This past weekend I had the privilege of participating in and covering for “Coastal Angler Magazine” Poonfecta. Poonfecta is a micro tarpon fly fishing tournament now in its second year. All proceeds go to the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust as well as Project Healing Waters. The tournament epicenter was Bar Fly in downtown Safety Harbor. It’s where the captain’s meeting, fly fishing movie night and awards were given out.
I’m not going to get too into all the details about it. My article in the November issue of “Coastal Angler” will be more professional and have more information. I am writing this post just to talk about my personal experience fishing it and the time I had. That being said, I would first like to thank Bar Fly owner and tournament organizer Jeff Harrell as well as his partner Chris Homer for putting on an absolutely top notch event that was a blast to be a part of.
The Tournament
I was fishing the tournament with my friend Will; an accomplished fly fisherman, former teammate and good man. Will was on the keys trip with me, he was there when I caught my first redfish, my first snook, my first fish on a fly rod. Now we were fishing in our first tournament together.
Because I am writing the article for “Coastal Angler” and that could create a conflict of interest, we couldn’t actually win the tournament. That didn’t matter to us though, because the essence of Poonfecta is fun and having a party, and that is exactly what we did.
We jumped a few nice tarpon that could’ve been tournament fish, but we only landed fish that could qualify for smallest in the tournament.
Our fly of choice was tied by our good friend and fellow fly fisherman Jarek. Jarek has appeared in my blog several times before, he was on the keys trip, he’s an extremely accomplished fisherman and a good man. In the video below he’s going to show you how he ties our tarpon flies
In Conclusion:
I met a lot of great people during the tournament such as sponsors Eric Estrada of Estrada Art and Vince Stegura of Skinny Water Culture. At the fly fishing movie night, Eric Estrada previewed his new movie “5wt. Chronicles” which was awesome. Also, for the second year in a row the top movie prize was won by Dan Decible. Decible’s movie “Micro Management” is a work of art and something that anyone who loves fishing or Florida’s outdoors should check out.
Next year I hope to be apart of Poonfecta again. It was an amazing experience and I had a blast.
Until next time, Tight Lines.