River Monster Time! Crazy Battle As Big Fish Crashes Into Kayak!

[@tommckelvey3609]

That's great stuff John!! I'm soooooo jealous!

[@pastapaul150]

Awesome, best fights I’ve ever had are all from the silver kings!

[@araboghigian103]

Just fantastic, John. Thanks as always for sharing

[@tommcmahon9383]

Wow! Congratulations John on a great catch! Thanks for sharing.

[@babalu630]

Wow. What a beautiful fish, place and session. 👌👌👌

[@goodcitizen64]

Thanks for taking us along!

[@jeffburrell8029]

That was epic footage, John! Great catch, congrats 👍🏻

[@kirkstubblefield8835]

John, thanks for take me out for a ride. That was one hell of a battle. How’s the damn stunt of a tarpon especially the kayak man thank you.

[@pigsandapples]

Amazing. I could feel your concentration during the fight - thanks for a great video.

[@tyler1211]

Wow! Nice catch!

[@FMorgigno1]

Well done John. Looks like you had a lot of fun with that one.

[@patcurcio1379]

Dynamite! Awesome catch, John.

[@joshrussell9460]

Awesome fight. Great video John .I'm sure you Cant beat fighting a fish that big from a kayak on light tackle . Love it.

[@billwallenstein3387]

My favorite fish too. Nice one

[@wbwills2]

It’s nice being able to come here & live vicariously through you sometimes for a fix when needed between trips . Luckily I only have a short 1hrish drive to the mighty Atlantic from the Sandhills of NC. & can have a bucket of mullet minnows or be throwing a jig or whatever in no time.Middle of the island Topsail (& the inlets)is my favorite stomping grounds but have a few other spots with friends to visit & all that have some interesting areas too.Haven’t tried the tarpon yet but have ppl in Fla too. One day…Thx for sharing . A early morning barefoot on a warm day in the fall in the surf is the best thing to recharge the batteries .Can’t imagine being too far from salt water. But suppose you make due with what you have. Take care.

[@lonellrodgers8539]

Amazing as always!

[@AltusPlateau82]

The fight of your life John? This one goes down to the books!

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

No. I've landed a couple larger ones with the yak. I landed a monster from shore around 10 years ago and the length/girth calculation came out to 151#. But every single one of these is special!

[@richardkohut4309]

Great fish!

[@jeffreysnyder912]

Your rod handled the tarpon really well

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

It's deceptive for sure.

[@kj-y9y]

nice fish, great jumps.

[@timmills5496]

Nice release.

[@hettro-cv6082]

Good video!!

[@Grimer-h6r]

Done a lot of kayak fishing in my day but never for something like tarpon. Battling that solo on the water is ridiculous. What a catch!

[@mattbobsong680]

Nice fish there, nice videos. But I can’t believe you would turn your back on the striped bass and call tarpon your favorite fish. May your season ahead be full of bluefish and weeds.

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

Ha! Good one.

[@HooksetHarry]

Tarpon are much better than striper imo.

[@wbwills2]

⁠​⁠@@HooksetHarrybluefish,weeds for you too + …the dreaded lizard fish .100s of lizards.

[@mattsuppinger8358]

It the new dark matter tarpon!

[@rogerpatton2242]

What's wrong with bluefish? ..best fighting fish in the ocean.

[@LongIslandLethals]

Nice work, my favorite as well. Such a challenge to land them, a lot has to go right.

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

No matter how hard I squeeze, I just can't hold them with one hand when they thrash!

[@ramboatpapayak3047]

yeah! yeah! YEAH!

[@noggginn]

If you don't want launch your kayak through the rung sat, the bridges in charlotte harbor hold tarpon just like this but I bet the power plant is better this time of year.

[@robbiekingston9055]

One for my bucket list. Unfortunately being from the uk it will take some planning 😂

[@mmmfrankmele]

Nice fight John, way to land it!!!

[@phillymanpete]

They don't call them Silver Kings for nothing! Congrats and great work!!

[@DenisBurke-vb6vh]

Nice job, there were not as many fish there at the bridge this fall , buddy marked a bunch last week there. I fished a bunch above 31 bridge by owl creek for 3 months late summer into the fall.

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

Thanks for that info. This trip was by far the least number of fish I'd ever seen there. I was beyond lucky to land one.

[@DenisBurke-vb6vh]

@@JohnSkinnerFishing I know you don’t have side scan but some times they are not showing and you see piles of them. Bomber magnums in river fire tiger have worked really well besides the fly rod for me. See ya up there.

[@richardwarfield7386]

Great Fish John. Never caught a Tarpon but I would feel undergunned with a 2000 class reel - but that's just me. But obviously its do-able

[@michaelsimko7694]

Those jumps would easily get the adrenaline going. It's like a 12+ pound blue or 20"+ smallmouth on the other end of the line.

[@AOMilvado]

Wow!!!!! When you have a minute, can you briefly describe what it means to bow to the fish and what it actually does to prevent them spitting the hook? I appreciate it.

[@peterlee5755]

Shit yeah! Heading down to your neck of the woods next week👍👍👍

[@PalaciosCJ5]

What a great catch. What fish finder did you use?

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

Humminbird Helix 7.

[@blake3519]

Awesome video! What lure and hook setup is that?

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

Lure: amzn.to/3tYSoG6 Swimbait Hook: amzn.to/3S6kx6b

[@vipergeddy]

John are you aloud to keep one of them if so do the taste good??

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

You cannot keep them and they are considered inedible.

[@kayakjoe]

Awesome video! What was the water temperature? Barometer? I have a spot inshore that I have seen numerous tarpon on livescope.

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

69 degrees.

[@josephchristopher7534]

I thought that this was going to turn into a "to be continued..." video production.

[@openstenosis]

I remember you had a Band-it for your elbow a while back. How is the elbow(s) after fight like this? I’m just watching and my elbows are screaming louder than your drag!

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

My elbow has been pretty good so I haven't worn it in Florida yet. On LI, Plum Gut is probably the worst. It's actually my left elbow so conventional gear or catching a lot of fish on spin gear requiring lots of cranking is what gets me.

[@billcancellieri8375]

Amazing fight. Great job. Is that the 5.25# superfluke? what colors do you prefer?

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

It is. watermelon red flake I think.

[@TheBababa420]

Shit Yea!!

[@YuGo122]

John, I often see you fishing with white-colored braid. Any particular reason for that?

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

It's gray Seaguar Smackdown. I really like it.

[@YuGo122]

@@JohnSkinnerFishing​​⁠In your opinion, does the braid color matter at all, esp. in southern waters like Florida? Did you choose that light gray braid (rather than, say, moss green) because it is less visible?

[@biffjoesen2529]

Sh1t yeah indeed. Congratulations

[@JasonClary-v8x]

why dont you use your original jig an bounce spinner rod anymore

[@JasonClary-v8x]

why dont you use your original jig an bounce spinner rod on anything anymore

[@JohnSkinnerFishing]

I use it jigging in the fall, but we had nothing but wind and the fishing was off. I'll use it in the everglades for grouper.