~ STORY BEHIND THE DAY ~ EPISODE SEVEN “TARPON AND SHARKS ON A CHARTER WITH CAPTAIN BRANDON”

April 6th, 2021 - Duck Key, FL

Captain Brandon Simmons - I had an afternoon charter booked and as I was getting done with my morning half I decided to give Nick (Producer of G&T) a call and see if he wanted to ride along for my charter with a family from Kentucky. He said yes and hurried down to Hawks Cay Resort. We got on the boat around 4:30 PM and left the dock. We ran out to Channel Key Banks about one mile into the bay off of Long Key Bridge to put out some fresh caught Bonita as shark bait. It didn’t take long and we had the customers fighting Blacktip Sharks.While we were waiting on the tide to change we kept them busy catching a couple and hooking a couple more. I started to head towards the bridge and rigged up my Tarpon rods with 80LB floro and a size 8 circle hook. When we got to the bridge I threw the anchor and hooked a live Mullet on, tossed it back and within a few minutes we had Tarpon chasing the Mullet around and exploding on the surface. We hooked one up and the fight was on. We battled the fish in and out of the bridge till we finally got it out on the ocean side with no obstacles in our way. We managed to get the leader for a caught fish but when we finally got it boat side it broke off. No matter what it is always fun just to see the jumps and show the Tarpon puts on! We went back and re set. We hooked another fish but unfortunately it got around a bridge pilling before we could get off the anchor and broke off. Finishing the day with an awesome Florida Keys sunset!