Florida Tarpon & Shark Mania (videos)

Closing things down for the Florida portion of my summer.  Headed back to the PNW soon.  The fishing is great here, but I miss my home! 

Here's some vids from recent fishing forays in the gulf.  The first is a couple more tarpon jumps.  I jumped probably more than 10 total, each holding on somewhere between 2 seconds and 4 or 5 thrilling mins.  But I realize how lucky I was to get my first hooked tarpon boatside. beginner's luck I guess.

Watch my bait get launched into orbit in the first slo-mo clip!



Here's some footage from shark fishing.  The cool thing about tarpon fishing is you can throw a circle-hooked pinfish (or any fish really) on a rod and drag it behind you, while casting or drifting for tarpon, with a crab on a float.  Tarpon will hit that trailed bait occasionally, but more often sharks do.  and WOW are they great sport.  I was using 80lb flouro but after many severed leaders I finally wised up and went with steel on the 2nd rod (surprisingly - Tarpon still hit it.  That second clip above was my trailed shark bait...sliced up pinfish on a steel leader).

Just the other evening at dusk I hooked into a muther of a shark just 50 yds off the shore, and I thought he was going to spool me on HEAVY GEAR!  I almost wish he had - I've never been spooled.  But wow, there is NOTHING on this earth like the feeling of a fish ripping drag, and the only thing you can do is just hold on and hope.  Drag's as tight as it go be w/o breaking line, and you can't palm the spool for the same reason.  Aagh!  I live for it!!  This was either a blacktip or a nurse shark, definitely in the 6+ft range, perhaps even 8.   I finally got some line back and fought him for a good while, til the braided line came across something, a rock I am guessing, and severed.  But it was a fantastic grand finale to my florida fishing trip.  Needless to say, I'm hooked on shark fishing.  I have video, but it's dark, all you hear is the sound of drag being ripped!



Yeah, that's actually salmon gear I brought down from the northwest.  Not ideal, but hey, you go with what you've got!  One shark actually broke the tip off.  Haha.  Ended up getting a kingfish rod.

Man, YOU are having waaaay too much fun! Glad it's happening for you and I'm sorry I didn't sneak in a quick trip to the west coast (of the peninsula) to join you. Maybe next year!

Man, YOU are having waaaay too much fun! Glad it's happening for you and I'm sorry I didn't sneak in a quick trip to the west coast (of the peninsula) to join you. Maybe next year!

Maybe I should come to you!  The fish are bigger on your side.  I'll be back for a few weeks in the winter.  We should definitely try to hook up.

Maybe I should come to you!  The fish are bigger on your side.  I'll be back for a few weeks in the winter.  We should definitely try to hook up.

Consider yourself officially invited. Lemme know when.
The fish may be bigger, but I would not make book on that and I have not seen a Tarpon lately (other than yours). Plenty of sharks though.

Ah man talk about unhappy ending!

Ah man talk about unhappy ending!

That's what she said?

Truly an epic vacay there Rory! Thanks for bringing us along for the ride. Funnily enough I think my highlight is watching your bait outrun the shuttle Atlantis when it got chucked by that massive herring. A real "Oh shit" (in amazement) moment.

Nice job Rory. Looks like you're having a ton of fun down there. Your fishing pole arm is going to look like popeye's arm when you get home from fighting all those big fish...Was that all shot from your playsport? Where did you hold it during the shark segment?

Nice job Rory. Looks like you're having a ton of fun down there. Your fishing pole arm is going to look like popeye's arm when you get home from fighting all those big fish...Was that all shot from your playsport? Where did you hold it during the shark segment?

Most was wth the playsport, but the shaky video at the end is my still camera that has a crappy video mode.  The Fuji Z33WP.  I held the wrist string in my teeth and attempted to keep it flat on my chin.  It was a real sh*t show!  Shame you can't see the blacktip splashing around in a foot of water. 

There were no beachgoers, but if their had been they might have been a little disconcerted to see me land my huge kayak and then proceed to haul a good sized shark out of the water. 

(Turtle beach is pretty empty usually, which was one of the reasons I attempted it)