Friday, July 01, 2005

Son of Tarpon Summer

The water temperatures have been soaring into the upper eighties. To a tarpon, this is friendly water, truly tropical and quite at home. Today, waterspouts formed off Miami Beach and danced their tubular hula northwards off the ferociously brazen highrises. Cumulus became nimbus early and late on and off in a liquid atmosphere that went from blue to white to gray and back again. These bathtub conditions bring out the tarpon. To me the direct sunlight is less tarpon-friendly than cloud cover, but there I was, at it again with the silver king.

This time there were less strikes, although the numbers of rolling fish were sometimes unbelievable. Miami has rarely seen such quantities of tarpon. In the fifties, hundreds of ladyfish and jacks were more the open bay norm, but in this globally-warmed Miami, it's hard to tell what to expect. Still, I managed to release a forty pounder, which absolutely made my day right smack dab in the middle of High Summer.

Jan

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