Tarpon

The water here in our slip is about 12′ deep, and clear down to about 5′. This morning, a beautiful tarpon materialized in the adjacent slip.which is empty.

He just hovered there, about a foot below the surface. We measured him by pacing along the dock – he was 7′ long. Yikes. Of course the photo doesn’t do him justice. He is longer than I am tall!

The white wiggles lines in the water are reflected boat masts.

We tried to get him to eat bread or kibble, but he wasn’t interested.

There is a boardwalk all around the harbor, which is called the Key West Bight, and you can see tarpon swimming by. But this guy was the biggest I’ve ever seen.

I went fishing for tarpon years ago on a trip to Florida. As they are feeding, they “roll” their backs up – rather like a dolphin does. It lets you realize how big they are. If you hook one, they put up one heck of a fight, leaping completely out of the water. It can take 45 minutes to bring them to the boat. When you bring them aboard, they look almost prehistoric, because their scales are like plates.