Ft. Lauderdale Grand Slam

I always enjoy heading down to Ft. Lauderdale. I booked a trip with the Lunker Dog Jeff Maggio to chase tarpon. Jeff is one of my favorite guides and I had a blast with him on this trip. He got me my first Ft. Lauderdale Slam by landing a tarpon, snook, barracuda and a jack on the same trip. We started off sight casting to feeding snook. I messed up a few casts, but managed a nice one to start off the trip.

We switched tactics to get some tarpon and soon had one on that really tested me. I'm convinced that tarpon are the hardest fighting fish there is. the roughly 75 pound fish took me near my limit (I'm so freaking out of shape) during our 25 minute fight. we got the fish to the boat and took a few pictures before the release. Jeff looked at me and asked "you ready for 10 more" seeing how beat I was. He was joking that there are guides that tend to over-promise the amount of fish you'll land on a half-day trip. Even if you hooked that many, I don'd see how someone has the stamina to reel that many in. 

We went to a different spot and landed a few pup tarpon in the 20 pound range. They were very acrobatic and a blast to fight on light tackle. There were a few small horse eye jacks mixed in as we ended the night. Jeff also invited me to do a podcast with him later that week. you can hear the podcast here.

Snook caught while sight casting.

1st and biggest tarpon of the night.

2nd tarpon of the night. 

Horse Eye Jack

Third tarpon of the night.