Oil Man Lands Tarpon and Permit

Report Date: June 8, 2004

Oil Engineer find him self up to his neck in Tarpon and Permit.

On a recent trip to Key West, Dan managed to jump several Tarpon and land several Tarpon and Permit.

When we left the dock I noticed we had a little more wind than I would like, however, I had high hopes never the less. When we got to the first spot we say very little activity for the first half hour. Then slowly one by one we saw a few more Tarpon move or roll. Drifting out a pinfish and a crab we watched and waited. No bites???..

Faced with the difficult decision of fishing rule #101. Never leave fish to find fish. We sat, waited and watched.

Then when little hope was left with this spot the float went down and the fish was on.
Bow to that fish when he goes airborne. However, he never jumped. Instead he smoked about one hundred fifty yards of line off the spinning reel. Starting the motor I told Dan we got to get some line back on the reel. So I idled after the Tarpon, which would proceed to give us a magical one jump, with absolutely now warning and not even a chance to bow. But we kept him on. Now gaining some line back on the reel I had guessed the fish around 80 pounds. We pulled the hook on this fish just prior to getting him boat side. Not a bad start for day one of four days fishing. Dan mentioned later in the trip that the less the Tarpon jumps the better your odds of catches a fish. This is very clearly the case.

Next day, it was on to another Tarpon spot, however, this time we came up with a Permit and no Tarpon. Searching for more fish we came across a school of monsters. No a fish under a hundred pound in this school. We did have good success in the next spot. Dan managed to hook and land one tarpon about 100 plus pounds and jump off several more.

Heading out again at 5:30 am we searched for Tarpon. Looking high and low we found few targets. Yet, we managed to catch another Permit, which weighed around thirty pounds. This was a nice change from the arm breaking hour?s fight on the Tarpon the day before. This Permit was swimming with a school of Tarpon. Not a bad break even when you?re Tarpon fishing if you catch a Permit.

We headed back to the dock on the last day with damn good confidence that despite the wind and weather condition we hooked and landed a few Tarpon and a few Permit.
Actually the fishing was awesome as I look back and think of the conditions.

Hey give me a call and we?ll go fish.
Who know maybe you?ll catch a Tarpon when Permit fishing.

Capt. Lenny

 

Back to Main Fishing Report Page