Today my shipmate is Lemon Geoff who has exceeded all of his fishing expectations.
The one species he has not captured has been a Tarpon and we desperately need one.
We are with Captain Jay on board Damon's boat and yet again it was still windy. Our cunning plan for the day was to fish for Sail Fish until around 2 pm then race back to Key West to fish the first part of the incoming tide in the harbour.

We quickly caught a load of Threadfins and small Blue Runners for bait on our Sabiki rigs and headed out over the reef. We fished off Weston in 120 through 180 feet of water. Two Threadfins on our flat lines and two Blue Runners on the Kite and a slow drift looked good, but the ocean seemed devoid of life. To me the colour was not right the water was slightly milky and not the deep blue it should have been. The wind had moved the blue water out to 220ft, not such a good depth for Sailfish. Listening on the radio it soon became obvious that no Sails were being caught.

I did catch a decent Dolphin but that was about it.

A Dolphin fish, otherwise known as Mahi-Mahi - Delicious

I suggested an early move back to Key West. We made a move into the shipping lane where our other shipmates joined us who had been out with Captain Chris on board Cool Water. They had been out over the reef but apart from a load of Yellow Tails it had been tough.

Keith quickly hooked and landed a Tarpon which gave Lemon Geoff and myself confidence. We were only fishing about 100 yards apart.

The other half of the crew were only 100 yards away

I had a couple of Lemon Sharks that pretended to be Tarpon, the difference is that they do not jump and the initial run is a lot shorter.

Roy playing a Lemon Shark whilst deparately hoping that it's a Tarpon

Then with about an hour to go Lemon Geoff hooked something that started heading towards Cuba, problem was it did not jump so we were not certain of the species.
We slipped the anchor and gave chase. Then disaster struck, his line had fouled a sunken crab pot and the rod was shaking violently. I told Geoff to slacken his drag and we desperately tried to manouver the line off the snag. Suddenly a good 200 yards away a very upset Tarpon leapt for the sky still attached to the rod and line, at least we now knew the species.

Captain Jay did a few wiggles of our boat above the snag and it came free. Thank goodness we were using Berkley Big Game 20lb test mono, this is the most abrasion resistant mono I have ever used. We gave chase with the fish pulling really hard. I had seen the fish jump and had an idea of its size, but this fish was making all of the wrong moves and was not fighting like a Tarpon. I gave Lemon loads of encouragement but I actually felt that the worse was going to happen. During all of the years Tarpon fishing I have landed many hundreds of this species and this one was not fighting to the rules.

After 20 minutes the fish started to come up and to our amazement we could see that the hook was wrapped around its belly. We desperately needed to count this fish so I eventually got hold of the leader and pulled it to the boat.

Lemons first Tarpon - A lovely fish that led them a merry dance

A release counts when you either touch the leader or you get the leader into the rod.
When I first started fishing the Keys some 35 years ago this seemed a very strange set up, but you quickly realise why it is this way. These fish, which can average 100lbs, are just too big to bring on board without them doing a lot of damage to themselves and you. Plus the fact that every one is released.

I could now see the problem, this fish had another line and hook around its belly and although Geoff had hooked the fish in the mouth the line had snagged around the second hook meaning Lemon had had little control over his fish. Eventually I freed both hooks and Geoff had landed his first Tarpon unassisted. High fives followed.

In the mean time Robin on board Cool Water with Keith also successfully released a Tarpon.

We headed back to the dock relieved that Lemon had broken his Tarpon duck. A tough day for us all. Tomorrow is Day 14 our last day, the wind is forecast to drop and we need to finish on a high.

Watch this space.