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Fishing Report for Homosassa, Florida
Capt. Mike Locklear
June 12, 2001
Homosassa - Saltwater Fishing Report
Homosassa Florida Tarpon Report
The remnants of T.S. Allison kept me and most other tarpon fly fishers off the water today. With gust to nearly 30 mph, no attempt was made to launch.
After the South Carolina guys left, I spent Memorial Day Weekend with my daughter Courtney. We saw many fish rolling but not hungry for our offerings. They sure were a pretty site to watch.
Then during the week, I went out with a new friend and Captain by the name of Bill Fitzsimmons. Bill is an accomplished fly angler. We began the day by him poling me around for a few shots at strings of tarpon. I could not feed one the fly, but got close enough to enjoy the rush from seeing and casting to them.
Later in the day and when the sun was just right, I ask Bill if I could pole him around a bit. You see, his boat is real light, about 1/4 the weight of mine.
So it was fun for a while to be able to keep up with the fish by poling without the aid of trolling motors.
A string of four 80-90 pound tarpon were flanking the port bow until I was able to get in front of the fish at Bill's request. The big fish slowed to a crawl and Bill began casting to one particular fish in the school.
About the third roll cast, one ate it and began its jumping thing and with line peeling off the reel at great speeds. The fish stayed on a minute or two when it jumped and threw the fly. Bravo!
The next day my client, Carl Kokko got a bite with a pattern developed by Nat Ragland called the Orange Quindilian. The fished jumped twice before the fly fell out. Apparently the horseshoe fell out as well. Two more days of fruitless encounters.
One of my best friends and master fly tier of Homosassa tarpon patterns, Capt. John Bazo, put his client, Bruce Richardson onto several fly fed silver king tarpon.
It was good to see John hooked up and encouraging to us. However, my good friend and client could not feed a tarpon on his 4 day stay. What a bummer. We had a lot of shots but no hook-ups. Murphy was upon us and Bruce or John had possession of the lucky horseshoe.
Finally, with a new day and new clients my luck changed again to good. Robbie Hendry of Immokalee got an eater and a solid hook-up that lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes.
The 80 pound tarpon took us on a long adventure to the back islands and into a cove where the fish was nearly all the way out of the water and almost to the boat. I wanted to get a photograph of Robbie holding the fish in the water, but the bottom was too soft to get overboard.
After 8 nice jumps, Robbie and I decided to give the fish his freedom since it regained momentum with a second wind and a wagging tail. The photograph was impossible without gaffing the poon. And I am not into sticking them for a one photo, then the tarpon dies.
I guess I would be in big trouble if I did not mention my other buddy, Capt. Jim Long. He has had a pretty good season and he himself got to pull on one of the big poons of about 110 pounds rencently. He was aided by Capt. Bill Fitzsimmons. I came alongside to take a photograph while Bill held the head of the tarpon out of the water. My clients were nice enough to let me take the time to get a quick photo.
My redneck buddy from Chiefland, Capt. Steve Kilpatrick hopes the record 202 pound tarpon passes the test. A verification of July 11 is expected from IGFA headquarters. Pictures of the fish are not available due to processing. The huge fish was landed by client Jim Holland, Jr. of Oregon on 10 kg. class tippet. The battle lasted between 2-3 hours.
Today, I went bream fly fishing with my client in lieu of the overgrown herring because of the high winds. He caught some on poppers and streamers. We hope to resume our pursuit tomorrow for some poons.
Remember, if you are too busy to go fishing, well you are just too darn busy!
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