Today we booked Captain Steven Crowder of Madness Charters in search of the mighty silver king - TARPON. As a Jacksonville resident, I have long awaited to get into a hot bite and battle triple digit fish in my home town. Little did I know, I would leave with sore arms!
Upon meeting Captain Steve, I knew the odds were in our favor and this trip was going to exciting. He came highly recommended by Captain Michael Grimm.
As we left the marina, the first chore of the day was of course, "Make Bait".
Pogies (menhaden) were the bait of choice. One throw of the cast net and we had full livewells.
The boat was a 2019 Pathfinder HPS powered by a Yamaha VMAX. Ample room and plenty of hardcore fishing features including the highly effective trolling motor. She handled great with three of us on board as we made way.
Optimism was extremely high and I could feel the passion and determination as the captain used his years of experience and local knowledge to find the fish. Using a combination of sight and sonar technology, he put us in position of what turned out to be an epic bite!
Fish on!!!
We proceeded to go three for nine as we were a bit rusty and chalked it up as "hey, that's tarpon fishing". Captain Steve thought otherwise, as he proceeded to tell us his numbers are usually high percentage and we totally trusted him.
We had to weed through a bunch of sting rays and sharks, but the bite was fantastic. Check out these amazing fish!
The highlight of the day was a triple digit tarpon release as seen above.
Not to be outdone, we had something happen that I have never been a part of. As we were releasing pesky sharks in the area to get to tarpon, we had one act different - much different!
All of sudden the reel screamed mid fight and then stopped. We still had some weight on the hook, so we were not exactly sure what had happened.
Turned out... our shark, GOT SHARKED!
Just a reminder of how incredible mother nature is and she should always be respected. All our tarpon were carefully released healthy and swap away great.
We highly recommend Captain Steve if you are in the Jacksonville area and looking for a captain that is determined to put you on quality fish. His boat was tidy and he had serious local knowledge. Certainly a ReelReports.com Endorsement.
Tight Lines and Great Fishing
Dr. P