Congratulations - Scott Alford - Jim Farley

[Jimmy Durham]

Sorry if I missed this before, but I don't think this was posted on the board.

Scott Alford and Jim Farley made the Lone Star Outdoor News Magazine in September, 2004. I was surfing the net last week and found a Doug Pike artilcle called Striking Silver in the Lone Star Outdoor News Magazine. Great article and sounds like I should of been there that day.

http://www.lonestaroutdoornews.com/images/Web091004.pdf

Now that Jim F and Scott A are now famous with all their article, and Ricky T is famous with his flounder article, we may be in trouble on this board. Just kidding of course.

Jimmy Durham

[jabx1962]

I beleive anybody with the FARLEY last name is already famous in the Tarpon world...

I bet he is related to Barney Farley...one of the most renowned Tarpon fisherman on the Texas Gulf Coast...

There is a great book about Barney Farley thet is a must read...

[Mizpah]

I beleive anybody with the FARLEY last name is already famous in the Tarpon world...

I bet he is related to Barney Farley...one of the most renowned Tarpon fisherman on the Texas Gulf Coast...

There is a great book about Barney Farley thet is a must read...
Indeed, Barney Farley made significant contributions to the recreational fishing in Port A. He was a long (part) time guide, had a tackle shop and really promoted Port A tarpon fishing. He started the Texas Tarpon Rodeo in 1931 as a private tournament for anglers. In 1932, the city began sponsoring the event.

However, if you came to Port Aransas to fish for tarpon in the 30's, 40's or 50's, the Farley you wanted as a guide was Don Farley. Don was a true legend who guided for tarpon during the heyday of tarpon fishing off Port Aransas. His clients included President FDR, big-game angler Kip Farrington and Dr. Richard S. Sutton, who wrote Silver Kings of Aransas Pass in 1937. Sutton, who caught an estimated 1,000 tarpon, had this to say about Don Farley and his many trips tarpon fishing off Port A in his book:
"I have had a rather wide experience with the silver kings in various parts of the world, but for first class sport, under ideal conditions, Aransas Pass has Panama, Mexico and Florida backed off of the map....Don Farley, my skipper, can handle a light Hoag salt water rod as skillfully as the average American statesman can handle his conscience..and casts with the accuracy and grace of a Kentucky rifleman...an authority, one of the keenest and most capable guides on the Texas coast...In fact, I know of few greater pleasures than that of lolling in the cockpit of a trim twenty-four footer, at the end of a perfect day, mentally reviewing the stirring battles of the past twelve eventful hours, while Don Farley, my skipper, and one of the finest boys Texas ever mothered, sends the little craft scudding across the bounding deep like a frightened jack rabbit over a Kansas plain...Don has been my guide for fifteen years. He is one of those rare individuals who prefer to accomplish things rather than talk about them...Don, who is as frank and outspoken as he is transparently honest, remarked, "Well Doc, we're a goin' to romp on 'em today"....In approximately forty minutes, we hooked eleven tarpon, broke one line, and landed eight fish...."

Make no mistake about it, Don Farley was a tarpon guide.

Don’s son, Don Roy Farley, followed in his footsteps as a guide for over forty years. He also fished almost exclusively for tarpon in the 1950s and 1960s until the numbers began to dwindle. During this time, he won the Tarpon Rodeo two years in a row and 3 out of 4 years (1959, 1960 and 1962). During the mid 1960s, the Tarpon Rodeo became part of what is now known as the Deep Sea Roundup. Later, Don Roy ran a 36-foot Farley-built boat (the largest sportfisher that was built) to the offshore grounds. He was the first guide in Port Aransas to run marlin charters to the East Breaks (65 miles from the jetties on a compass and a depthfinder, no oil rigs for dead-reckoning and certainly no high-tech electronics like loran and GPS). He also did it right.

