One, two, or none?
It was early June, and I had been out to Deveaux banks a few times and seen a couple of tarpon rolling, but hadn't landed one yet in five straight days of fishing. I was by myself in my old 16' Hughes, anchored up in about three feet of water with five rods out: 2 dead menhaden on the bottom, two on free lines, and a live one straight down the middle. I hooked up on a 80+ pound fish, and it ran straight off the banks into open water. I stayed on anchor and fought him for about twenty minutes, never clearing out any of my other tackle.
BAM - a distinctive crashing startled me from the back of the boat. Here were all of these anglers out on the water, aspiring to land a tarpon, and I've got two of 'em on. I had some nice rod holders on the stern, so got it in my head, "Hey, I'm going to catch both these fish."
I was fishing with 7'9" G Loomis Bucara spinning rods, each outfitted with 350 yards of 50-pound PowerPro on Quantum Cabo 60 reels. As I kept fighting the first fish, the second rod would occasionally go slack for a spell, and I'd shrug it off as a broken line. But then the fish would rumble out of the water again, and I'd reel my first one a little harder. I tried to motion to a guide I knew with a charter across the way, thinking I could hand off the rod to one of the kids he had on board to fight it, but he didn't catch my drift.
Sadly, just as I had the first one in close, it started running towards the back of my Hughes. So, not wanting to lose them both, I reached over with my knife and cut loose the greatest fishing story almost told.
-John Irwin
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