# POC tarpon



## Capt. Lowtide (Jun 30, 2004)

This week the fish have been farely cooperative, several guides (Tom Horby, Kevin Townsend and Jack Campbell) have been catching some. I even found an acorn, here's an excerpt from another report I posted

*Wednesday *I hit the water solo about 8am, but not by choice after calling friends, family and customers interested in tarpon fishing without a taker. Pulled into the surf and boxed a nice limit of trout (fish fry this weekend!) on the first 30 cast with a trusty Skitterwalk "Pink Panties." C&R many more along with some nice reds for the next couple of hours until a UFO stole my hot lure. The whole time I was catching fish there was no wind, I was ready to cool off and take a run around the gulf.

Hit some rigs and a caught three ling, two barely undersize with the biggest freeing itself by jumping out of the boat after rearranging the cockpit for a couple of minutes. Fished for tarpon for a couple of hours with only kings hitting the live baits being drifted and I kept myself entertained by catching smacks on speck rigs and casting tarpon lures around large schools of menhaden. At one point I had a large school of Houndfish swim up to the boat and hang around for awhile, most of them were over 3 feet long. I never found a lure they would take, I was really wanting one for a pic and quick release since they seem to be rare in our waters.

With the lack of wind and running low on fluids in the cooler I took off to hopefully bump up a pod on tarpon and remain hydrated. After a few minutes I saw a large fish go airborne about a half mile away in a direction I had not fished so far. A few minutes later I arrived and found a nice pod of pogies and put out a live mullet to drift through the area. With the bait rod in the holder I got up on the front deck with one of my homemade tarpon lures and as if on cue the mother lode appeared. A massive school of tarpon was hovering on the surface on the opposite side of the menhaden, one long cast and I was hooked up. With my fish burning line and jumping toward the horizon, I forgot about the bait rod until there was a huge splash behind the boat and the reel started smokin, no worries that fish was about 70lbs and no match for 300yds if 20lb mono. About ten minutes into fighting both fish with one rod placed in the holder while I swapped between the two the smaller fish threw the 12/O Mustad circle during a gymnastic display.

For the next twenty minutes I put maximum pressure on the big fish w/65lb Power Pro, exhausted (both of us) she was at the boat and was much larger than I wanted to handle solo. I went for the camera and she pulled away just in time to get out of reach and a smack swam up and hit the swivel for a clean release and no photos to document the catch.

I was almost spent, but with the adrenaline pumping I was able to shadow two large schools for the next hour and put five more in the air before heading back to POC. The last school I came upon was daisy-chaining on the surface in a tight circle, thought that only happened elsewhere, but then again you never know what you might see in Texas.


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## Tarponchaser (May 25, 2005)

Great report!!!


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## Bill C (May 23, 2004)

Nice trip!

That sounds like a good time to me.


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## davidb (May 10, 2006)

I'm envious, better stop catching them on your days off. 

Get one of those mono pod things for your camera that mounts on the platform or the light post. Or just a piece of PVC with a universal swivel that you can put in a rod holder. Just to protect your credibility, and to provide vicarious thrills for those of us who are less fortunate.


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