I’m on the bow of Capt. Kevin Mihailoff’s flats boat deep in the Florida Everglades with my friend Roger, sitting behind me. As we silently turn toward a laid up Tarpon, Kevin quietly says, “Straight out in front, 30 feet, put it in the air, I’ll tell you when.” So, I do just that and then Kevin says, “Ok, drop it.” The black 3-0 fly plops just behind the head of the resting fish and I strip short pulses easily back over her back. Five strips, and she sees it, her wake bulging behind the fly. The enormous fish chomps down on the hook and erupts with her mouth opening. Shaking her head, she looks directly at me and turns down and away, I strip-set twice to drive the barb in and Kevin yells, “Yes!”After less than a minute, I have only 1/8-inch of backing left on the reel and Kevin abandons poling to the fish and starts the motor. Twice we chase down the Tarpon as I recover line and renew pressure to make the fish expend energy. Kevin urges me to put maximum pressure with the 12-weight on the fish and as I added some more torque to the already stressed rod. I could feel the mood of the giant fish turn ugly. I had pissed off this fish.Suddenly, the huge Tarpon raced 20 yards to my left sending a rooster tail of water behind the fly line. The fish then ran at the boat, straight at me, vaulted into the air, struck me on my left hip, driving my knee into the front podium, and passes over the boat behind me and in front of Roger who is sitting on the cooler behind me. There’s slime all over the deck and it’s a brief frenzy of team line clearing as the three of us yell, “Woah, Holy $#@%!” and other stuff you only say when you’ve never seen something as extraordinary. That fish hit me! I recovered all of the slack pretty fast, thanks to Roger and as he toweled up the slimy deck I slithered for good footing, the Tarpon made another huge surge out away from the shoreline. “Dude, did you rip your pants?” I reached back and felt tatters and I knew that this Tarpon had tried to take a chunk out of my butt. My knee stung, but I was now more determined to subdue this fish. We had to start the motor again and chase down the Tarpon, but after an hour’s fight, I could feel the big fish begin to tire. Four or five times, we had the fish close enough to the boat for Kevin to grab the leader and each time the fish surged away with a push from the giant tail. The fight ended with the Tarpon alongside the skiff and as Kevin’s fingers were groping for the fly, the frayed loop-knot was evidence that the 60-pound fluorocarbon had been worn away at the hook eye. A perfect release, an experience of a lifetime and a battle where I was attacked by a 125-pound Tarpon.
Holy cow man!! That was one crazy fish tale!! Great read and congrats on not getting to seriously hutt!!
marsh … first, congrats on that size of a tarpon on the fly … laid up too! … your knees must have been shaking casting to it … mine would have been … secondly, what an amazing story … he just cleared the boat without a problem or what? what a wild story .. one that i am sure you, kevin and roger won’t soon forget .. thanks for sharing … what a way to end your time down in florida … suffice it to say, you “ended it on a high note” ..
Marshall, that is an absolute dinosaur. Congrats on winning the battle, sounds like it was epic. You must have been out of your mind after she sailed clear across the deck. Outstanding!
DAMN!!! that one of the most awsome story I ever read.
Congrats for that “frightening” fish well over 100 lb.
The pics are really nice. Great team action once again congrats from all my heart 😉
Marshall what a fish! Hands down that is the best story I have ever read on the site!! Looking forward to fishing with you this year.
Austin
marshall,
that is absolutely incredible! I guess you must consider yourself lucky tarpon don’t have teeth!
MD,
Quite a tale bro.. I can picture it all going down. Casting with knees knocking…the hookset…tarpon turns and bolts…line jumping from your hands. Tarpon jumps over boat. Holy *$@%! Then the Tarpon slime shuffle! (a now popular dance move in the clubs of Miami)
Must have been outrages!
Killer pics and Killer catch Marshall!
Congrats on taming that Chromosorus Rex
I hope to see you on the WB soon, river should be flowing nicely just after you arrive
Safe travels.
Cool story and pictures!!!
I hope you are allright, I hppe to get a fish like that one day…
Peter
Great job landing that beast …to all on the boat as I bet it was total teamwork…I bet you were glad a camara was on board also…amazing story and fish.. congradulations
Alex
Nice fish and great story Marshall. Truly a great trophy.
Thanks everyone for the comments and cheers. I really hope you all can experience Tarpon fishing. This experience has changed me…..humbling me for sure, because I know it’s so rare to be lucky enough to bring one of these fish alongside the skiff on a fly rod. And the ‘teamwork’ yes. It was a three-man project from start to finish. Credit goes all around as it should because there wasn’t one moment when any one of us didn’t have to perform a critical task. Was lucky to have a trio with experience.
I’ll post up a picture in the forum of the damaged pants….It’s only R rated. I keep thinking …..all other gamefish seem like baitfish to me now. I know it’s not real, but It’s like I’ve been hunting Chipmunks then got up face-to-butt with a Rhino.
Marsh:
Sorry to be such a late-comer to this thread, but I have got to say that it’s as if the Tarpon was sayin’
“The South will Rise Again. Yankee, go home!”
After all, it is almost June….
Great fishtale!
Dave
P.S. It is also interesting to note that your pictures posted in the form answer an age-old question about Tarpon Fisherman.
Boxers or Briefs? Now we all know!
Perhaps the next time you will wear Kevlar!
Marsh is da man
Rob/hookmeup
What a great fish tale! I can totally picture it in my head. Do you have to bow to a poon that jumps right at you? 🙂 Tarpon are incredible fish! I felt the same way after I hooked my first tarpon on the fly…..I didn’t know how I would ever go back to fishing for anything else again. The desire to fish for them never fades, but, neither does fishing for anything else. As soon as I got back from Florida I went steelhead fishing and realized that no matter where I am, there will always be something to fly fish for. I will always be chasing some kind of swimming game, during their prime season, or maybe not so prime season. The fly fishing is what I am after….nothing else really matters. Congrats on the poon! I am so ready to go chase them around again!