975 Tarpon in 2012

975.

That’s a pretty good sample size and that is the number of juvenile tarpon caught and sampled in 2012.

Oh, that’s by ONE ANGLER!

John Mallory is the angler and he lives, as you might suspect, in Florida on Merritt Island. The next closest guy had caught 216, which still sounds mighty impressive.

These aren’t the big guys, but they are still tarpon and still jump several feet out of the water when caught, you just don’t need the rod to be an 11 wt.

When I think about John’s accomplishment I can’t help but think “that must have been a lot of fun.”

John was taking part in the FGA/FWC “Spirit of Tarpon” DNA Sampling Challenge, a joint promotion of the Florida Guides Association and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

This is about getting the data to base policy on and so I’m grateful to John for all the fun he had out there.

Tarpon in Belize

Tarpon in Belize

 

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3 comments

  1. Almost three tarpon a day… that’s crazy!

    And… all for a good cause.

    Bravo!

  2. That’s a lot of megalops. Where do they feed tarpon in Belize? That last photo looks alot like Robbie’s Marina.

  3. Hey Doug, that was at the Sunset Grill, located on the lagoon side of San Pedro on Ambergris. It was a highlight… of my life.

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