Friday, April 25, 2008

Grandiose Tarpon Flouts Impending Law and Boats Itself....

Mel Brooks' famous line, " it's good to be the king!" was never truer when his majesty happens to be silver. On this bright windy morning, a particularly feisty specimen went skyward in a particularly fine leap and landed right on the rear casting deck of my 16-foot Hewes Bonefisher.

As I hat-danced away from the thrashing tail of the 60-pounder, Master Po would have indeed been proud of me for the judicious moves I made to get the fish to the front of my center console where it could be more effectively managed. After twenty seconds, the fish settled down after its' burst of Tasmanian Devil gyrations and I was able ease it overboard. The massive splash of its' tail when the fish felt re-enveloped by the water made it quite clear no "breathing" was necesssary as the fish flew into the depths.

Evidently the sheer hubris and noblesse oblige of this particular king was in evidence as it ignored the soon-to-arrive ( or did-arrive? ) "law" that in Florida, tarpon are not to be lifted out of the water for release. As I tidied up the forward section of my cockpit, I wondered whether the same people who make laws for us to obey based on theories in their heads wring their hands when tarpon free-jump? Since catching my first tarpon in 1961, I have seen thousands of these fish try to kiss the sky without any hook in their mouth while landing back into the water no worse for the wear or writhing in pain from organ damage.

Kind of like the circle hook movement, the arbitrary brush strokes of one-eyed painters far too often fill galleries with the kind of folks that would leave Spartacus a lonely hero were he to return to the current scene in search of a peer.

And not for just now, but for all times- tarpon, keep on leaping...whenever or wherever. No better metaphor than you!

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