Let me start out by saying that I probably should have spent more money on my reel, but if I had any idea that a tarpon could actually damage the fly reel, well, I would have ordered a more expensive reel. In my defense, I have used these particular reels and like them. Yes, they’re stamped metal but the drag on these puppies is incredible.
I’m talking about the Redington Behemoth reel. I needed an extra 12 wt as a backup rod, due to tarpon being such tackle busters. Last year a tarpon broke my custom 12 wt rod and for a backup I bought a TFO Bluewater SG 12 wt. I needed a reel for it and, well, for one or two tarpon trips a year I just didn’t think I needed to spend a great deal, so I bought the Behemoth. I already had two and they have performed well.
So the reel I was using was brand new, the largest model of Behemoth and it had never fought a fish. The following is what happened when I hooked a large tarpon.
The guide said the fish was 100+ lb. It took the fly just fifteen feet from the boat. The guide had been warning me that they sometimes take close to the boat in stained water and that is exactly what happened. I think it may have been a Leisenring Lift situation in that I could see the top of my 12-foot leader which meant the fly had to be rising up as in “the lift” or the end of a swing. Maybe that’s why the fish struck so close to the boat. I was actually looking at the top of the leader and noticed it moving forward. I knew that couldn’t be right and my suspicions were correct. I strip-set hard, managing to get the hookset before the fish blew up. The fish was so close, I managed to get some real purchase on the strip-set and the fish didn’t like it, responding by blowing out of the water in a jump next to the bow of the boat.
When the fish ran I had a light drag on, but I was determined to put some serious pressure on this fish and not let him man-handle me like tarpon have in the past. After the fish had taken the line into the backing, I turned the drag to give him some serious resistance, even though my guide was advising against it. With the guide’s cautions echoing in my head I was nervous about applying too much pressure with the reel’s drag. Still, I wanted to be the one in control, so I old schooled the reel by cupping it to add pressure that I could control and remove quickly if necessary.
It worked. The fish turned fairly quickly rather than making the extremely long run I feared. Taking advantage of this slow-down, I dropped the rod into my homemade rod holder which eased the strain on my hands. The long cork handle of the Bluewater gave me an edge and I was able to really hold my own against the fish. Feeling more confident, I added a little more drag. The Behemoth could provide up to 30 lbs of drag but I had no way to gauge how much I was using of that 30 lbs other than just feel, so I continued to cup the reel with my hands. As I gained the upper hand on the fish, I was really squeezing the spool pretty hard, which may have been a bad thing.
Pretty soon the leader appeared near the boat, but the fish wasn’t finished. See video below:
The fish blew up right in front of the bow and then made another run off the starboard side of the bow, giving me a nice jump which my son caught on his phone (below).
Then the reel locked up. I started panicking, but luckily, the fish had decided to take a breather and was sounding. I couldn’t fight him anyway with the reel locked up, so I turned the reel over to see what was wrong. To my amazement a loop of running line was over the bottom post. Like the photo below. You can see the gap it came through on the left. Somehow the reel became warped from my old schooling the spool or the fish’s pressure.
My guide came over to help and we unscrewed the reel right there, pulled the spool off and got the loop back on the reel, all the while my son, unaware of the problem, was reminding us that the line was slacking. I was delighted to see the fish was still on when I reeled up the slack.
Though the fish was still on, the reel was still not right. It didn’t take long and it happened again. The fish was close to the boat and he was just about ready to give up. The fish suddenly surged, but the reel was once again locked up with a loop of line over the post. Well, just watch and listen…
Needless to say, I couldn’t depend on that reel for the rest of the trip so I swapped to my 11 wt H4 Orvis with a Mirage reel. I jumped another fish that sailed like a bird in a beautiful leap parallel to the boat. I broke off two more tarpon on the take, one due to a poorly tied knot, the other I just don’t know, those tarpon are Hell on leaders.
To help readers understand, I took this pic of the reel with the line slipping through the gap where the two halves of the reel meet. This blue line shown here is actually the head of the fly line, which is a good bit wider than the running line.
The following day was windier and we had a tough time finding the tarpon but we found some bull redfish that blew up in front of us as we headed out. I hooked one the guide teased up and the fish ran me deep into the backing. I tried slowing him down with the drag like I did the tarpon but lo and behold, the Mirage just doesn’t have that strong of a drag. I cupped the reel, but with the drag not helping much, the bull really gave me a run for the money, pulling farther into the backing than the tarpon had.
I can’t help but notice the difference in the way the drags worked, so at this point I am studying drags. I have a Nautilus on a 10 wt and I have caught a weight tarpon on it and I know the drag in that case was a great help so I am leaning heavily to another Nautilus, but maybe the largest model.
I will say that I still like the Redington Behemoth and its drag with the big knob. Maybe it’s just not for big strong fish like large tarpon. And, maybe I’m at fault for applying too much drag and/or squeezing too hard when I was manually applying drag. I feel like my other reels wouldn’t have had any problem, but the Mirage’s drag turned out to be comparatively light. I would like to get a new reel that has a drag that compares to the 30lb drag of the Behemoth.
I just got in a new Douglas Sky-G rod to replace my broken custom (it was broken again this trip, but it was a hatch lid this time). I think a Nautilus Silver King would look good on it. Amazingly, the 20lbs+ drag of the Silver King is 10lbs less than the Behemoth. It is interesting to me that the big Nautilus doesn’t have the drag capacity of the much less expensive Behemoth.
Something to consider is that I am using much higher strength leaders than the tournament fishers that may use 16, 8, or even 4lb class tippets. I personally think light tippet record seeking is hurtful to the fish. Some of us just want to get them in quick and keep’em away from the sharks. They are the ultimate fly rod fish after all and there’s far too few of them. Tarpon are tackle busters but they are also major fun and great sport.
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