Bluegill with a surprise

Set out yesterday morning in search of the ever elusive 10 inch bluegill. The weather was perfect for it, overcast without much wind. I began early by working a size 10 popper along the shoreline and picked off a couple of fish almost immediately. After that though, the action slowed dramatically. I switched to a nymph under a strike indicator to see if that would change things, and it didn't. I switched back to a popper to make a few casts around a culvert with some water pouring out of it and immediately hooked up with the best fish of the day.

This one measured right at 9 3/4". While I wasn't able to find any over ten, I did manage 3 fish over 9 1/2". I only totaled 11 bluegill today so it was nice to have a few of them be good quality fish. I may have caught more but got distracted by some rolling tarpon. River fishing is awesome, you never know what you will encounter. I had a spinning rod in the car, albeit light and intended more for trout than tarpon. I figured I would be happy just to jump one though so I grabbed it and switched gears.

It took forever to entice a strike and I almost gave up. I finally realized more fish were holding deep and once I stopped focusing on the rolling fish up top, I started to hook up. The first fish of the day jumped almost immediately right off the bow of my kayak. It was in the 40 pound range and hit a DOA Terroreyz. I hooked a couple more, both in the 10-15 pound range and absolutely full of energy. The second I managed about a 30 second battle with before he finally spit the hook, and the third came off immediately on the first jump. 

It turned out to be a fantastic day despite slow bluegill fishing in the morning. I never expected to see a tarpon in this area this time of the year and definitely didn't imagine I would jump 3 of them!