From June 29, 2000</font id=blue>
It was a typical hot, overcast, muggy day in August and an extremely slow day of fishing at Dynamite Hole. We had put out a menhaden and a mullet on the surface and a mullet and a pinfish on the bottom and had not lost a single bait in over four hours of fishing. Dad said, “well I guess it is time we call it a day and head for home” and I agreed. Dad wound in the two lines on the surface and I began winding in the deep lines. I picked up the rod with the mullet and began winding it in when I realized the line was caught on something. At first I thought I was hung up on a big rock when suddenly the rock began to move! When I wound down and set the hook the drag started screaming. Within seconds I saw the large silver bodied Tarpon bust out of the water 60 yards behind the back of the boat! I bowed to the fish and pointed the rod tip at him giving him slack and praying that he would not throw the hook. The Tarpon landed back in the water and immediately came right back up and started tail walking. Dad released the anchor, cranked the boat and we started following the fish. I started gaining some line on him when he took off again this time heading straight for a maze of about 20 crab pots. The fish then began to weave in and out of the pots as we followed him. Thanks to Dad’s good boat handling skills we cleared all the pots without loosing the fish. The fish then jumped several more times attempting to throw the hook. After about 45 minutes I knew the fish was about whipped and suddenly the line broke. As I reeled in the line I began noticing it was frayed in several spots. The fish had more than likely run by one of the crab pots and frayed the line. We estimated the fish to have weighed somewhere around 80 pounds. We had spent four hours waiting on that Tarpon for a mere 45 minutes of fight, but every second of that exhilarating fight was well worth the time and effort.
Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus), also known as Silver King, migrate up from Florida in th