Florida Tarpon (video)

My family lives in sarasota so I come down a couple times a year. I keep a PA12 and a car here and fish the region pretty hard. Kayaks and Florida are a good pair.

But this trip the wind has been brutal and inshore fishing not so good. I lucked out saturday and the gulf calmed down enough for me to go off the beach for tarpon. And I got one! Tarpon go airborne and throw your gear over half the time, perhaps most of the time. So I was pretty stoked to both hook and land it. Esp since I didn't see any other boats near me even hook up!  Took me about 45 min to get him to me. My arms were jelly. I'd estimate 120#, my best so far. As you can tell I'm pretty stoked!

The video is shaky cuz I was busy doing other things and only had my iphone. I have been bad about video, don't bring my gopro anymore because I think it will jinx me. I'm awful superstitious. But anyway, I captured a few glimpses of the beast.

I am heading home today and really looking forward to summer salmon action.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/FYT3kQSA7uA?vq=hd1080

Holy shit! You're my hero, Rory!

Awesome!!!  Great fish!!!!!

Very cool!  Loved seeing the PA being towed through the water.   The yellow creature at the end of the video was terrifying though.

When I grow up I wanna be Rory!

-Spot-

Sweet! Tarpon are on my bucket list. Way to get it to the boat.

That was some darn good multi-tasking.  I didn't know what to expect when you said you shot it with the iphone but that turned out well.  Thanks for sharing.  Great fish!

Great job. I tried for months to hook one of those beasts.  Rosy Roads in PR.
They would come into the SEAL boat basin at night.  Bucket list fish for me.

That is a monster. It's funny how getting into kayak fishing has changed my perspective on places. I used to have no desire to go to Hawaii or Florida, but now they are in my top ten.

One word:  AWESOME.