15 club members made this adventure. Our scattered group travelled from Houston, New York, Colorado, Hawaii, and more. Jerry B. And Raymond L. had been there since Monday, getting some fishing in while waiting for the rest of us to show up. My persoanl plans were to be able to “boat hop” fishing with different anglers and guides during this event. It was a partial success, as we are creatures of habit, most of the group didn’t want to change. I was able to fish with 5 different guides on 8 sessions. For me this included a trip to the lagoons, with Jerry B.

Our first day of fishing, started out slow. Not many tarpon were hooked, with one being landed by the Japanese family on vacation there. We were able to settle into our “ready” mode, and a few tarpon were jumped, but I don’t think that most of us had our technique dialed in.

Taking a break for lunch, let everybody catch their breath, eat lunch, letting some people nap. From the travels the day before and the excitement of anticipation, the adrenalin rush was finally over, for now.

That first afternoon was much better. Jack’s started popping up all over, so they were the fly rod target for a while. This let us practice our fish fighting skills with a worthy adversary, even though they were not the prize that the silver king is.

30 minutes before we were supposed to go in for dinner the first day, there were two tarpon hooked up. Our guides were kind enough to let us stay a few extra minutes, but we were on a tight schedule.

The hook-ups and landings for the next few days were sporadic. We could go for hours with nothing happening, then have 15 seconds of pure panic as line peeled, and reels screamed. Sometimes we were able to stay connected. Other times….

2 broken rods, dozens of tarpon jumped. And from my count 16 landed (my number could be off).

We are already working on the trip for next year.

There are some videos below, and I did make an effort to minimize “adult language” but with the excitement, I may have missed a few. I have other videos and pictures, but I really need to get this published before stuff gets “forgotten.”