And the Mono Line? Folks, you have NEVER used a Mono that is like this. Tough as nails, little stretch, NO MEMORY and NO SUN DETERIORATION! We all “re-line” in Spring and I’m telling you that YOU NEED TO TRY THESE LINES. Take a look at our web site for All Sunline Products.

 

 

 
On May 11, 2001, that feat finally happened. Jim Holland Jr., guided by Captain Steve Kirkpatrick, caught the first tarpon with fly fishing equipment over 200 pounds: a 202-pound, 8-ounce tarpon on 20-pound tippet.

 
The Florida state record for tarpon caught with conventional tackle is 243 pounds, caught by Gus Bell in Key West in 1975.

The all-tackle world record (additionally certified as the 80-pound class record) for a giant tarpon is 286-pounds, 9-ounces caught by Max Domecq in Rubane, Guinea-Bissau, Africa on March 20, 2003.

We located a school, far ahead of us, and made a wide circle to get in front of it without spooking the fish. As the dark black mass of the school closed to within 120 feet of the boat, I began my cast. When the fish reached about 90 feet I fired, aiming my 12-weight GLX right at the lead fish in the school. Unfortunately, I can’t honestly say I purposely picked the biggest fish in the bunch and cast to that one. Because of the poor visibility, I aimed for the first big black back that I saw and fired. I began stripping, and on the third strip the lead fish charged from the pack, flashed on the fly, and turned away. I continued stripping until my hand stopped abruptly, at which time I set the hook. 

 

The next 30 seconds or so of chaos was a blur., as the line hissed off the floor of the boat and the fish came right to my reel. I stuck her several more times, and feeling the sting of the steel, the fish launched herself halfway out of the water. The fish jumped a second time, again directly away from us, and although we knew it looked big, because we couldn’t see the girth, none of could accurately gauge exactly how big. Not knowing the size of the fish enabled me to remain calm and pressure this tarpon as hard as I would any other without worrying about losing a world record. With each roll, our estimate of it’s weight went up, and after an hour we estimated the fish at 160 to 165 pounds. Then all of a sudden, she went crazy, making a blistering run. A hungry 12-foot bull shark had showed up, and now threatened to eat my prized fish. In response, Steve started the engine. The trick worked, and the shark swam off, apparently not hungry enough to eat his lunch in such a noisy environment.

 

When we turned the engine off, the fish positioned itself on the bottom and I began to lift again. The amount of pressure it takes to lift a fish this size off of the bottom is almost indescribable. I am convinced that had I not flirted with exceeding the breaking strength of the tippet I would not have landed that fish. Every tarpon you hook comes with an invisible timer, and you never know when your time is up. This is one reason why I fight tarpon so hard, it minimizes the chances of things going wrong or breaking under prolonged stress. And aside from increasing your landing percentage, really pushing fish hard puts less stress on them so your releases will be much more likely to survive to fight another day.

 

Once the bigger-than-life silver slab finally laid sideways to us in the water, Steve reached down, grabbed the shock tippet, and lip gaffed the monster. Now, Steve is no small guy (6′4″ and more than 240 pounds), and he’s snatched a lot of large tarpon out of the water, but when he tried to drag the fish up onto the gunwale of the boat to tape it, all he could lift was the head. I dropped the rod, grabbed the fish and together we hauled the giant about halfway out of the water. When the fish’s belly spread out on the gunwale, my jaw dropped. The tape showed 47″ in the girth, and with that we slid the fish the rest of the way into the boat to determine the length. My father grabbed the calculator and punched in the girth squared times the length, divided by 800. The number 206 flashed on the screen, and you could hear a pin drop as we all stared at each other, wondering what in the hell to do next. We’re strictly catch & release anglers, so pulling out our kill tag was a tough decision. We ran for the dock at breakneck speed.

 

After reaching camp we dragged the tarpon out of the boat, found the nearest tree, tied a rope to the scale, and attempted to haul the tarpon and scale it up into the air. After quite a bit of struggle and eventually the aid of the hood of our rental car, we had the giant fully suspended, and looked at the scale. 202.5! “Oh my God, we just made history!”

 

The giant tarpon measured 85″ long, 47″ in girth and is listed as the world record in the IGFA registry under the 20-pound tippet class in the saltwater fly division, replacing a 187-pound, 6-ounce giant taken by Brian O’Keefe, another Northwest fly fisher, in 1992. It is the largest tarpon ever taken on the fly, replacing Billy Pate’s 188-pounder taken in 1982.

 

Note: Jim landed the behemoth in a remarkable one hour, 58 minutes on May 11, 2001. The fly was a black, white, and red deer-hair slider, tied on a 5/0 Owner hook. The rod was a 9′ 12-weight GLX.

 

Hi Friends,

Chris Willen with a fantastic silver Muskie caught with a spinnerbait and his trusty G. Loomis rod.

Hi Everyone,
First, I want to tell you about our new newsletter schedule. Actually, we’re reverting to the old schedule. We’re going to go back to sending newsletters during the weekend. So when you get another newsletter from us this weekend, that’s what’s going on.

And I want to tell you about the new hats. Well, we knew about them in July, but just this week we are the first to receive the NEW G. Loomis Racing Style Hats in Red-White-Black, Blue-White-Black, and Yellow-White-Black. Folks, these are Nice Hats. They all have the very comfortable Velcro adjustable back strap (no head gouging buckle), a made-for-comfort inner headband, and even a G. Loomis logo inside tag. The best part is they are only $22.00 each with very low shipping cost.

Now, if these are not your style, then we suggest the new G. Loomis Tactel Olive hat. Same great features with a 2-tone Skeleton Fish on the front and the “radical” G. Loomis logo on the outside of the Velcro adjustable band. Very comfortable in an understated way (I really like this hat).

Our final hat is one “loud” hat, but not so if you’re a hunter. Introducing the G. Loomis Hunters Orange hat. Yes, it is orange. Boy, is it orange. Great hat with a two-tone Skeleton Fish patch on the front, camo piping on top, and a camo material on the bottom (underside) of the bill. No one, and I mean no one, will miss you in this bright boy.