NDR Boca Grande Tarpon

Troy Fields

Troy Fields

Well-known member
It had always been a bucket list trip for me to go down to Florida and tarpon fish, well no more. For my 60th birthday, Terrie had booked us a trip down to Boca Grande, Florida. We had 10-12 hits each day and we boated 8 fish in two days out. All the tarpon were in the 100-180lb category and released safely. In addition to that, we broke off one due to a shark going after it, had one cut-off by a richer than smarter boat captain. Popped a couple hooksets, had a reel break in my hand with a fish on and we flat-out missed a few. It was truly a trip to remember. Here are but a few of the pictures.

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I'm jealous, so my only response is 60 IS REALLY OLD!

We did a family trip to Marathon Key last spring, and all I managed to do was break off two very large snook in a mangrove creek we could kayak to from our rental. The third morning a manatee cow and calf show seemed to spook all the fish. We did some some tarpon I would judge to be in the 15-50 lb class smashing bait off the beach at the end of the creek, but I did manage to connect. I did have one almost land in my lap on the kayak, though--jumped right over my legs. Florida is really cool, but every time I go there I wish I could have seen it 100 years ago before all the development.
 
Troy, that looks like an awesome trip! I have only caught baby tarpon, though Steve and I helped a kayaker lad a monster in Jacksonville. It was pretty dang cool. I would love to do a monster tarpon trip one day........
 
Welp, you're one up on me! I've seen a good number of tarpon rolling since I got down to Tampa but havent gotten up the nerve to fight the worlds largest herring yet.
Very cool trip and great pics!
BTW, FL is full of rich but not smart boat drivers. They make life here very interesting.
 
Kevin Layne said:
That looks like an amazing trip I might have to look in to. Gotta ask why the captain cut the one off (richer than smarter)
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Amazing trip indeed Kevin. It was not our captain that cut the fish off. It was other captain that had slid into our back pocket to set up his his lines, about that time, we hooked up and in his departure, he ran right over the line, cutting the fish off and entangling his prop as well. 250k boat...10 cent brain.
 
Jeff Reardon said:
I'm jealous, so my only response is 60 IS REALLY OLD!

We did a family trip to Marathon Key last spring, and all I managed to do was break off two very large snook in a mangrove creek we could kayak to from our rental. The third morning a manatee cow and calf show seemed to spook all the fish. We did some some tarpon I would judge to be in the 15-50 lb class smashing bait off the beach at the end of the creek, but I did manage to connect. I did have one almost land in my lap on the kayak, though--jumped right over my legs. Florida is really cool, but every time I go there I wish I could have seen it 100 years ago before all the development.
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Haha, thanks Jeff. 60 is the new 40, I still feel great and can still jump in and out of the DW. Those big tarpon are amazing, I do want to go back after some other species now though. Perhaps even a smaller tarpon on the fly.
 
Dani said:
Troy, that looks like an awesome trip! I have only caught baby tarpon, though Steve and I helped a kayaker lad a monster in Jacksonville. It was pretty dang cool. I would love to do a monster tarpon trip one day........
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Thanks Dani. It was a trip of trips. I could not imagine trying to get the needed leverage from a kayak to land a big tarpon. I'm thinking they would just pull you all over creation. Not to mention the sharks that flank the tarpon schools. But to each their own, we did not see one kayak out with the big boats, there were two however that were fishing some structure at a near by beach.
 
Carl said:
Welp, you're one up on me! I've seen a good number of tarpon rolling since I got down to Tampa but havent gotten up the nerve to fight the worlds largest herring yet.
Very cool trip and great pics!
BTW, FL is full of rich but not smart boat drivers. They make life here very interesting.
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Thanks Carl. This guy was the only one we ran in too. All the other captains (mostly charter boats) were all respectful of each other and distance as well as not spooking fish. There was a derby going on the next day and our suspicion is that he was just out pre-fishing for that. Our guide had never seen the boat before.
 
Troy Fields said:
Haha, thanks Jeff. 60 is the new 40, I still feel great and can still jump in and out of the DW. Those big tarpon are amazing, I do want to go back after some other species now though. Perhaps even a smaller tarpon on the fly.
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If you come back down, go for Snook. Its like a salt water musky.
And try a reef trip for yellow tail and mutton snapper. Good eats!
 
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