Bucket List Tarpon

After four years, my good friend and client Achim from Germany came back to fly fish for jacks, albies, snook and tarpon. In the first few days he caught some big jacks, snook, false albacore, jumped a nice 80-pound tarpon and missed some more tarpon bites. At this point he was very happy but neither of us could have predicted the moment on June 27 when all the stars aligned, and he hooked at the last daylight a GIANT tarpon inshore. She took us around other boats and channel markers eventually leading us two miles offshore.

Although we put tremendous pressure on her and I made multiple attempts to leader her, it took us around 1.5 hours until I could finally get my hands on her.

Her jawbone was so massive I could barely get my hands around it and although I’m 6’5” - I felt small.

I told Achim she is definitely over 180 pounds but after a week of studying the footage, doing some research on the internet, and checking in with some marine scientist friends, I truly believe she is around 200 pounds. While I wanted so badly to measure her, my biggest concern was to release her quickly to avoid the nearby predators like bull and hammerhead sharks. Her release was strong, and she swam off healthy!

In retrospect, there is a part of me that wishes I could have measured her, but deep down, I am confident I made the right choice by ensuring her a healthy release.

I’m grateful for this experience, and I couldn’t ask for a better friend, considering the unfortunate loss of three big tarpon in 2019 due bad luck. He definitely made up for that and then some.

Congrats my friend!

Capt. Michael Mauri www.mauriflyfishing.com michael@mauriflyfishing.com

(772) 485-3321