.

His Blair Wiggins rod and his Shimano reel performed admirably.  But what about those knots!

Finally, we managed to get the behemoth to the boat.  After a DNA swab for the tarpon study and a few pictures, off he went to swim again.

  

The fish was actually hooked below his mouth.  You can see the red spot below the fish's jaw where the Bomber had done it's work.

After all the commotion, we had 7 more come up and crash the Bomber Long A's but couldn't quite get hooked up.  Also had one knock the heck out of the custom made Wicad by Nick Larson, but couldn't connect.

What a day with my bro!

Good Morning Bite

7.17.14

Phil and I hit the mouth of the river today.  He was looking for some fish for a fish fry.

It was a beautiful morning and quite a change from the humid, stormy mornings we have been having lately.

The Ochlockonee was just before a high tide and the water was clear.

We went to the horse shoe bar and it was open as Phil banged 3 nice trout and some small reds and flounders on a white gulp.

I couldn't get anything to look up at the bandonkadonk or cordell,  so I joined the gulp fest and caught a few myself.

As the tide died, we headed up to the long bar just to check it out.  I finally go a trout to look up at the donk and a nice topwater fight began and ended with a 19" trout in the box.

The only fish I could get to hit the Cordell red fin was this.  I think it is a fish.

Phil ended up taking home this nice bag of trout for him and his buds.

Cobia Run

7.9.14

Wanted some cobia steaks and did our cobia run Tuesday.

Started out by the barge off 24 but nothing wanted our freshly caught pinfish.

Hit our holes coming back in to the ramp and managed 3 non keepers like this.

They all had friends following them up when their hooked buddy was coming boat side.

Didn't see any big ones.

We eased in to Mashes to look for tarpon.  Saw a couple, but no takers.

And then the storms came....

Scurried back to the ramp.

2,2,2

7.3.14

We wanted to run and see if we can see/catch a tarpon and then head on down to Lanark to get some scallops.  I heard good reports from last week that there were a bunch of scallops down there.

So off we went to the tip of Alligator Point.  The water was choppy so there was a degree of difficulty in looking for the tarpon.

We anchored up on some white sand and soon I saw two big tarpon shadows looming just off the starboard side of the boat.  Some quick casts with my DOA got nothing.

But we did catch two sharks.

We then motored on down to Lanark  and the fleet was in.

We anchored up there about 3 times and I managed to get a limit of scallops, one for me and one for Nancy.

So the day ended, two tarpon seen, two sharks caught, two scallops in the bag.

July 1 Federal Gag Opened

Went offshore with Randy.
ZEROED!!  Nuff Said!