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Fishing Report for Homosassa, Florida

Capt. Mike Locklear
June 8, 2002
Homosassa - Saltwater Fishing Report

FLY FISHING FOR HOMOSASSA FLORIDA TARPON

Finally, I write this to report the good news that Homosassa tarpon have returned after a two-week furlough to the Florida Middle Grounds.

Zack Horrocks of Lake Placid, New York had the time of his life on May 29 by hooking his first ever silver king tarpon on the fly rod.

The young man of 14 years rocketed a cast with the 12 weight Sage RPLXi perfectly in front of a string of 6 black back cruising tarpon.

The second fish in the string ate the fly and blew it out in living color just 30 feet away from Horrocks. Zack kept his tip down and stripping continued as yet another tarpon ate the fly and this time the line went tight and the fish immediately jumped once.

Then the large tarpon decided to go under the bow making slack in the fly line. When the fly line came tight again it jumped beside the boat a few feet out. The tarpon stopped a few seconds as it was dazed perhaps.

Horrocks still not on the reel struck the tarpon with several quick jabs. The whaling sent the tarpon back under the bow. That was when I noticed a line management problem. After shouting orders to Zack to drop his rod tip as the fly line was fully draped under the bow of the boat, the line caught on the bow eye hook long enough for the fish to feel the tightness and he jumped the third and final time.

The fly pulled loose. Everything happened so fast; we had to think about all that happened. We know for sure that fish change our day from a good one to a great one!

Zack’s Father Terry has taught his son well including being patient. They are already planning a return trip to Florida next year.

In other action, looks like the tiger shark did not come back with the herd.

Hopefully, the rest of June will be the prime tarpon time as most of May was really sparse. Fishing was good the first week of May, but when the northeast winds came and the winter like conditions; things went sour quick. Most guides got an unwanted break. Homosassa tarpon were gone for almost two weeks.

The last week of May some schools of tarpon came in as Cole Clarkson of Austin, Texas jumped a tarpon on the fly rod. Brad Young and Cole’s brother, Thomas fished alone and Brad landed a 70 pound tarpon. David Mosby of Colorado had plenty of shots in 2 days but no bites. His friend Smitty hooked a tarpon for a short while.

Gus Morris and Farrow Allen of Asheville, NC spent 5 days in Homosassa fly-fishing for tarpon recently and each of them brought a tarpon to the rod tip. Farrow Allen, a well-known author and fly tying expert caught the first tarpon of about 70 pounds. He wore out the fish in less than 25 minutes.

Gus Morris landed his largest tarpon ever, an estimated 175-pound specimen. The fight lasted about one hour. The fish jumped two times only. Gus was pretty sore the next day as he fought the fish as hard as he could. The Tibor Gulf Stream reel did a wonderful job. The rod used was a 12 weight Sage rplxi

Both Gus and Farrow jumped another fish each but they got off after a few jumps. Farrow's tarpon was the first to be hooked on the first day of their trip. The tarpon was estimated at 130 pounds. The fish really put on a show for us for a few minutes.

In just taking a look around at the other boats fly fishing today; it looked as though the tarpon are starting to eat better than any other time during the season. Mainly the reason is some of the fish are actually looking for food rather than doing their spawning ritual.

Just in case some of you might want to fish with me on short notice, the first week of July was cancelled and is now open for tarpon fly-fishing in Homosassa. If you can fly fish at all you can catch tarpon. Most of the shots are short 40 foot cast.

Homosassa tarpon hunting is a gem of a fishery and nothing is more exciting than setting up on a school of big fish. My new boat, the 18’ Hells Bay Marquesa is working out very well in being so light that more shots are being provided to the customers.

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