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In June I started fishing from my kayak, and have had good luck catching most of the smaller species available around here (Key West, FL), but Tuesday I hooked a whopper. Megalops atlanticus; or it's common name - Giant Tarpon. The Silver King. I hooked him from the yak and he towed me for about ten minutes, then I took the battle shoreward and hopped out in knee deep water to battle him another 15 minutes.
Now that was fun. Some stunned tourists were in the area and came over to help out and snap these pics. Vital stats for you anglers out there: 12lb test mono line w/ 40lb test flourocarbon leader and a #2 circle hook using dead whole shrimp as bait; slow drifting a small channel in 25-30' of water just northeast of Key West; Cortland lightweight 6'3"rod, Diawa Laguna 4000 lightweight (4 - 12lb) spinning reel. My best guess of Mr. Tarpon's size is 4.5 feet long and around 50 pounds, and of course he'll only get larger as I retell the story. Randy M. |