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Twice that I can remember ... on spinning gear ... although I have had large tarpon spook me on my fly outfits numerous times, but managed to land them ...
... the first was when I was about 11 or 12 ... was trolling an old big metal spoon Tony Acetta ... on mono, with my Penn 704 ... let out way too much mono ... it was way back there, a speed boat went cruising by, I thought it was a big striper, but my friend's dad, who owned the boat and was running the boat let me know that my hopes were quickly being dashed as the speedboat was dutifully getting a couple hundred yards of yellow stren wrapped around his propeller shaft ... I was heart broken ... not because of the lost line or lure, but rather because what I thought was a huge striper or bluefish turned out to be another boat ... all hopes dashed ...
... another time I was fishing tarpon off Sanibel, we were on Johnson Shoals just off Caya Costa, outside Boca Grande Pass ... a tarpon took my crab and went for a run, I felt the hook slip, but was still on ... fought that fish for hours ... turned out that the hook had slipped out of the tarpon's mouth and hooked its pectoral fin, the fish was better than 100-pounds and because it was hooked in the pectoral, it fought like crazy ... we initiall thought it was a huge moo moo ... better than 200 pounds, but alas, not only was it not a record fish, but it was only just over 100 ... we got the hook out ... it was a four for four day on that one ... a few on fly and a few on spin ...
... another tarpon experience was fishing inside Pine Island Sound, on the edge of a flat just inside of Caya Costa ... hooked a nice tarpon on fly, this one wasn't to be tammed ... numerous times it got me down to the knot on the spool of the backing ... we fought that fish for longer than an hour, closer to two ... it took us from just inside the outside island all the way across the sound to Pine Island, where the fly line rubbed against a crab trap, and the fly line got chaffed ... and eventually the fly line seperated in the middle of a squal that was passing through ... quite a monumental moment to be in high winds, dark sky, white caps, heavy, pelting rain and lightening, when I tried to put the guns on the fish, as I was about to break its will ... and the line parted ... no worries, I'm over it, I don't really remember much of that fish ... felt like I was on the set of moby #^&#^&#^&#^& ... hmm ... feel like crying ...
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