The Very Best Story About A Casual Afternoon of Inshore Saltwater Angling In The Most Unexpected Places

I It’s just another Friday here in beautiful Brevard County, more specifically, Satellite Beach.  If there are record size fish in a random body of brackish water in South Patrick Shores, my 12 year old son Carson will sniff it out.

Friday, June 28, 2024, was pretty routine, and otherwise uneventful, for most of the day that is.

However, the monotony of the day changed in a moment, mere minutes before Florida unloaded yet again, her hellishly mean, with a daily routine, humidity dumping late afternoon thunderstorms.

With the thunder rollin’ in, an’ our skies blackening by the second as these F5 breeding hellcats bellow in from beyond the horizon:

ALL the rumors swirling around by all of us locals, telling tall tales about record size tarpon, in random, barely brackish, overflow drainage ponds conserving all the overflow waters from the adjacent Indian River, were o’ so proved…to be very unexpectedly and abruptly revealed as nothing short of a myth, busted in every way imaginable.

WHAT WAS CAUGHT:

A Gigantic Tarpon & King of The Rhetorical Retention Pond.  A Street Fighting, Acrobatic Liquid Leaper, With No Enemies Known To Man (Not Really, But It Was A Doozy In Size)!

STATS:

> 39.25 Glorious ( “ ) of Natural Born Aquatic, Inshore Living, Waterfront Digs Hangin’ Sport Fishing Specimen.

> 41 lbs of Nothing But Solid, Land Me If You Can, Living Example of Stone Aged Seriousness Named “Megalopidae.”

By God, What Is The D/L on The Gear That Got Em’:

> Shimano Stradic C3000XG FM Saltwater Spinning Reel (MSRP $219.00) Buy Online At Our Pro-Series Store.  All You Have To Do Is Simply Click On This

Convenient Link: https://www.seatechoutfittersfl.com/products/shimano-stradic-c3000xg

The Straight Up Specs For This Sucker:

> Weight: 7.9oz. > PowerPro Line Capacity: 10/200, 20/140, 40/105 > Bearings: 6+1 > Line Retrieve Per Crank: 37in. > Gear Ratio: 6.4:1

The Lucky S.O.B. Who Landed This Monstrous Megalopidae:

> One Mr. Carson Christopher Baker, My Son & Protégé, Aged 12 Years 9 Months Here On This Rock

Usually, you can find his mid-adolescent mug anywhere you look, in any of the thousands of New World “English” dictionaries.  

All you’ve gotta do is you search for and look up: “person who could be young or old, be is more than likely adolescent in age, who embarrasses unintentionally, but with a boyish pride, every other human being when accompanying him, for what is otherwise, a relaxing afternoon fishing, but it is he who has the telepathic ability to echo-locate any creature that has fins and/or gills and Lives within the mighty oceans of the world.”

In all seriousness, since Sea & Tech OF did, free of charge mind you, completely finance and outfit this young man’s entire saltwater setup, we decided that today, we would go ahead & post this Kodak Moment worthy pic of “Carson & His Catch,” as we call it, pic of the Day.

The rule is, photos & videos are only allowed after these beautifully flawless, seemingly quasi-fictional, incredibly resilient & versatile family of bonefish are landed.

After all, this 3 1/4 foot-long tarpon, is responsible for what always seems to result in a whole different level of excitement & genuine smile, feelings of exhilaration & simultaneous joy, that seems to forever linger than you ever thought possible, every single time one of these voraciously sea jumping out of & endlessly-fighting beauties is hooked, & even more-so, when one this size is landed.

THE LESSON of THE DAY:
….Be it in the part saltwater, part freshwater brackish maze of residential canals surrounding our homes, or when it happens to be sight of them more than 200 yards out past the shoreline surf & shallow water troughs, rolling majestically, while feeding on the bite-size, yet massive, schools of finger mullet….as the species migrates in the same pattern religiously, year after year, starting every July, or if you happen to spot them anywhere and at any time in between.  

You owe it to ourselves to experience the little gifts in life, suggest the joy that comes with an unexpectedly relaxing, but exciting afternoon in saltwater fishing, one of the most delicate ecosystems in the world. Right here in Brevard County, FL.

We have indeed visualized for you, through poetic description, the second biggest tarpon which Carson has caught, and now continuing the tradition of showing them to the world through our blogs, for “The Sea & Tech Outfitters Tarpon Times.”

 -Jason Baker, STO FL