Now I understand what all the fuss is about! Once you hook up to a tarpon you are hooked! To see (and feel) something that big and powerful at the end of your line is amazing.

In fact I just caught my first Tarpon yesterday and it was awesome! We were at the Bahia Honda bridge for about 2 hours with our bait out just patiently waiting. We saw tarpon rolling a couple times around the surrounding area and a couple of guys hooked up on a boat off in the distance.

My husband and I were in a canoe so the experience is a bit different than being in a bigger boat!

So I was sitting there in our canoe thinking how cool it would be to just see how it feels to get hooked up with a tarpon and about 2 hours later I found out!

I felt the bite and then got ready to fight it… Or as ready as I could be…

I listened to my husband as he coached me and cheered me on. I reeled down and gently pulled up to make sure it was hooked. The next thing I know he started taking off and all of a sudden he jumped up out of the water. I had no idea we were going to hook up to something THAT big. I think I was in awe for a few seconds because I remember just seeing that amazing acrobatic display and sheer size of the fish and not doing anything but holding on to the rod. Then it clicked in my brain that I needed to start reeling. I reeled down the slack and off he went. I had the drag down pretty tight and my husband maneuvered the canoe to try to keep us out of the bridge and pylons. I fought the beast for awhile then handed it off to my hubby in the back of the canoe.

We were heading out towards the open water and it was getting a little much for the canoe so we handed the rod and reel off to a fellow boater hoping they would be able to land it. The man fought it for 5 minutes or so but it finally spit the hook out.

I keep picturing the size of that fish as he jumped out of the water and replaying the excitement of the fight! I can’t wait to go tarpon fishing again and now I can say I understand why people are all about hooking up with a tarpon. There’s nothing quite like it!

Check out the Bahia Honda Streaming Underwater Web Camera