A fisherman determined not to lose his first tarpon braved jumping into waters known for dangerous bull sharks and swimming to the fish to untangle his line that got caught up in the rope of a crab trap.
Steven Starmer was fishing in Tampa Bay off a pier in Oldsmar, Fla., last week when the incident occurred. The bay is known for its bull sharks and in fact he had caught two from the same spot two weeks before.
“There’s been some 9- to 10-foot bull sharks up in the bay,” Starmer told the Bradenton Herald. “We’ve been broken off by some monsters.”
The first catch on this day was not a “monster” but a small bull shark, caught by Starmer’s friend Petey Santos. It was released and the fishermen waited for another bite.
“I watched something huge explode over the top of my bait,” Starmer explained to the Herald. “As soon as I set the hook a tarpon started jumping like crazy, shaking his head.
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“Probably around 15 minutes into the fight it started to go toward a buoy about 75 yards out. I then noticed when I was fighting it I was dragging him and the buoy was moving too. They were tangled together. That’s when I knew what I had to do.”
So he handed his fishing rod to a friend, took off his shirt and jumped into the water. He swam out to the fish, not giving any mind about the danger of bull sharks possibly lurking below.
“I wasn’t even thinking about sharks,” Starmer told the Herald. “All I thought about was this is my first tarpon and I’m going in after it. My friends said, ‘Dude, you’re nuts, we’ve seen the sharks out here,’ but it never crossed my mind.”
Aided by a low tide allowing him to stand in water 5-feet deep, he grabbed the tarpon and began the untangling process.
“It took me a minute to get it untangled,” Starmer told the Herald. “The leader was wrapped around the rope a couple times. I was trying to hold him so he didn’t run into me. Luckily he was tired when I got out there so he was pretty calm at that point.
“A boat pulled up to me and was able to get some photos. I got him free and Rob Messina reeled him in the rest of the way.”
Starmer told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors the tarpon was 6-feet long and weighed 100 pounds or more.
With the battle won, Starmer unhooked the tarpon near the pier and began reviving it.
“The best part of the story was that the fish was released successfully,” Starmer said.
Asked about the threat of sharks, Starmer reiterated to For The Win Outdoors, “I was not thinking about it. I wanted the tarpon.”
And he got it. Without incident, we might add.
Photos of the angler untangling the tarpon and holding the fish courtesy of Steven Starmer.