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+--- Thread: Caught some tarpon! (/showthread.php?tid=569285)
Caught some tarpon! - Untangler - 03-07-2010
While you Spudheads were swapping ice fishing stories, I was in the Caribbean thanks to my father-in-law who drank too much wine at a charity auction and placed a winning bid on a condo for a week in St. Maarten. My family is cool but they don't get active until about 11am on vacations which drives me crazy so, naturally, I began research on how to spend my mornings fishing. I heard out about these salt ponds on the island that were made in the 1600's and reportedly contain tarpon. Thanks to cool dudes in the fishing community, including FNR from our very own Idaho forum, I was able to obtain some good information. These ponds are nasty; shallow with a bunch of trash and sludge but filled with tarpon. They were rolling around all over the place but were surprisingly hard to catch. Half my casts ended up with some kind of trash on the hook. I fished for about 12 hours total and probably had 250 strikes...you could tell the strikes because the water would swirl and black stuff would boil up from the bottom. FNR - you know exactly what I'm saying. Of those strikes, I probably hooked 50. As soon as I hooked them, an explosion occurred and they would go airborne before I had time to set the hook. I'm sure you eventually get a touch for it but more than half threw the lure on their first jump. I probably had 20 fish on for a series of jumps and landed only 4. They generally ranged from about 5 to 15 lbs in size. I had two fish on for more than five minutes each that were between 3' and 4' long; one straighted out my swivel (the most expensive ones at Cabela's and rated for 40lbs) and another straighted out a hook on a lure a French guy gave me - he was the only other guy I saw fishing for them. It's true what you hear - tarpon are incredibly explosive and powerful fish. The photos aren't great because nobody would go with me. A nice local lady selling papers took one photo but the rest I took myself. The locals were quite entertained that I was out there fishing in their salt ponds. Much of the time, I had people hanging out with me helping to spot fish - it was cool. I had the best luck with 1/2 oz Johnson gold weedless spoons, pearl Krocodiles and a white soft bodied swimming lure. I tried to fish in the ocean with shrimp but didn't have any success. I finally tried a lure my buddy made and caught some needlefish. They attacked the lure like a pack of wolves which was awesome to watch from on top of the rocks. I kept one and he was delicious - about 30" long and as big around as a roll of frozen cookie dough. The best part was that I was home before noon each day and my family didn't even know I was gone. Overall, it was a great experience and I now have both the fly fishing and spin fishing gear to make every family vacation into a fishing adventure. I love Idaho but it wasn't too shabby getting away in February to a place where the temperatures ranged from 72 at night to 82 during the day.
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Re: [Untangler] Caught some tarpon! - FNA - 03-07-2010
Awesome!!! Glad it worked out, pics make me need to book another trip. You now know what i meant when I said every garbage bag the blows away lands in St. Maarten.
I had a few hooks and swivels straightened as well. You just can't describe the first "explosion" is, can you.
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Re: [Untangler] Caught some tarpon! - AverysAdventure - 03-07-2010
That's cool that you had some action. I do the same on vacations. I've attracted a lot of local attention fishing some areas. Either they don't know about the fishing or don't have the $ to fish. Usually end up giving the catch to the locals and sometimes I even get a invite to dinner. Hard to believe that such awesome places are so polluted but I've seen it all over. From Alaska to the lower 48, Europe to Asia people just don't know what they have.
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Re: [Untangler] Caught some tarpon! - windriver - 03-07-2010
Great Report. Tarpon are on my "bucketlist" of fish to catch. Looks like you found a fun way to get it done.
Windriver
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