May
22
2007
Golden Fly Invitational Tarpon Tournament – Day 2 Results
Author: Tim MahaffeyToday was definately one of the most nasty days I’ve spent on the water in a very long time. Winds blew a strong 25 mph out of the east/northeast all day, with clouds and thunderstorms chasing teams for cover.
Rick and I made a 70 mile run from the Lorelei deep into the backcountry. Seas in some of the basins were the biggest both of us have ever seen, with true 2-4 waves. The Mirage’s performance in today’s condition was just incredible. I can say this with true conviction, and not because I’m on the Maverick website – I don’t think there is another flats boat in the Mirage’s class that could have done what it did today. Most boats would have broke down, or broke lots of things, no doubt. Rick & I just got massages to fix our back problems – the Mirage held up much better than we did.
At 2:40 PM, 20 minutes before lines out, and over 70 miles from the dock, we finally found a significant group of fish. I immediately hooked one, and after 3 jumps it fell off. Two casts later I hooked another and after a short 5 minute fight, the 55 lb release was boatside – Rick grabbed the leader and 200 more points were on the board.
We returned to the Lorelei with 15 minutes to spare to discover that while we were still in first, two other teams had caught 120 lb fish each and were right on our heels. We’ll see if the lead will hold up tomorrow in conditions that could be considered marginally unsafe -30+ mph winds, cloudy, and stormy.
I’ve had a busy evening – reel maintenance, leader tying, fly changes, massage by Islamorada deep tissue expert Dominique, pizza, and The American Idol finale.
Time to crash, day 3 starts tomorrow with a 4:15 am wake up call. In the coming weeks I’ll be talking about tarpon techniques and equipment much like I did this past April for bonefish. I’ll post the results of the tournament tomorrow.
So, until then,
Tim (Flatsheadd@aol.com)