Just so everyone understands how finicky Tarpon can be, today sucked (with a capital Sucked).  Found a big pod of fish right away but they were moving towards the south.  Not crazy fast or greyhounding, but definately to the south.  Worked the school for about 45 minutes before a guy in his 2-stroke Outboard slid in right next to us and shut everything down.  Kinda blew my mind at how stupid this was because there was not another boat for miles on either side of us…

Started seeing lots of schools but they were cruising south, at a fast pace.  This wound up to be the theme of the day with every fish we encountered swimming very quickly south.  After three hours, we saw a big group of fish literally pushing a wake on the surface and I heaved a “Hail Mary” cast in front of the wave.  Don’t knbow how it happened, but we managed to hook into a 150 Lb Poon that put on a crazy show-jumping in 360 degree backflips right off the bow.  It really was an incredible sight.  The fish came unbuttoned after the fourth back flip, which was perfectly fine by me , since I was on the rod.

The rest of the day was very frustrating.  All of the fish were travelling like mad to the south and could have cared less about any baits we put in front of their noses.

We did have about an 8 ft Hammerhead Shark swim directly at the bow of the boat.  This was kinda our early morning wake-up call.  That’s another impressive critter…

That’s tarpon fishing folks.  We ended up going to “Pop’s Tropi-Grille” for a beer and a cheeseburger in paradise.  Perfect ending to a typical tarpon day.

See you all at the Club meeting tomorrow evening.

K

Fished with G2B Member Vic Weiss, Evonne and another friend today.  The group had grouper on the menu for tonight so offshore we headed.

Found a lot of “cookie-cutter” 18-19″ reds in the 72′ range, with only one keeper.  So we headed west and immediately started catching decent fish in 90′ of water.  At one point, Vic asked me, “Hey Kev, how come we aren’t catching any gag grouper?”  I responded, “because they are endangered”  About 10 minutes later, Vic was releasing a 29″ gag he caught on a live grunt. Endangered, Yeah !  Vic also added a nice Mang to the box.  Went through 3 boxes of sardines and two 1 lb boxes of squid with close to 100 fish caught today !

Great day on the water with great people, and best of all, their all having grouper tonight for dinner!

Club member Joe Mastandria came with me today in an attempt to shorten his “Bucket List”.  Joe has been on several Tarpon trips attempting to check the fish off his list.  Today, he checked it off after more than an hour long battle !!

I will let Joe tell the story in his own words when he can, but until then here are some pics.

The tarpon are here folks !!!!

K

Was able to get club members Jim Ingram and Adam Walton from Marine Electronics Installation out for a day aboard Feeding Frenzy to chase some Tarpon along area Beaches.

The first few hours were very slow after a cold front kicked up the winds for the past two days.  We finally located a MASSIVE school of Tarpon further offshore than we normally fish.

In a nutshell, the rest of the day turned incredible.  Jim was up first and fought a tarpon at around 180 lbs for more than two hours.  After a few pics were snapped and the fish was released it was Adam’s turn.

Adam’s first fish jumped several time right off the bat and we thought it would be a quick fight, but the tarpon had other thoughts.  Adam locked horns with a fish of about 170 lbs for the next two hours and we finally released the fish after a very long fight.  I don’t know who was happier to part ways, Adam or the fish.

For the next 4 hours we followed the same massive school of fish, hooking up a fish every time we got a cast into the pod.  The Lowrance HD Side-Scan Sonar earned its keep today, giving away 40-80 tarpon at a time off each side of the boat.  At one point, I asked Adam, “Which way did they go?”  Adam replied, “Just Cast.”  I asked ‘Where?”.  Adam replied, “It doesn’t matter, just cast.”  Tarpon were stacked up 360 degrees around the Feeding Frenzy and it literally didn’t matter where you threw your crab.

We landed 4 tarpon, then just started popping them off after an initial jump or two.  In total, we hooked up and fought 8 Tarpon, boated 4 and had 10 bites overall.  It was rediculous!  Neither Jim nor Adam had caught a tarpon before today.  I think I broke them in right, but understand guys, this was not a typical tarpon excursion.  You hit the “Mother-Load”!!

Here are a couple pics.  For those that use Facebook, check out Kevin’s wall for some fantastic tarpon jumping videos from today.

The Tarpon Fishing along area beaches has finally started in our region.  We found plenty of tarpon today and managed one about 80lbs.

If anyone is interested in Tarpon Fishing with us, now is the time to do it with the great weather we are expected to have over the next week.

K

Was offshore grouper fishing in 95 ft of water today when this big slob showed up right next to the boat.

I literally dropped my sardine (grouper rig with an 8 oz sinker) over the side, dangled it in front of his nose and he ate it.

The pics do it no justice.  52 inches long and 54 lbs !!  And we caught a bunch of quality grouper and some huge Lane Snapper !

Still no tarpon along the beaches in the Englewood /Venice area so we have been working the back bays.  Found some more trout, redfish and this decent snook.  All caught on either GULP Shrimp or Jerk Baits.

Found some redfish, snook, flounder, jacks and ladyfish between Nokomis and Lemon Bay today.  Fished the morning with club member Mike Watson and we managed snook, redfish and flounder on GULP shrimp under docks.

In the afternoon, we fished with club member Joe Baum down in Lemon Bay and managed some nice flounder, jacks, trout and a 24″ snook right at the dock before we left.

Don’t forget about the club Picnic this Sunday, 1-5 pm

K

Get out there folks.  The fish are chewing !!