In 1960, Don Roy’s wife bore him a young son named Jim…
:wink:

[jabx1962]

I would really like to know more about both Don and Barney Farley...I first heard the name Barney Farley while hanging out at Woody's boat basin in Port A. in the early 80'S..the owner at the time was a gentleman named Foy Stiewig..He would tell stories about the glory days of fishing in Port A...he often mentioned the Farley fisherman...I read a book narratted by Barney Farley a while back...it mentions many things you wrote about in your reply..As well as a few pictures..including one with FDR in a FARLEY built boat..

Thank you for such great information..

Do you reccomend any reading material about the Farley Fisherman?

[Scott]

And I'll tell ya, that young boy named Jim has got it in his blood.

I've been tarpon fishing for nearly twenty years now. That's about half my adult life. I've gone from Boca Grande to Venice, LA to Costa Rica and the Carribean Islands fishing everything from chicken necks to $50 artificial baits for tarpon. I've found tarpon under tree limbs, in marina basins, at the mouths of rivers, along the beach, in deep holes and at oil rigs. I've fished with some of the best tarpon guides/fishermen in the Western Hemisphere and there are very very few I enjoy dragging a line through the water with and even fewer who's opinion I value and respect as much as that young boy named Jim.

When Jim and I fish together, there are two minds that think alike... tarpon and nothing but tarpon. There is never a disagreement on the boat about where we are going to fish or how or when its time to move or go looking or stay in one place. When it comes to tarpon fishing, I can be pretty cantakerous and Jim's one of the few guys that loves the sport enough to have the patience to deal with a frustrated, pis@ed off tarpon fisherman like me. There are few people that truely have it in their blood. When the fishing is tough and the tournament is on the line, you don't want anybody else in the boat with ya but that young boy named Jim.... even if he does throw into a hundered rolling tarpon and come up with a jack...... (sometimes you gotta just let that last coast-hawk go - inside joke!) lol.

[notso]

Jim and his wife Sally are truly tarpon experts and "fish heads". They just need a new boat!

[Brent]

I am glad you posted that Jimmy. I had not read it, but I know just how Doug felt. It is a real treat to fish with Scott and Jim, especially on a day like that....


http://www.texastarpon.net/LaTarpon_3.jpg

[Scott]

Great Picture Brent thanks - taken in Louisiana on the old Shamrock "Migration"!!! Can't miss that rope on the rub rail.

[Scott]

That was a hell of a day, if I recall correctly. We taught the coon-a@ses a few things about tarpon fishing on that day. We fished around around 20 boats and out fished all but one of them ten to nothing. It was great teamwork by all.

[Brent]

That was a great day Scott, one I will remember a lifetime. We also watched that guy on Coon's boat pay his dues, then finally jump the La. state record on a fly rod, and then pay some more dues.


http://www.texastarpon.net/LaTarpon_5.jpg

[Scott]

Now that the boat is sold and gone, the name is probably off the boat by now - can you send me via e-mail a good quality version of this picture. Thanks.

[Brent]

Now that the boat is sold and gone, the name is probably off the boat by now - can you send me via e-mail a good quality version of this picture. Thanks.
I have the original file of that picture on a CD around here somewhere. I will locate it and get it to you.....

[Louisiana Tarpon]

Scott, i must admit we got our butts kicked that day! Why don't we get a La/Texas rodeo (maybe a little cash). Next time there are a few boats coming this way let us know and we can figure out the particulars. Great Fishing!!! Even Swap

[Scott]

Hey, glad to see you checking in "Even Swap" -- as they say, "Some days your the bug, some days your the windshield" -- Tarpon fishing is a humbling experience at best - some days you're just FLAT LUCKY!!

I think a LA/Texas Shootout would be a blast. I plan on getting by new boat over there for a week in August - right now looking at August 17th through the 24th (Wed. to Wed.). The new boat can't be trailered so I'll be bringing it over on its keel... gonna stay all week and go home when its over. Not sure when Plaag and those guys intend on being over there but it would be fun if we could figure something out.

[crtarpon]

You guys talking about Farley started me thinking on Florida Roberts (Roberts Point is named after him) and the book about him called The Stubborn Fisherman by his wife Edna May Roberts. You can get it from The South Jetty office for $17 plus shipping. Heck of a book--covers them moving from Florida, Rockport, Port A--all during huge tarpon days.