70-Inch Tarpon Caught by Rhode Island Surf Fisherman

Eels are a big fish bait in the Northeast surf. Many a trophy has fallen to the seductive swimming of the American eel, and while Thomas Czernik might have been expecting a large fish when he touted these baits to the Rhode Island surf back in June, there’s no way he could have expected that it would be a large tarpon, not a striped bass, that would find his bait.

In a recent podcast with Toby Lapinski and Jerry Audet, Thomas relates the story of his catch, saying from the moment the fish hit, it was apparent this was something other than a striper.

Thomas, who has been surfcasting for his whole life, but more recently got serious about the pursuit of stripers from shore, estimates the fight, undertaken with a 10-foot surf rod and 30-pound-test braid, took 30 minutes. The fish measured 70 inches, and after releasing it, Thomas, exhausted and soaked from the battle and release called it a night without making another cast.

You can listen to the full accounting on the Surfcast Podcast below:

This is the second consecutive summer that a large tarpon was taken in the New England surf. Last August, Hans Brings was fishing for brown sharks on the South Side of Cape Cod when a tarpon took his chunk of bluefish. You can read that story here. 

Crossing paths with a tarpon in the Northeast surf takes a whole lot of luck, but landing one on surfcasting tackle takes some skill alongside the luck that the hook holds. I can only imagine the thrill that must be hearing the distinctive rattling of a tarpon’s gill rakers as it takes to the air out in the dark off a Northeast beach. It’ll be interesting to see if or where any more southern gamefish surprise Northeast anglers this summer.