I was certain that my slump, which began at the end of December and has continued 'til now with nothing more than some small pompano landed, was about to come to a reel-screaming, surf-thrashing, arm-aching end. So confident was I, as I eyed the huge school of small fry and the dozens of breaching tarpon, that the crushing defeat at the hands of these big fish was made all the more painful by my inability to hook one.
Stacy and I spend a good two hours casting to these fish. I changed flies and leader no less than 5 times, varied the retrieve as much as I could, and waded out until I was just about treading water to get in front of the cruising fish. The closest to a hook-up comes at about 0.54 seconds into the video as, I think, a tarpon boiled under my fly and turned away at the last moment.
I should have dropped the fly rod at one point when a tarpon leapt clear of the water so close to me that I literally could have caught it in my arms. That part isn't in the video, however.
My hypothesis is that the school of fry were so densely packed that the tarpon could not see my fly through the school. Also, as they cruised perpendicularly to the beach, it was difficult for me to get ahead of them and lead them without showing them the leader before the fly.
Back to the drawing board as the Slump of '10 continues...
2 comments:
Sweet vid. Love the site, keep it going.
Nice video man!
I was once in a similar situation using spinning gear. I was in about 10 feet of water and casting while doing a doggy paddle. I made several casts into the mix with several follows, but no hits. I figured the fish were seeing me just as they were about to commit and changing their mind.
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