Tony Robertson and I have been fishing together for five days. Tony is the only person I’ve ever seen, jump two tarpon on one cast. One fish, about forty pounds, blew up on the fly, and spit the hook on the second jump. When the rebounding fly hit the water, another smashed it; only this one was a bout sixty pounds! How can you set the hook on something like that? Two tarpon, three jumps; one cast.
This morning, in the twilight of the dawn, we were casting to rolling fish in the moonlight, we jumped one immediately, I had to sneak out to rig another leader, sneak back in, and jump another one, re-rig after that; and on the third go-round Tony cast to a rolling tarpon and a redfish grabbed the fly before the tarpon could get it. The fish was well hooked, and while we were discussing the relative merits of redfish sightfishing, vs tarpon, and possibly if a redfish was a ‘trash fish’ when you’re tarpon hunting, and casually playing out this red beside the boat; a shadow appeared out of the green murk under the mangrove roots… Redfish and Goliath Grouper, on fly, one cast; Tony Robertson on the fordeck, gettin’ it done, Everglades Style. Tony jumped 22 tarpon in five days. We lost count of the strikes, follows, and short chargers.