Tampa Poon Madness

Shortly after leaving Daytona, we arrived in Tampa, home adult tarpon and Skinny Water Culture. Vince Stegura is one of the head masterminds behind this relatively new (3yrs or so) clothing company. Growing up in Florida, Vince pretty much got sick and tired of seeing the younger generation of fly fishers wearing only Columbia fishing shirts, and anything with a Guy Harvey print. He thought “Are those the only options now-a-days?”. And boom, SWC was born.  We spent a ton of time in the “office” learning a bit about the company and what makes it tic…and a lot about what my generation of fly fisher is after. Vince left us with a steroid sized Santa sack full of all kinds of Tee’s, long sleeves, vapors, hats, and hoodies. Jackpot!

Vince, makin' moves in the mothership.

A duck hunters dream.

"Why do you have a shirt with a permit smokin' a joint?"

 "Because it's a permit, and permit do whatever the fuck they want"

The next day, Tampa Bay on The Fly (local shop) hooked us up with a TV interview to help promote the show the following day. Last min we found out that only two of the four of us got the nod to be on set. So Thad did his thing, and Dave got the green light for number two because of his local roots. No worries, Dave made one call, and we had a boat waiting for us in the am.

Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug!

Or not...

I was great to get on the water in a new area, but we did hit the tide wrong. But like I said, Chad and I were on the water and loving life…not being crammed in a stuffy studio haha. But there was one thing about the interview that made me a bit jealous….

Steve'O was in the house!

The sold out show went off without a hitch. It was a perfect venue with lots of good brews, and restaurant servers for every seat…not a bad set up. Thanks to an inside scoop from Florida Fly Fisherman Magazine; we were the first to announce that ALL FLORIDA BONEFISH ARE NOW CATCH AND REALEASE ONLY!! HELL YES! It gave me chills to hear the crowd’s reaction after I gave the good word.

Here are all the details, with permit regs changing as we speak.

http://www.tarbone.org/news-a-events/342-florida-bonefish-catch-and-release-regulations.html

Packed house at the Tampa Pitcher Show.

After the show, the SWC crew put on a nice little post show get together…I’ll let the pics do the talking.

500+...need I say more?

"Celebration". Beer with goat bling.

In what was my final day on the south east run, we were after tarpon. This was my first time to chase the adults, and I soon learned why people go stir crazy over these big boys. Good friend Brian Jill of Lost Coast Anglers had us lined up with two boats, and some good friends for a loooong day of chasin’ the silver kings.

The first part of the day we were after pods of fish daisy chaining on crystal clear flats in about 5-8 feet of water. We had two boats with three guys a piece. I was the first one on the bow once we got settled, and to say I blew my first shot would be putting it nicely. I dumped a fat pile about 20 feet short, and way left.  After my legs stopped shaking, I got my shit together and had a few more shots throughout the day…no hook eats. But at least it wasn’t my fault.

We litterally got low holed on the flat! Wtf?

Runnin'.

How do they say…”the night time is the right time”.  That night we were back on the water chasin’ poon under the lights. By about midnight they started to show and were getting a bit more aggressive.  At 1:45am, Brian heard a gulp and said “cast there!”.  So I did. And it was on! I got in about half of a strip set before the fish was at the boat, he then pulled a 180 and headed for the gulf. Never had I seen a drag scream so fast, or watch that much backing disappear.

At the twenty min mark we had our hands on the fish twice. Bad idea. This fish wasn’t even close to ready.

Gettin' worked.

Oh, I got this.

No I don't...

At about the 40 min mark I was wondering if my arms and back were gonna make it…they did, barley. At 45 min we had the fish landed. We even got a DNA cheek sample for FDOW. Cool stuff.

Boom Goes the Dynomite!

Tryin' to grab him.

Love this shot.

He gave me one last "F-You", and it was over.

First adult tarpon in the books…must have been the lucky shirt.

Brian- Hey Matt, what time did you have to be at the airport?

Me- 5:30, why, what time is it?

Brian- Five

Me- Crap!

We took the boat out at 5:23 am, and I made my flight as it was loading. Sixteen out of twenty hours on a flats boat chasin’ poon… It was the perfect end to an amazing run in the South East! See ya’ll in Boulder for the final hosted show of the year!

Heron