Ya know what I think about sometimes? As I’m sitting here on a Saturday evening in January on my couch I just started thinking about how on some trip back whenever when I was tarpon fishing I was stripping the fly too fast and the guide told me I needed to “feed the fish.” I took that to mean I needed to strip the fly, yes, but I needed not to have the damn thing WIN in its race away from the tarpon like a scared baitfish. LOSE the race, by gawd.
And I think about that in the context of the GT I missed in Christmas Island back in 2019. Last day, last flat, last walk with the guide heading back to the boat and here comes a frigging bulge of moving water and the guide loses his mind yelling “CAST! CAST! CAST!” and I do and then he screams “STRIP! STRIP! STRIP!” and I do and fast and I SEE THE DAMN FISH LIGHT UP on that fly. (S)He is excited about that fly and I pulled it right in front of that fish’s face and it wanted it. It sped up and was following the fly, all as the guide yelled “FASTER! FASTER! FASTER!” like piscatorial porn hub mash up. Stip I did and fast as I could, but it didn’t crush the fly and I eventually had no choice or room but to sweep the rod to move the fly and then the damn thing saw us and just stopped chasing the fly and sauntered off just as cool as you please as if it hadn’t just ripped out my heart and destroyed my soul.
I think (and more often than I’d like to admit) that maybe I should have fed the fish, let him catch the damn fly. Would that have worked? Don’t know. Haven’t cast to more than a handful of Geets and all of them on that trip. What do I know?
Man… I’ll never forget that moment… the crushing realization that it Was. Not. Going. To. Happen.
Anyway… I want to go back. I want another shot. Looking Jan or Feb. in 2025. If you are interested, let me know.
Christmas Island is amazing and I’m semi-surprised I didn’t come back and start a trigger fishing blog. Those things are awesome.
- Unique Post
