With the sun rising in the east our livewell was empty after 20 minutes of fishing for ladyfish. Ladyfish is the easiest fish to catch in Florida and are mainly for sport and to use for bait. They average 15 to 20 inches, a big bait for monster fish. Why is it that when you want to catch ladyfish for bait you can’t and when you don’t want them you can’t keep them off your line? So, one hour into the day and 6 ladyfish later Bob and I headed out in the harbor to hunt for tarpon. Our expectations were tempered with recent skunk trips but our first stop mid-harbor met with a smashing strike on a live lady, acrobatic jumps and a 20 minute struggle ended with a 120# silver king at boat side!
An hour later we had two shark bite offs and a missed tarpon that nearly spooled our reel! Tarpon peel off so much line on the first couple of runs that you can literally get spooled even with 300 yards of 60# braid. We learned our lesson from that and decided to place an anchor ball on our anchor line. The idea of this is to place a floating buoy on the end of the anchor line so that you can quickly unhook the anchor free of the boat so that you can chase the fish down and gain back your line. With tarpon there is no time to pull in the anchor so you quick release it to chase the fish!
With anchor ball, line and anchor in 10 feet of water we patiently watched as an occasional tarpon would roll in the distance. We were nervous and so was the ladyfish on the end of my line then a big swoosh and all heck broke loose! The heavy action St. Croix rod bent so hard I could not get it out of the rod holder; I actually thought the handle was going to break off! We were anchored and losing all the line off the reel. Finally, with rod in hand and 250 yards of line out Bob ran to the bow and released the anchor into the water as I am shouting directions on which way the fish is running. Bob starts the engine and bumps the boat in gear and the motor shuts off! Oh lord and I am out of line! We run to the back of the boat and the engine is choked up on the anchor line and the anchor ball is wedged in the prop! An anchor ball is used so that when you hook a large fish you can quickly release the anchor from the boat and can locate after fighting the fish. You see, there is no time to pull in the anchor when the monster is pulling all the line off your reel! With the motor totally locked up this game is over I declare as I put the rod in a holder and Bob quickly lifts the anchor off the bottom and the fish starts towing the boat with the anchor line trailing behind the boat, motor out of commission.
We quickly realize that someone has to get in the water which does not sound too good to me. We talk about the big sharks that we hooked in the same area and realize at this point we have a big shark on the end of the line that amazingly has not bit us off. Bob gets in the dark water with knife in hand and is trying to carve out the tangled mess. Moments later with a blank expression Bob jumps up on the swim platform just about the same time as another rod we had out goes down. We forgot about that line still being out! Moments later a big sailcat is landed and Bob admits he felt something bump him in the leg while in the water which freaked him out causing him to nearly jump out of the water into the boat. I am still laughing about that one but somehow Bob didn’t see the humor. So back in the water and finally the anchor ball was pried from the prop and skeg, motor started and fish still on!
We followed the fish and caught up and had traveled a mile across the harbor! With the shark almost to the boat a huge 7 foot tarpon jumped in front of the boat as we both looked at each other in disbelief! There was never a clue it was a tarpon! So, in the process of landing the fish a bit of slack line occurred and the braid had so much tension over the past hour it curled up and wrapped the rod tip and of course the fish is hauling butt away from the boat and the tip is about to break off! Somehow shaking the rod tip in just the nick of time saved the rod and we boated a solid 160 pound plus fish! To tangle with a tarpon is nothing short of amazing but this day we had more tangles than just tarpon but luck was with us.
