Ed Mitchell Outdoors

The tarpon hunting continues.  I’ve jumped two more. Sorry they no pictures; they were not on long enough.  One jump, two jumps, and they are gone. Damn. This is a one tough bite. Plenty of fish rolling around; yet only a precious few are willing to chew.  Frustrating.

So what has worked? Same fly as before. Ultra slow retrieves. And even that combo hasn’t worked well. Still the thrill of the hook up is so strong, its hard to quit brother . Just going to keep on, keeping on. Kings from a kayak. Addictive.

Aristotle said the world contained luck. Plenty of truth to that. Sometimes things just happen to you. And they might be good or bad. Depends on your luck.

Fishing for rolling tarpon is a game that requires both skill and luck. You need to have your angling act in order, but even if you do, luck enters the equation. Went back to the canal today to try again.  Finally after a few hundred casts, a tarpon rose up to the fly. Unfortunately at that very moment I was lifting it out of the water. So I saw the whole deal plain as day.  The King glided in and opened his mouth. I did my best to set the hook. No dice! Bad luck.

Well the angling gods smiled on me today. I hooked and landed a tarpon from the Adios. Man it was a treat. One of those special angling moments you just don’t forget. At one point I fought it standing up; while the tarpon towed the kayak along. What a wild feeling. My heart was in my mouth. After taking me for a few rides, the Silver King dove under the Adios several times, spinning me like a top.

If I guess the weight I’ll be wrong. So all I’ll venture is that was 36-40″ in length. Fabulous  fight on an 8-weight fly rod. What fly? The tarpon took a sparse, chartreuse,size 1#, half-half. He trashed it and twisted the hook. Brother, I deserve a whiskey tonight.

Well I pushed back from the damn computer and went fishing. Here in Florida the weather is turning a corner to summer, and the waters are warming. So fish are on the move.

Located a local canal loaded with baby tarpon. Sweet. Rolling, splashing, fining, they are having a ball, and teasing me in the process. No one can seem to touch them. The canal is full of mullet. Yet these tarpon appear to be eating something tiny. Hope I can figure it out.

Did catch a few jacks and a small trout, but I want the silver king!