August 2006
Greeting from Vieques.
The current world record tarpon weighs 286 pounds and was
caught off the west coast of Africa in 2003. This is according
to the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), the great
organization that sets the rules as to how a fish is properly
caught on a rod and reel and then submitted for a record
depending on line class and tackle. The IGFA requirements are
strict and a fish must be hooked, fought, landed, and weighed
according to their regulations. To a serious angler, owning an
IGFA tarpon world record is the fishing equivalent of winning a
PGA Major. To guide an angler to that trophy is the equivalent
of being both the coach and caddy at the same time. Down here in
Vieques, I’ll probably never know that glory.
There are currently a few hot spots for landing world record
tarpon. The Gambia River in Africa and Homosassa, Florida top
the list. Unfortunately for me, Vieques would be way down the
page quite a bit. We have tarpon, and plenty of them, but after
more than a year of fishing our flats, I’ve yet to bring a
triple-digit fish to the boat. This island is simply not home to
a lot big tarpon, and that’s fine with me. What we do have down
here is a year-round fishery for this incredible species, but on
a smaller scale. The average Vieques tarpon weighs in at around
15 pounds and they rarely exceeds the 50 pound mark. For an
animal that can grow to 300 pounds, this might not seem like
much. For a fly rod angler, those 15 pounds are pure treasure.
Case in point; a few years ago, when I was guiding in the
early-June tarpon frenzy out of Key West, I had a client hook
into a very big fish just off a stunningly beautiful island
called Ballast Key. The temperature was in the mid-90’s and the
air was so hot and humid that it felt like something alive was
clinging to your body. My angler, a hilarious Dodge dealer from
Georgia who called himself Big Dave, was 45 minutes into a fight
with a fish that went well over the 100 pound mark, and had yet
to give us a single jump. In fact, this tarpon had done little
more than eat the fly and move off to the deeper water like a
large truck rolling down hill. This fish was the exception, not
the rule. Most tarpon go ballistic as soon as they’re stung by
the hook, jumping more than half a dozen times on average. On
this day however, we were stuck with a dud and my angler was
given nothing better to do than pull against a lot of dead
weight in very hot air. Close to the one hour mark, Big Dave
turned around to look at me through his coating of sweat and
said something I’ll never forget: “Hell, Gregg,” he said, “This
ain’t nothing but a high-tech carp!”
I cracked up and agreed. A tarpon that doesn‘t jump isn‘t really
much more than a high tech carp, just bigger and even less
edible. “Break her off, Dave. Let’s go find something else.” I
told him, and he palmed the reel, popping the 20 pound tippet.
Our huge tarpon continued off towards Cuba as if nothing unusual
had happened for the previous hour.
That was the first and only tarpon I’d seen that never jumped.
The 15 pound fish Big Dave landed later that day launched itself
into the air almost a dozen times, and instantly became the
Greatest Fish he ever caught. The simple fact about this species
is that if they didn’t jump, few people would make to effort to
go after them. But they do jump, and better than anything else
in shallow water. And for that reason alone, people are now
coming to Vieques from great distances to catch even a small one
and then let it swim away.
A 300 pound tarpon will never grace the end of my line down
here, but that fish has to start somewhere, and we seem to have
a great nursery for these future monsters in Vieques right now.
The other day I stood on top of an old military bridge leading
to a certain Vieques beach, watching Doug Brady, an experienced
angler and member of the Atlanta Fly Fishing Club, casting into
the salt pond just below us. After tying on one of his own trout
streamers, Doug’s line came tight and he landed his first ever
tarpon on a fly. This was a perfect half-pound specimen, a
miniature version of a future world record, given fifty years or
more to grow. It was also one of over a hundred we watched that
morning rolling around in a dark, mangrove choked lagoon,
protected from predators and unknown to the fly fishing masses
up north. Someday, these fish will outgrow their secret pond
here off Puerto Rico and move out into the ocean, perhaps
heading up to South Florida where everybody knows all about them
already. Until then, they belong to us here in Vieques, and also
to the handful of smart anglers who’ve come down to meet them.
So far, they’re secret is safe with us.
Capt. Gregg McKee,
WildFly Charters
