Creek Tarpon

Like Glass

Big Bonefish

Hard to tell from that photo but that was a really big bonefish. Top pic was taken Saturday. Talk about perfect conditions, no wind and not a cloud in the sky.

It was that day Dennis and I went up the creek specifically looking for tarpon, and guess what—-we found em. I will not say who was doing the casting but rather say we were doing it. On the first tarpon we found we did one too many false casts and lined him big time. Needless to say he instantly blew out of the country. No more than 100 feet away we spotted another one. At first we weren’t sure if it was a log on the bottom or a tarpon and then it moved it’s tail. This time the cast was a bit short but the fish came right after it and put his nose on the fly and stopped. Here we go again I thought just like the ones on the west side that day. We did short  slow strips and he kept his nose right on it. Finally he was almost to the boat and there was no more room to strip. Rather than make another cast and spook him we decided to just stop and leave the fly suspended there. I was told this by a friend of mine who guides  in the keys. He said at times like that just stop stripping and quite often it will pick it up. Well  all of a sudden the leader and line straightened out and TARPON ON. I was worried it would get tangled up in the  mangroves that  were right next to us but it went passed them and headed for open water. We were both astounded it ate the fly like that and within 15 feet of the boat. We commented to each other that we both had our cameras this time and would be getting shots of this big boy. He made a hard run to open water and all of a sudden the line just went limp. We thought maybe broke off and or our knot broke but when we reeled  it in all was fine. No pics but we hooked him and had fun. We were sure there would  be  more around and then the clouds moved in and visibility in that area went to about 10 feet. Next decent day Tommy and I will be going back there and we should find them again. Fun stuff. It was coming back and I waded this flat and caught that big bone in the  pic.