I put in at the gre and ran to where the stono meets the kiawah stoped and started a drift back into the stono. Shrimp on Carolina rigs for whiting on the first drift to get bait, double up on 10inch whiting. I’m fighting a whiting and I here the water go crazy and look up to watch a big tarpon tail walk and roll. I take a picture to send my buddy to show how calm it is and bam another massive blow up. I reset to repeat the drift with cut whiting on larger Carolina rigs for sharks, as planned. Instant triple header with sharpnose. Land all 3 release 2 kept 1 for shark bait and decided to got to the sign by green creek for a bonnet head or sting ray also for shark bait. Wouldn’t you know on the way to the spot ba bam a tail walk to Arial show from about a 3ft tarpon. After 10 minutes I decide to go back to the drift since it was hot action. Crank up and won’t plain off or rpm up like I’m overloaded and then cut off. Bad gas. The wind blows me to the side opposite of the river as the landing and then the tide switched to outgoing sucking me out toward the ocean. I have no paddle because I have faith in my engine and am a dummy who didnt stay prepared. My boat is small I could of easily paddled it back too. I walked my boat up the bank of the stono from the inlet to nearly the boat landing because my tow was busy till later. On the 3 hr trek to around the bend to where it would be calm when conditions roughin up I saw 3 more tarpon jumps but it could of been the one smaller like 3ft one because 4 jumps from the day the fish were all the same size but the 2 big boys were clearly different fish. I found a new fishing spot, beat the Guinness record for horsefly bites received and became the first person in history to get pinched by the anchor links the way I did. At this point I’m a lobster since I planned a short trip so no need for sunscreen and am anchored up waiting on my tow and fighting off horse flys. I decide to take a nap since I got time to kill, and I awaken to what feels like a 5 gallon bucket
Its impossible to tell in the picture but the little wave at the tip of9 the glassy strip of water was from the tarpon. I didn’t see any bait besides tiny minnows on the surface and I had no electronics so couldn’t tell what was below the surface but no signs of bait on top or crabs swimming.
Geez! Here I am getting ready to drive 10 hours to Tampa to catch a Tarpon. Looks like they are only a few hours away!!!
Mark Ingle
NauticStar 1810 Merc 90
You must not of had white braid on you I think those tarpon would have been toast.
Bet that was really cool to see, sorry to hear you had troubles! How many boats do you think will be there Saturday?!
You must not of had white braid on you I think those tarpon would have been toast.
There was five boats fishing the point to the right and it looked slow. That spot in the channel is called the kitchen because locals can fill a kitchen in that spot. I would never fish the channel of the icw on the weekend. This area is usually really rough with a lot of tide and chop. I would say today I just happend to be there at the perfect day/time everything but my goal was to catch a monster ray and a few keeper sharks for bait to try to get a 10fter this weekend.
Cory, you know better. Dufus!
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Mike Martinez
“Team Hookers Dream”
2016 Sea Hunt 25 Gamefish twin Yamaha 150’s “Wet Dream”
1994 Ken Craft 175CC 1998 Yamaha 115 “Dream Machine”
Great story, glad your o.k.
I fish this area all the time no one fishes the channel except for whiting fishers filling a cooler. I fished the point which is a popular spot plenty and it wouldn’t rank in my top 10 spots within a mile of the area. Also water clarity was superb and the small tarpon shined like silver.
The Stono Inlet kills for fun. Worst boat day I’ve had was there. Everyone got home safe. Barely. 4 foot swells every other second or so and a 20 mile per hour wind whipping against the changing tide. Washing machine, and a captain I barely knew stupid enough to go through it. It really got fun when the (way too big for the boat) engine cut off 3 times) and we started taking the swells from the back and drifting towards open ocean. So rough we could only motor towards the sea and cut over towards the river once in a while. I thought we were toast.
No matter how many variables I have control over, I never expect a bite. I only hope.
Nearly every time I’ve had engine trouble was the stono and it kicks up quick. I’ve seen a close to 30ft cc nearly flip straight back from catching the bounces hitting waves to fast.