August Fish Tails by Captain Charlie Beadon

Leaps and Bounds – Hilton Head Tarpon Fishing

It’s another summer day on the water and with questions about passing afternoon storms we decide to head out on a monster tarpon quest. As I set the anchor I catch a glimpse of a tarpon boiling up on a passing school of menhaden from the corner of my eye. I know that he is probably not alone so I hurry back to the pit to get my baits out and establish a chum line. With in a few minutes we have a full spread of baits out and were waiting for the big bite…and we wait…and wait…and wait until I start to wonder if were going to get a bite at all. With tarpon feeding all around the boat but nothing as much as sniffing our offerings, we get ready to move. As were pulling in our lines the top long bait goes down hard! The line is dumping off of the reel so fast that I worry were going to get spooled, “there he is, he’s jumping”! The fish is out about 150 yards putting on a great ariel show, but at this point I’m looking to dump the anchor and go after this fish. The first moments of the bite will usually dictate as to whether or not you’re going to catch the fish, and we were lucky on this trip to keep him glued until we could motor up and give him chase. We fight the fish for just over an hour; he gets a little, then we get a little, but that’s the way it goes when you’re dealing with a 150 pound fish that’s fighting for its survival. After a hard fight and a quick photo we release the worn out tarpon back to the water for another day. To hear more tails of whoppers and mishaps give me a call and let’s put together a fishing trip and until then “catch em up”!