You won't believe this

...sorry hold on, I need to check my shorts.   

in 2004 I rented a house on big pine key for 2 months. driveway in front, slip in the back, very cool. I gues like discovery bay or something. very common there.

I watched quite a few tarpon hooked off the bridge between big pine and no name and hooked a small one myself on a live pinfish.

at night, they 'roll' and there's a ton of them.

But the coolest thing was snorkeling and seeing a doughnut shaped (torus) of schooling 8' tarpon, maybe 40-60 of them? pretty much the coolest thing I have seen snorkeling, ever..

They are inedible and look like giant minnows, I agree.

For what it is worth, a fishing trip to the big keys in june (pre hurricane) is a very cool thing if you've never been there. very non-california and different and the fishing is great.

John

I got to spend a couple of weeks in May fishing near Sarasota (Siesta key)...same gig, little shack, dock with canoe and yaks...i fished redfish, jacks, and snook nearly every morning. Nothing big, but dang it was fun- sight casting to reds in 6" of water...

When I lived in FL in the 80s, they were still recovering, and the redfish too, people used to keep them for mounts, they are pretty much big minnows, not good for the table, redfish=yum!, so the big ones were gone and it was looking dismal, then the charter industry started getting smart and instead of keeping the fish, they pop off a scale for a trophy, the bigger the scale, the bigger the fish, they even feed the schools now for the tourists. They feed right out of your hands. Ive seen scales over an inch, beautiful things.
Lots of big minnows now in FL. What fun that would be, thanx for the pic Craig!

That is a SICK fish...truly epic.

  Possibly could happen around here. I'm thinking mutant anchovy.