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Grande Tarpon Battle

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By FRANK SARGEANT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 18, 2008

The average size of tarpon along Florida's west coast has steadily increased since the $50 kill-tag regulation was put in place in 1989. And the results of this conservation measure are nowhere more evident than at Boca Grande Pass, where fish in excess of 200 pounds - once nearly unheard of - are now landed every summer season.

Nobody had better luck at the pass this year than Apollo Beach captain Nick Winger, who from late May to early July brought three fish estimated at more than 200 pounds to the boat.

He saved one of the best for last.

Fishing with captain Lori Deaton of Apollo Beach, Cyril Chauquet of ESPN's "Fishing Adventurer" and friend Theresa Giampia, Winger's task was to guide the anglers to hook a big tarpon in the 70-foot-deep pass, then land it on video. That's usually no problem when the fish are in; as many as 10,000 crowd these waters at once, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists.

But things were not going Winger's way.

"Cyril had planned two days with us to get the show, a good thing because the first day we had both a slow bite and bad luck," Winger said. "We saw plenty of fish on the bottom machine, but they were moving steadily and it was hard to get the jig to fall in front of them and get a bite. And it seemed like every time we got a hook in a fish, it zoomed straight to the top, jumped and threw the jig."

Chauquet did get a 110-pounder to the boat, so the first day was not a total loss. But Winger's reputation as a giant tarpon guide hadn't been met.

If At First You Don't Succeed ...

On the second day, however, it immediately seemed as though the crew's luck had changed.

"The first drop of the day, Cyril hooked and landed a small fish," Winger said. "When you start like that, you know things are going to go well."

As Winger was working his boat back into the fleet over the pass, he spotted another school on his depth finder. This time, Chauquet and Giampia dropped jigs and had hookups at the same moment.

"You can't land two tarpon from the same boat at the same time, so I knew we would have to pick one and break it off," Winger said. "But just as I was about to do that, Cyril's fish came unbuttoned."

Giampia fought her fish for 30 minutes, then lost it to underwater debris.

No score on the doubleheader.

It was Deaton's turn next. She is a tarpon guide - one of the few women in the profession - and has a reputation as a tough, successful skipper.

"Lori got hooked up as soon as we made the next drop, but the fish didn't jump at all," Winger said. "It just stayed down on bottom, and after an hour and a half I began to think it was foul-hooked, because if they're hooked in the mouth you can almost always get them up in that much time."

Winger encouraged Deaton to put on more pressure, and about 30 minutes later it finally surfaced.

"Huge," Winger recalled. "This fish was a good 7 feet long and just as fat as a barrel. I knew it was going to go over 200 pounds at that point, and that we were probably in for a much longer fight."

Tag-Team Effort

Winger then called on Deaton to put even more muscle into the fight. But Deaton, a long-experienced tarpon angler who has landed hundreds of fish, showed him a skinned thumb and blistered fingers. In a few minutes, completely exhausted, she reluctantly handed the rod to the burly Winger.

"I thought I would be able to get that fish up in a few minutes after she had already worn it down, but was I ever wrong," Winger said. "I pulled with all I had for the next 90 minutes, and only right at the end was I able to get the fish even close."

Winger then gave the rod back to Deaton for the finish.

"Not until I wrapped my hands around that tarpon's jaw did I truly realize how enormous it was," Winger said.

They slipped in the required tarpon tag and towed the fish to the beach for measurement, photos and revival.

Anglers use a formula - length times the girth squared, in inches, divided by 800 - to estimate the weight of tarpon without removing them from the water, which often kills the fish. Deaton's tarpon was 84 inches long and 45 inches in girth, giving it a likely weight of about 212 pounds - truly a monster anywhere in the world.

"After the TV crew got plenty of footage, we removed the tag, revived the fish, and she swam off to hopefully bruise somebody else's ego," Winger said. "The best part of the catch is that the whole thing is recorded for millions of people to enjoy the experience."

For more on Boca Grande fishing, visit www.captainnickwinger.com.

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