For a couple of years now I have wanted to paddle out to the North end of Bull Island and I finally did it today. I have had several run-ins this year with the big silver fish but all have been very short lived and not exactly planned. Today I was ready. Or so i thought.
After some advice on my leaders I left from Garris and caught bait. The Haden are so thick up there in the ICW if it is a quite day the flickers are almost enough to drive you nuts. I did manage quite a few shrimp too that were up to 6". After loading the the livewell i started my trip.
The wind was not blowing at all but that did not last for long. As soon as I got the opening of the bay it started blowing. It wasn’t long before the bay was white capping. Having come this far and the wind at my back for the moment i decided to press on. I Set up about a half mile behind the island and started drifting baits toward the inlet. Not much to happened but i did manage one five foot shark.
I started to head to the point at the north end of the island and i thought i was seeing things at first, but i could see tarpon free jumping way off in the distance. After about a half of a mile paddle i saw another fish free jump and a couple of rolling fish so i decided to try and anchor up. The current was ripping so bad that my 7lb anchor would not hold. While i was fighting with the anchor the cork went off and then went limp. I thought it was a miss strike at first but then i noticed the line blowing by me. I reeled as fast as i could and as soon as it came tight huge tarpon did a back flip beside me and sent the cork flying.
Before i could even think about getting set up i noticed the current had pulled me out about half mile towards the middle of the inlet and the waves were pushing five feet and breaking all over the place.
It took me about 15 minutes of fighting waves and current before i could get back to the beach. I did see a couple of more fish free jump. It looked like jaws attacking seals. They would fly out of the wat
Sounds like a blast though.