Tarpon: One Bridge Too Far
Water LIFE
Page 20
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September 2006
MAGAZINE
S t aff R eport ‘Fish’ as his friends call him is Tom Fisher a third generation local fisherman who has been running recreational fishing trips for years. Last week I got a call from Robert at Fishin' Franks: “‘Fish’ has a big tarpon on at Spring Lake. 130 maybe 150 pounds,” Robert added. A fish that big in August in the lake was an oddity. I called Tom’s cell phone and talked to him. “That’s right, that’s right, had it on for about an hour already,” Tom told me. I grabbed a camera and headed over to Spring Lake, a mile away. When I got to the lake I called Tom again and after locating him and driving to the other side of the water Tom worked the fish around and then moved his boat in until he could angle up to a seawall. I jumped aboard, all the time angler John Oaks keeping the fish on with a loosened drag. I climbed up into the tower, John cranked the drag back down and the fight was back on. From the beginning I thought the fish was tired, watching it surface and submerge slowly made me even more sure. He’s getting tired I said and Tom and John laughed. We said that an hour ago, John said. This was a big strong lazy fish. It wasn’t tired, it was just moving
slow. Before I arrived the fish had passed under the Edgewater Drive bridge twice, once on the way out – almost to the Beach Complex – and then again when she swam all the way back . John traded drag with the fish for about twenty minutes before she took us out under the bridge for a third time. This time the fish continued towards the open water, but then she zig-zagged and cut behind one of the little mangrove islands in only a foot or two of water. Tom tried to divert here, stamping his feet on the deck, and rattling hatch covers. He pointed to John to hold the rod just this particular way or that. John wasa 12 year vetran of tarpon fishing. She’ll be number 47, John said, optimistically, early on, but the fish kept swimming. There were pods of juvenile tarpon in Spring Lake that day, nothing unusual about that. John’s fish stayed out in the middle of the canal. Mostly because of Tom’s directing and a lot of artful angling by John. Every time the fish would turn on a heading towards a dock or a shallow bank they’d angle it back into open water. The art is in the angling with one of these big fish, not letting it have its way and get too close to a piling or a treelined shore
where it can break itself off. This fish seemed content with being in the deeper water in the middle anyway. Whenever a pod of the smaller tarpon showed themselves, rolling 15 or 20 yards away, John’s fish would change direction and head for them. Security in numbers, no doubt, we reasoned. The fish turned, slowly, and headed back under the bridge. Slowly the fish worked its way around the perimeter of east spring lake and then headed out under the Edgewater bridge again. This time the fish just went down stream. The tide was going out and the fish was following it. We almost made it back to the beach complex before, for no apparent reason, the tarpon reversed course yet again and headed back for the bridge. In all the fish swam under the Edgewater bridge five times before finally going to the bottom of the inland side of the lake and breaking the leader. Two hours and forty five minutes into the fight and it was over. There is a certain quiet that comes over the boat when a nice fish gets away. It’s like everyone aboard is afraid to be the first one to speak. This time was no exception. Tom broke the silence this time. Lets go get some lunch.