This is either a passion or totally crazy; maybe both. My alarm went off at 3 a.m. By 3:30 I was on the road to meet Carey Theriot, fly fishing manager of Flint Creek Outfitters of Ocala. After hooking up to Walt’s skiff, I arrived at RaceTrac in Homosassa Springs to meet Cary. He followed me to the boat ramp and by 6:00 A.M. we were underway.
As we plied west to our destination, a light chop was chattering under our feet signified a great day to come. It was light out now and at pre-sunrise the white deck of the skiff turned a flamingo pink. Only certain days does the light and sky match just right for this to happen. First time I saw it, I could not believe my eyes. It was so surreal.
Tarpon with a fly rod was the plan today. The season is nearly over as many fish have left and migrated on. Some go into the rivers. Some spend the entire year in the rivers. Who knows. It has been proven that tarpon head offshore 100 miles to spawn.
For this morning, we will settle for whatever fish came by as it did not much matter to Cary and I. We were both were mesmerized by the sunrise for a few minutes. Cameras’ out and shutter sounding. Another masterpiece by the Master with orange, red, yellow and clouds reflecting those colors. What a sight to make you appreciate living another day. There is something special about breathing in salt air and unique to say the least, reading the water surface for tarpon.
Well, Cary and I are talking away as we ready our lines for the silver king. We had several pods come to us. We casted the fly into the school on mark feeling nothing. You can’t see your fly early in the morning but the rollers are exciting. This is the one of the pinnacles to angling for tarpon.
Other pinnacles is seeing the tarpon’s black back in contrast to a white sandy bottom and begin tracking the fly, sometimes giving the angler plenty of time for surreal excitement before watching its huge black gallon bucket size mouth open eating the fly. They are usually lazily slow but in some cases moving fast. With fly line in hand and feeling the bite and then pulling it hard is so awesome. Like a greyhound bus. The rod has nothing to do with setting the hook as many beginners will try to strike it with the rod like a trout fisherman, pulling the fly out of its mouth.
Still in pinnacle lands, the jumps a tarpon and height of the leaps, twisting, somersaulting, gill rattling and white water cascading is the highest peak for me. It’s like the Tetons, the full view of those peaks that make up the beauty and excitement. Homosassa’s tarpon are from 4-7 feet long. That’s 30 to over 200 pounds.
I had to have Cary back in by 9am to the ramp. It was a good morning. We exchanged pleasantries and I headed back out alone. By now the sun was up high enough to have some visibility to see the poons under the water’s surface cruising.. The plan is to put the fly in front of the mouth and not the tail:-)
Well, a buddy said, Mike here’s comes a school of 50. I laughed and thought, I only want one. They passed out of ranged and the glare was bad, so I only saw a few rollers. So heck, I pulled the anchor and decided to use the iPilot trolling motor. On low speed, here’s comes a string of 3. I shut the motor off and they were going to pass in range, about 40 feet. I missed the sweet spot and off they went. A couple of hours went by without an eyeball, so I just soaked up the beauty of the flat. I had it all to myself. I was about to call it after 5 minutes. But, here’s come an unmistakable push of tarpon swimming very fast. I hit the remote to “Rabbit”(full speed) and turned 180 degrees for 20 yards, shut it down and made my cast. It was those same three fish, to myself. Would you believe my fly snagged a blade of turtle grass, End of story, that’s tarpon fishing on the fly.
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