Tarpon in a Kayak- sanibel island-- oh, with a visitor!
The adventure of a lifetime let alone 2007 was fighting a huge tarpon for 2 hours in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thanks to Shane -- and God, for a safe return and great memories!
Ben’s Sanibel Island Tarpon Tale
Brother Bill and I went to Sanibel Island Fl. Wednesday for two nights of shark fishing from the beach—a lot of fun in itself. After fishing Wednesday night, I decided to expand my fledgling kayak fishing skills by fishing the swimming buoys along the Gulf beach with my guide Shane. Shane, 21 and a junior in college, was born in the area and has had luck fishing for “triple tail”- sort of an ocean sized sunfish hanging by the buoys.
Starting at 7:00am we paddled ¼ mile out to the buoys, then from buoy to buoy on the flat water with no luck. In the distance, maybe a mile or so away we could see twenty or more fishing boats of all sizes circled up – Shane surmised that the were all around a large pod of tarpon. As Shane detangled my latest snag from a buoy, still no triple tail to be found, we looked at each other and said what the heck—it will be a good exercise paddle to head over and watch these guys live-lining baits for the tarpon.
So off we paddled, under the hot sun, light breeze across the mirror-like water. As we neared the first boats, maybe 200 yards, Shane dropped a 3” bait buster artificial out the back of his kayak, trolling behind him as we neared the boats—what the heck, why not. Not one minute later the line screamed off the reel, Shane hooked him up and an absolute monster tarpon jumped couple hundred yards off… handing off the rod to me, I was shortly off to the races, leaving a nice wake as the tarpon towed me parallel to the beach away from the boats. I reeled furiously gaining line as the kayak skimmed the surface easily.
Jump after magnificent jump followed—seven in all—over the course of the next 2 hours. We put both kayaks and a drift sock on him to slow him down, but the tarpon proceeded to drag us through the line of boats, rod doubled up, kayaks in tow, to the chagrin of the fishless power boaters. Amazingly after two hours we were still within a mile of shore – twice as the leader appeared, he had torn off more line and performed amazing jumps within 30’ of the kayak. The best picture, rolling a rod length away—spectacularly beautiful!
At two hours we were about one mile out; I was sweat-drenched, muscles burning and determined to get one photo while hanging on to this monster! At this point, he turned away from the shore and begin working us out further. His seventh jump, as I reached the leader splashed both of us! Shane threw the gloves in my kayak and urged me to get one on when I could, telling me how to slide my hand up his gill and one into the corner of his mouth—lol, yeah right!
Over two hours gone, for the third time we again debated cutting him loose; we agreed 15 more minutes tops. By this time Shane estimated we were over 2- 2 ½ miles out, 15-20 ft water—the boats were barely in sight. Shane was holding on to my kayak, I was really struggling with the rod. The tarpon was clearly visible 4 to 6 feet under my kayak… over 6’ long 150 lbs. or so. Breathing hard, drag tightened and palming the spinner spool I was trying to force the tarpon up yet again when Shane started shrieking…..
“oh, my God, Oh my God< cut the line cut the line, it’s a hammer head..” I turned my head to look toward him—at the back of my kayak 6’ away, to see a tawny dorsal fin, coming up between our kayaks, with a huge tail fin 4 ft behind the dorsal fin! The hammer’s head appeared wider than the kayak under the water. Lined up between our 14’ kayaks, he appeared to be 10-12’ long. The dorsal bumped against Shane’s kayak as we separated, the tarpon pulling me off to one side as I contemplated how to cut the line with no knife.
I saw the paddle as I flashed on just throwing the rod over, and the carbon blade made short work of the line as the tarpon had it at high tension.
By this time we were 20’ distant and separating , the hammer-head’s fin and tail cutting the water behind Shane’s kayak, turning half a figure eight. As I sat frozen in my seat, holding my paddle, Shane began paddling furiously as the shark effortlessly followed him, surrealistically like a scene from Jaws or something. I was screaming to Shane to stop paddling, he was yelling that the tarpon was under my kayak, and the hammer head fin and tail sliced the water behind Shane.
Seconds later there was a swirl from under my kayak as the tarpon bolted, and the shark quickly swerved and turned from Shane, fast and going deep.
There were a lot of Thank You God’s said over the hour it took us to paddle back to shore; certainly a trip I will always remember.
