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Fish Tails / Locations — 1 Comment
21
Jul 16

Andy Mills in Garden and Gun

I was born in 1974, so I missed the peak of Andy Mills’ skiing career and I tend to think of him as a tarpon angler first.

Monte Burke (a real writer, not a hack like me) wrote up a great piece about Andy in Garden & Gun, which is the weirdest title for a magazine that I actually want to read.

This has me thinking about tarpon, one of the other fish I share some brain space with. Tarpon. Mostly, tarpon have kicked my ass. I’ve landed one adult tarpon and three juveniles. I’ve broken a rod on a lost fish, probably jumped 5, fed 20 and nearly wet myself on several more. My interest in tarpon is in direct contrast to my success in angling for them.

Next May I have a conference in Ft. Lauderdale and I’m going to tack on a few days on the back end to try to add another to the tally. My most haunting failures in angling are pretty much all tarpon related.

I envy Andy Mills his talent and his success. I won’t be Andy Mills. I won’t be Nick Mills. I don’t need a thousand fish to the boat, but I would like to hold one more by the lower jaw and look into that massive saucer-sized eye.

Martin tells me they also come in Men's sizes.

Martin tells me they also come in Men’s sizes.

 

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Locations — 1 Comment
25
Jan 15

Tag some tarpon in Belize with Andy Mills

Adam Marton is back at it again. He’s organizing another trip, August 15-22, back to El Pescador in Belize. This trip is to tag some tarpon and the along on the trip will be Andy Mills, the guy who wrote the book on tarpon.

What a cool trip that will be, eh?

I love El Pescador. I’ve been there twice and get to go back on our 5th anniversary (my wife uttered those words and I have not forgotten them). It is a great base of operation and the hospitality and guides are hard to beat.

And… there are tarpon there. That’s where my first tarpon came from. It will always be a special place for me.

The final piece, the tarpon.

The final piece, the tarpon.

If you are interested, give Adam a call, or email.

Adam Marton
The Fieldworkers Club,
230 East Ohio Street, Chicago, IL  60611
312-440-1200/office, 312-213-2324/mobile
adam@fieldworkersclub.com

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Tactics — 5 Comments
25
Apr 13

The two handed strip for tarpon

I’ve been hearing a bit about Andy Mills and his two handed strip for tarpon. (<– that right there is a really good interview over at Midcurrent with Andy. You need to read it.)

Andy kind of wrote the book on tarpon, so I’m inclined to believe it works. I’ve actually seen him do it on the Buccaneers & Bones show and he certainly fed some tarpon doing it.

I’m certainly going to have this in the back of my mind as I head to Florida in May to try and catch another tarpon myself. The only thing I’m worried about is just the overall awkwardness of trying to do a two handed retrieve. It can get a bit ugly if you aren’t used to doing it.

Something to think about.

Any of you do the two handed strip?

Andy's book.

Andy’s book.

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