Thursday, 5/19/11 … Jimmy’s charter lands likely record sized tarpon at Boca Grande

We broke out of our tarpon slump in a big way today!

Captain Jimmy Burnsed, my cousin, and I took our boats to Boca Grande at noon to fish the tide change that occurred at 2:00 PM.

Crystal, my wife, caught a 125 lb tarpon on our first drift.

While we were landing our fish, Jimmy also hooked a fish, a tremendous 250 lb tarpon, on his drift.  Jimmy and the folks on his boat then proceeded to fight the tarpon for two hours while we took photos and cleared the way with my boat.

At one point, I had to run interference with my boat and block what we estimated to be an over a 15 foot great hammerhead to keep the shark from attacking and eating the huge tarpon.

This fish was the biggest tarpon Jimmy or I have ever seen or heard about, so we tagged the tarpon, took it to the beach, got measurements, then released the giant fish.

The tarpon was 88 inches long and 44 inches in girth.

We could have kept the fish and taken it to a scale to get the state record, but we don’t believe in killing tarpon.  People will just have to take our word that this was probably the biggest tarpon ever caught in Florida.

I also talked to Chris Fischer from “Shark Men”, the show on the National Geographic Channel, and he wants us to radio him immediately if we see another big hammerhead.  They are here filming and researching great hammerheads.

It was a an Ernest Hemingway quality fishing day.  We’ll be telling stories about this for years!

Fair winds and following seas,

Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.