BlueFin versus Tarpon

[tmack92]

Well its been a long winter and I had the chance to head down to Bud and Mary's in Islamorada for a week of fishing. I've been on the hunt for big Tarpon for several years since my first hook up years ago, my hook up only lasted about 15 seconds.

On the day of the full moon, I landed a very large Permit that weighed in at 38 pounds, great fight and gorgeous fish..



That evening we headed out and on my second drift with live crabs, I get crushed, line is screaming off the torque, drag is cranked up by line is still coming off, so I thumb the spool...Big Mistake, melted the skin off my thumb. It was then the fish started to go airborn........9 times it jumped with the full moon shining off the scales, each jump it seemed to get higher and higher as I'm bowing to a 200 pound Sliver King....

This fish never gave up and dragged us nearly two miles through the channel and under the bridge and out to open water... After an hour and twenty minutes I had it boat side as she rolled onto her side, I could barely get my hand around its jaw to pose for a picture, what a massive fish and beautiful fish, after a quick pic, we put the boat in gear, ran some water through her gills and with a good whip of the tail she was free...







Big thanks to Capt Bill for the invite down and putting me on the fish, I ended up with 7 Silver Kings, none under 150 pounds, also caught all the typical reef fish during the day onboard The Kalex, what a great trip and a great way to pass time until the tuna show up off the Cape...

IMO the BlueFin just took a back seat to the Tarpon, These big Tarpon are so fun to catch, along with their amazing jumping ability and insane runs, to top it all off being caught in 6 feet of water..... Can't wait to head back down next year....

[scattered_grass]

nothing I have caught to date, can match a Tarpon of that size. Congratulations on two awesome fish!

[gmoney]

I got a tarpon that went about 170 last spring, and have a few others in the 80-130 range. They absolutely are awesome.
Tarpon and Bluefin are definitely a step above.
this is usually the time of year I go down, not going this year, little bummed out.

Imagine if Bluefin jumped like tarpon upon the hookup?!?!?!?!?!

[Animal 1]

Wow! great fish.My only tarpon was a twenty pound dock rat,and I'm still proud of it.Congrats.

[Massbaytuna3]

I am heading down to Key West this Saturday in search of the very same thing. Hopefully we prevail!

Great pics and story

-Bryan

[MarkP]

Nicely done. If I had to give up all fishing in favor of one thing, back country in the Keys with a flyrod wins hands-down...

MarkP

[cape_rover]

I just returned from Key West. Plenty of big tarpon around old town...

[chathamblue30]

Nice fish way to go !!!!