# Boca Grande and the World's Richest Tarpon Tournament



## marc (May 21, 2004)

It was my first time to drive out to Boca and we had a blast! I put the boat in the water at 3 on Saturday afternoon. The pass was full of live bait boats so I hung around them for a while trying to get a general idea of what going on. I didn't have bait with me so I just watched, trying to pick up on any details that may help us later in the week when the rest of my crew showed up. On the way back to the dock I motored out and picked up a few thread fins with the hope that some fish may show off the beach before dark. They sure did. I spotted a few rolling fish just off the sandbar of Little Pass, positioned my boat in the same way that I was showed by capt. Mark Bennett and it paid off. The first thread got bit and I was tight on a nice 70 lb fish. Catching that first fish was a real confidence booster. Driving back in the side scan picked up on a big tarpon under the bridge between Little Pass and Uncle Henry's marina where I had rented a slip for the week. The first thread I dropped back in the current got bit and I was tight on my second bigger tarpon of the evening. He pulled out some drag and jumped a few times before throwning the hook. That was the first day.

Day two I went out with capt Mark Bennett and his wife Jenni www.tarponsnook.com. I was bragging about my day before and I guess he had it in his mind that he was not going to be out done by this out of towner. We quickly got tight on a big 140# fish that almost whipped me. Captain just laughed. After putting a few more fish in the air we managed to get tight and leader another 120# fish. I was done for the day.

The next couple days were allot slower as I focused on catching bait and fishing the pass in the evenings. Nothing seamed to work. There was an incoming tide up until dark and everything that I knew about the pass required an outgoing tide. My friend showed up on Tuesday and we hit the Hill. I had fished the Hill with Bennett a few times and kinda knew the layout, but today seamed different. Instead of smaller pods of fish scattered there was on huge pod with 50 boats on top of it. We broke off one fish after 2 hours of fishing and decided to call it a day.

The rest of our team showed up on Wednesday and they were ready to catch some fish. It had been pretty slow in the pass so I took them to the Hill. That day the fish were spread out. The pods were less pressured and very happy. We pulled up to one pod where a couple boats were already working. After giving those guides time to not get bit we slid in and quickly put two fish in the air. Just before, a quick conversation with one guide revealed that these fish were "not" eating. He left to find another pod for his customers right after we jumped our second fish.

That afternoon was WRTT time. Our bait well was loaded with squirrel fish and we were ready to do some damage. The tide was going out just right and the radio quickly rang out "fish on" as soon as the tournament started. After day one the first place boat had 4 fish. There were a few boats with 3, a few more with 2 and a few more with 1. Most boats were in the same position as we were with zero fish. We changed everything up for day two of the WRTT. We made line changes, bait changes(secret bait), and hook changes. Our rods were now set up just like we do back in Texas, with one small change. The weights had to be permanent. Back home we rig them to break away, but the rules forbid this in the tournament. Most boats went cold on day two with maybe one boat catching two fish. We hooked up to three fish. One we quickly lost. The next was a 150 # fish that we had on through a few jumps before she decided to catch air 20 ft from the boat and give us our weight and hook back. Two guys on our boat got hit by the same weight. The third fish was just under 100#. Carrie, my wife hooked it and had it on for while before it chewed thought the leader. That was it for the tournament. We were pretty let down after day one, but felt good about it all after day two. Captain Willy Mills of the Tracy Lynn won first place with 5 fish. The second place team had five also. Third went to the last tarpon hooked and caught. Their fish was hooked in the last five minutes. About half the boats out did not catch any fish so we felt like we did pretty good. Next year we are going into this thing with our Texas rigs and a bigger boat.

Thank you www.ProjectTarpon.com for helping sponsor us in the WRTT

Team Chorizo


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## Bill C (May 23, 2004)

Good for you! It sounds like you made up some ground on that learning curve. Well done guys.


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## Hunter (Sep 3, 2004)

Way to go TC. Sounds like a great trip.

See you on your home turf soon.


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## rvd (Mar 30, 2006)

Very cool, thanks for sharing.


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## Kosta (May 22, 2004)

Awesome play by play. Sounds like a sucessfull week of fishing, fun. I really enjoyed fishing Boca when we lived in FL, beautiful area.


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