Trenchard Inlet silver king estimated at 160 pounds.
Brad Knight will probably not forget June 24 anytime soon. That spot on the calendar will be special forever, because of an encounter he had with a tarpon in Trenchard’s Inlet near Beaufort.
That’s when the Belton angler managed to hook, land and release a tarpon estimated at around 160 pounds while fishing from his Hobie kayak.
“Earlier in the day, I caught a few bottom fish — whiting, croaker and blue fish — to use for bait, mainly for sharks and big redfish, but I was really hoping to get a tarpon to bite,” Knight said.
Knight’s gameplan on this day was to head out from the Station Creek public ramp in Beaufort at daylight and fish one of his favorite deep holes in Trenchard’s Inlet.
“I was anchored up on the backside of a hump near Skull Creek that drops off into about 60 feet of water,” Knight said. “The tide started coming in pretty hard, and I could see fish suspended under me on my kayak-mounted depth finder.”
Knight had hooked several tarpon in years past while fishing from his powerboat, but he had never been able to land one and had never hooked up with one from his kayak.
Armed for the hoped-for tarpon battle, Knight was using a pair of 30- to 50-pound Quantum rods paired with Shimano 6500 Baitrunner reels, 65-pound Power Pro and an 80-pound wind-on leader that terminated in 24 inches of 130-pound wire leader tipped with a 10/0 Owner SSW circle hook.
Around 2 p.m., he got another chance when the cut bait he was dangling under an 8-ounce inline sinker beneath his kayak was eaten by a 6½-foot tarpon.
“I immediately cut loose the anchor, and the fish towed me around in a half-mile circle for over two hours,” Knight said. “He kept staying in the deep water and would come up about every 15 minutes to gulp air and head back down.”
Knight’s one-man show began to draw a crowd as the tarpon made seven head-shaking leaps out of the water. Several of the onlookers even began directing the boat traffic coming in and out of the inlet around Knight so he and the monster fish could do battle.
“Right after the fish jumped, a man and his son idled over in their fishing boat and asked if I needed help,” Knight said. “I handed the boy my camera and asked him to take some photos. Other boats were stopping to watch the fight as well.”
The tide literally turned in Knight’s favor when the big fish began to tire and the tide pushed the duo into shallow water. With no place to run, it didn’t take much longer for Knight to bring the fish to the side of the boat, where he was faced the problem of landing him.
“I thought about grabbing the big fish by the lower jaw like you would a catfish, but its jaw was huge,” Knight explained. “Luckily, I had a small hand gaff in the boat and used it to hook him in the lower jaw and get him under control to remove the hook.”
Based on length and girth estimates, Knight and several experienced onlookers placed the fish in the 160-pound range, which would put it just above the current state record of 154 pounds, 10 ounces.
But Knight had no thoughts of killing the big fish just for the chance at a record. After reviving the fish in the water, he released it back into the wild.
“I know this was about 99 percent luck, and I don’t ever expect to do it again, but it sure was fun!” he said.
Be the first to comment