Texas Tarpon & Reds

[brett humphries]

Fished today with Scott Graham (512-947-7145) out of Port O'Connor, TX. As I was leaving the inn, it was raining hard, and I got kind of deja vu like, from a trip to south Texas 2 years ago. Anyway, I met Scott at the launch, and it looked like it was breaking, so off we went. He took me to a spot where they had hooked some tarpon on Sunday, and within 10 minutes we had spotted tarpon feeding and cruising. These were a first for me! That was worth the price of admission, as far as I was concerned. I casted for a while, but had no takers, so we went to look for reds. Found no reds, so off we went for tarpon and jacks. Nothing doing at the next spot, and a big squall was approaching, so we did a little dodging and returned to our original spot. Saw some rollers, but no takers. We ate some lunch, and headed out again. We hit the flats for a couple of reds, and then went back to our fist spot, again. This time was different! Had some tarpon rolling around us, so I was doing some casting when I felt a small tug. I turned to Scott to tell him, and the next thing you know, this tarpon was jumping and heading straight for the boat! Scott started banging on the boat to try and scare the fish away, and on the next jump it threw the hook. I never really had a chance to hit him hard, because he was coming at the boat really fast. On the second jump, it landed less than two feet from the gunnel, and splashed water inside the boat. What a rush! It was my first tarpon tug! We tried a while longer, but no repeats. Drifted a flat for reds, and headed for home. Scott was a lot of fun to fish with. I highly recommend him. I am, pardon the pun, hooked on Texas fly fishing!

[Tony Buzolich]

Great post Brett.

I think you've got the tarpon bug already be it Texas or anywhere. I'll get worse after you hook and land your first one.

Glad you had a good first experience.

I'm Hooked Too, TONY

[Adam Grace]

Congrats Brett!

Those boney mouthed tarpon are not easy to sink a hook into.

Good luck next time

[Jasonh]

Cool report Brett. I wish i could have joined ya. Maybe next time.

Jason Hartwick

[brett humphries]

Thanks, everyone! I was very excited to finally hook up, if only for a moment. It all happened so quickly. Scott does not mess around with small tarpon bunnies, etc. I was casting (throwing?) about a 9 inch long bunch of red and silver flash, trying to draw some attention in the cloudy water. We were hoping to chase down some jacks that might be crashing bait on the surface, but it never really happened. Scott estimated that the fish that hit my fly would go around 120# or so, but I guess we will never know.