# Lost our First Tarpon and cant sleep now..



## cabrego (Apr 24, 2015)

About 9 miles down Access 6 on SPI we were shark fishing with whole bonitas. Yes big baits, big hooks, 400lb leaders, steel drops.. you get the picture. 

I'm making my way to the first sand bar to cast out a bait rod and I see a good sized fish blast out of the water like a space shuttle on a mission to Mars. As I turn back to alert the wife and kids she's already half way up the shark tower cause her 30w Avet is screaming like a weed eater. My first thought was it was definitely a Tarpon but when I noticed our reel screaming I thought maybe it was a spinner shark. My wife is already halfway in tears cause there is so much slack in her line that she thinks the line got cut. After about a minute of reeling in the slack, the fight was on. After about 10 minutes she jumped the Tarpon in the second gut and right when we got the fish to the first sand bar the power of the fish caused a failure in our tackle. A reel bummer but it was nice to at least see it...I estimate about a 5-6 ft fish.


It was bizarre that we caught it considering we were targeting sharks. We think a feeding frenzy erupted with our bait and the fish was possible foul hooked based o how our long line clip failed. I attached a pic of the failure, we had 2 identical drops and one was missing.


----------



## IrishSharker (Jan 20, 2015)

Seen that way too many times with those longline clips, sucks it happened on such a good fish


----------



## Dubdee (Jul 22, 2015)

Yeah, I wouldn't fish with a longline clip between the hook and I. I do use them to attach my floats though.


----------



## cabrego (Apr 24, 2015)

Thanks for the tips, how do you think that happens? The guy who makes them said he's never seen anything like that happen in 15 years. We were so close to landing our first tarpon--even if it was just dumb luck..


----------



## IrishSharker (Jan 20, 2015)

Not sure how it happens but I'd use a regular shackle next time


----------



## Law Dawg (Mar 18, 2013)

cabrego said:


> Thanks for the tips, how do you think that happens? The guy who makes them said he's never seen anything like that happen in 15 years. We were so close to landing our first tarpon--even if it was just dumb luck..


 They always say that!!!!!!!


----------



## Winters97gt (Jun 20, 2013)

Tarpon don't give up until they are done. You can get your hand on the leader and be an hour away from landing them. In Texas, the chance of sharks eating them is very slim compared to Florida. Don't horse them in. Keep them within a 30 yard distance and let them tire themselves out. Then you can get a better chance on the leader and land them. Use your first hand for their mouth, and get the second hand in their gill fast. Then, it's over. Take 1-2 minutes for quick pictures, and release them. When they roll on their side, then you can land them as their fight is most often done. After their initial jumps and runs, they will come up for air, and you can point your rod strait down and pull. This will help to keep them from coming up for more air and quicken the fight.


----------



## Al bourgeois (Jan 18, 2015)

Reports say big ones coming in the next few weeks


----------

