Jason Edney - Florida Fishing Trip!

This past weekend Britney (June 19-21) and I headed down to Jacksonville FL to attend the Southern Trophy Hunter's outdoor show. What a great way to pass the time between the seasons! Over the past few years Britney and I have became great friends with Jeff Lageman. Some people may recognize Jeff from his professional football career with the Jacksonville Jaguars or the NY Jets. After several years of playing football Jeff recently retired and decided to call Jacksonville home. Along with Jeff's success with football he has also created quite the name in the local fishing scene. Jeff teamed up with a couple of other local fishing fanatics and began a very sucessful radio show called The Outdoors Show (www.outdoorsshow.com). So when Jeff offered to take us fishing this summer, while we were down for the show, we jumped at the chance!

Well Jeff was kind enough to take Britney and I fishing on Thursday before the show on Fri, and try to get a jump on the fish. There was a little buzz between he and his good buddy Tom Lucas. They kept talking about the conditions were getting just right for the Tarpon to be in the area. Now I have caught a lot of fish through the years and I just thought this was going to be another one but alittle bigger. Thursday ended up being uneventful on the catching part BUT Tarpon were seen and that in turn fired our guides up even more. The best way I can describe the buzz is imagine November 10 and a cold front is blowing into the midwest. These guys were FIRED UP for something big to happen!

After working the show for three days it was back to fishing business. It didn't take long on Monday morning for things to get interesting. The first bait pod we pulled up on there were Tarpon feeding in it. Now for somebody that spends most of there time on the ground chasing critters this was amazing. The tarpon were destroying these bait fish. It looked like something out of Jaws! One of the first cast into the bait pod Britney was hooked up with our first tarpon! Jeff had explained to me about these fish being the "Greatest Athletes" in the ocean, it didn't take long to see he was correct! Britney's fish jumped multiple times, and just would not give up. Finally after approximately 30 minutes she got the fish to the boat.

Normally Jeff and Tom release the fish immediately not to stress them anymore than they have to but seeing this was our first we pulled the fish in for a few hero shots and she was released immediately following the photo session. After seeing the events that just unfolded I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait until next season to hook up with a tarpon. Guess what I didn't have to wait very long the next bait pod had more tarpon feeding. Again on the first or second cast I was hooked up with one of these giants! After another 30 min battle I had my own tarpon in the boat for the hero shots and the fish was released again unharmed! After my battle I was wondering how Britney got her fish in! I was whipped, my arms felt like jello, lower back was on fire, heck I could even feel it in my legs!

Not really ready to hook up again guess what on the next pod my bait was hammered and I was back to doing battle with the 3rd Tarpon of the day. To make matters worse this fish had a terrible attitude! He jumped, rolled, pulled line harder than either of the first two fish of the day. This fish took about 45 Min's to get landed. It seemed each time I would be getting close to getting him in he would turn and make anther 50yd run. Finally he was unhooked and released!

I would like to give a huge thanks to Jeff Lageman, Tom Lucas and the crew at the Outdoors Show for showing us what the fishing has to offer around the Jacksonville FL area. Tell you what Jeff I'll trade you all the 20lb turkeys you want for a 120lb tarpon!

Good Hunting!
Jason an Britney