On a rainy, frustrating day that crushed spirits all up and down the river, my boat buddy Glenn Kamp conjured up a rarity: this 20″ Delaware River tarpon. It tail-danced like a rainbow, tossed its big, bullet-head like an alpha-male brown trout with ‘roid rage, and generally resisted capture for as long as the wily pescador would indulge it.
Eventually, Glenn boated that bad boy and I had a sudden flashback to 1948 and Guyaberra, Cuba, on a morning me and Old Hemm were knocking back rum jumbies and talking horses when a big, dark critter torpedoed up just off the playa. It snapped Hemm right off at the outrigger and then turned on my kona-head like a slashing, water-borne she-devil in heat. As I fought back my breakfast and bent into the rod, Hemm’s little Maccaca striker mate danced around the gunnels, pointing and screaming “Tar-poon! Tar-poon!” in that sing-song accent the boys all affect when you’ve got a fish-on and they know you’re the Paying Customer.
Hemm never paid, the bastard.
No wait. Maybe I read that somewhere. Anyway, Glenn’s as good in a boat as the old man ever was.
Rusty Spinner said:
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 am
Looks like you had a top-notch guide. One able to shout “bow to the fish” each time it leapt high into the air, gill plates rattling for all to hear. It takes one helluva fisherman to land one of these beauties (and then not have the common sense to keep it off camera to be memorialized for years to come). Funny, but it resembles a strong resemblance to another fish I remember you catching last year behind the cabins after you landed a nice brown first…