USA

              In 1999 I went to the Florida Keys with three of my friends, we were fishing

                 mainly for Tarpon. The Tarpon has a reputation for fighting harder than

               any other fish pound for pound, its very acrobatic, fast and fights to the end.

        The Tarpon reaches weights well over 200lb, The Americans call them the king of fish.

               Dave with a 90lb Tarpon                                             A 125lb Tarpon nears the boat   

               Flat out through the keys                                                                My best fish at 140lb

               We fished with John Rawle who runs two boats with a local man named Frank.         

               We fished for five nights from 2am until 8am mainly because the Tarpon feed

            more confident during darkness hours. On the last day Dave and my self were

            fortunate to get a morning shark fishing, more on that later.

               The first time I hooked a Tarpon it was at close range about 25-30ft away, I can

            still see that fish as it leaped into the air half a dozen times and striped 80yds

            of line then spat the hook, I didn't know what had hit me. There were Tarpon

           all over the place every night so getting bites was fairly easy but hooking and   

           landing fish was hard. 

                                                                     Two big Tarpon leaping for freedom

                                                                                  Lemon shark   

                 Once a fish is hooked the battle can take from 15 mins to how long have you got. 

                 Dave hooked one that took him on a journey towards Cuba, he chased the fish

             for over an hour and then the line broke. Most fish would make runs of 80yds 

             or more jumping several times, quite spectacular. We had fish up to 150lb everybody

             caught fish over 120lb. On the last morning John took me & Dave sharking, we

             fished a shallow channel about half a mile off shore, within 15 mins I hooked a

             lemon shark about 60-70lb, then I had a long fight with a black tip shark one

            of the best fights I have had, we also had bonnet sharks. Dave was unlucky with

            the bigger ones this time.

                                                             A hard fighting black tip reef shark

                                       Hand feeding Tarpon at a local jetty, no fishing allowed

                   The boat ride through the keys at 2 in the morning was breath taking, through

               little channels in the mangroves, over the flats, and along side the long bridges.

              On the way back from fishing we stopped at a riverside restaurant for breakfast.

              I would thoroughly recommend the Florida fishing experience. It was not cheap

              but it was worth every penny.                             

                                                                   A giant travally caught while sharking

                                                                                 Fishynige