I usually go with DoubleHeader out of Sapphire, but I never go for tarpon. They are usually schooled up at the dock when we get back from catching a ton of tuna, wahoo, dolphin, barracuda, shark, etc. and we feed them by hand. Does he want to go deep-sea fishing, or in-shore?

I'm not a fisherman, but he has told me that they are big fish, and the experience of landing one is not to be believed. My husband is planning on either a 4 hour or 6 hour trip, so I would hope either is possible.

Ask them if they want to do light-tackle, in-shore fishing for tarpon, or if they want to catch big, strong, fighting fish. The reason I haven't gone for tarpon is that I equate it to fly fishing. Even a 14" trout feels big on that light gear. Now, get hooked up with a 50lb tuna and you've got a fight on your hands...or, hook up to a 10 foot shark and your hands are full for the next 2 hours!

Tarpon is supposed to be one of the top gamefish pound for pound in the world. I'd love to catch one. I've caught Atlantic Salmon which is one of best as well and a twenty pounder would take almost an hour to land using a spincast set-up. I just caught a 14" trout in Maine the other day. It was a beautiful fish but not anything like a salmon or tarpon. When you hook one of those it's like taking a ride on a rollercoaster.

Donkey's years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers built a massive breakwater on the Northside in the Mandahl area. The story behind this structure doesn't bear going into but it eventually became a "bridge to nowhere" - a term that was later coined to describe a later mis-use and abuse of federal funding in re the Nadir area of St. Thomas.

The ACE breakwater basically cojoined the Atlantic ocean with the inner pond of a low-laying area and, via the channel, created a very deep lake of sorts. The tarpon swam through the ACE channel and found the perfect spot to breed and raise their families in this quite big and safe harbour.

So I went out there with a friend who was really into game-fishing and me, the basic novice, hooked this big fish. My rod was a really good rod, I had some basic experience in playing the line. I had hooked a very big tarpon. He thrashed and he thrashed and we played and played for well over an hour until he all of a sudden made a grand maneuver. My very expensive rod just bowed and snapped and that was that.

If I'd caught him I would have untangled him and let him go anyway.

The Mandahl pond is still there, the tarpon are still there,

Oh, and the egrets are still there and the great blue heron is still there.

Enjoy!