We waited for the tarpon to show, as the sun began to light the morning sky. It was all very serene, until we saw some tarpon roll near the boat, and I threw a cast out in front of them. On my guide's advice, I let the intermediate line sink for several seconds, then I stripped the line a few times. I felt resistance, and strip-struck. What happened next was quite a wake-up call...
I said, "Got one-". By the time our guide and my buddy Phil turned around, we were all looking at a 100-pound tarpon flying at me. I was on the rear deck by the poling platform. I had hooked the fish 40 feet from the boat, and it ran right at us and jumped out of the water at a 45 degree angle...like a Polaris Missile. The tarpon crashed into the poling platform, exploded the head of the electric motor, brushed past me, soiled itself all over the rear deck and right gunwale, landed in the water, and just kept goin'. I still had it hooked up, and was clearing line as it jumped off the port bow. Wow! I had just been struck by a big tarpon mid-jump, and the line wasn't even fouled! I fought the fish for another 15 minutes, and had it near the boat twice before the leader broke. That's OK, that's how we would have ended the battle anyways a few minutes later. Both we and that tarpon had seen enough of each other already. We cleaned up the boat, picked up the Minn Kota shrapnel, and found 2 scales on the floor of the boat! I was soaking wet from the jump, and had tarpon slime on the back of my shirt, and a sore cheekbone. It all happened so fast, I still don't know what hit me in the face. We were very lucky that the poling platform changed the trajectory of that fish, or we both would have been on the floor of the boat. Welcome to Florida! We looked at the clock...6:15 am.

Awesome story Struif! I know I heard it in the store but it's one of those stories I'm happy to hear twice! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Matt. That's a fish I will never forget about. The rest of the trip was pretty good- my buddy Phil landed a 60-pounder the next day, and we sight-casted at hundreds of big tarpon on the last day, but not many eats.