This entry was posted on 8/25/2008 2:25 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Had the guy for the morning trip not show up- so didn't start as that great of a day but it got better when I picked up Teddy and John Damgard in the late afternoon. The three of us had fished earlier in the week and had a really good trip. This evening we were going to try to catch a redfish then go Tarpon/Shark fishing for the last 2 hours.
We really caught the reds great and they were all nice size fish! John (9) even got to catch one or two on his own rod. The fish were slamming mullets as soon as they hit the water. Ended up with 9 or 10 reds before we took off shark fishing.
John really wanted to catch a big shark and I was pretty sure we could -but sometimes you just never know. Anyway we missed two shark bites then the reel goes off for 10 seconds and a monster tarpon jumps and throws the hook on the first jump. We got the see the entire fish up close and personal! I was happy that we had at least hooked and seen a tarpon(and a big one at that).
Ten more minutes same thing reel starts screaming- but this time the hook stayed in... The battle was on! I ran and pulled anchor as quick as I could. I missed most of the jumps but they said he went off for a minute or two. Then we settled in for about a 45-60 minute fight. I tried to get some good video but it all came out pretty bad. Kept cutting the camera off everytime the leader would get close! Finally got the fish to the boat and I was trying to get him in the boat when the hook broke. Caught fish- leader in hand- but still I wanted some in the boat pictures- even though the fish is probably better off!!! Teddy who fishes Boca Grande and Islamorada every year said the fish was about 125-130 pounds. What a show!
John still wanted a shark so we anchored back up and wacked 2 or 3 nice sharks.
What a night!
As you can tell from this not so good video- I'm not the guy you want behind the camera!!!
Here's a little run off after about 40 minutes into the fight
