- April 24, 2024
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Nick Kennerly caught an 80-pound tarpon off the Flagler Beach Pier last week. The fight took nearly 1.5 hours.
It was Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It was scripted for Hemingway. It was epic. Flagler Beach Pier bore witness to it in elegant silence.
Nick Kennerly, 15, and his friends Jeff Lademann, 15, Kyle Heffner, 14, and pier regular Richard Williamson, 17, had a “lifetime moment” as a huge fish smashed Kennerly’s bait off the end of the pier last week. A few seconds into the battle between the young man and his fish, the mirrored silver flanks of an 80-pound tarpon flashed brilliantly in the afternoon sun high above the surface of the sea.
For fishermen and Flagler Beach Pier visitors, the lull of a hot afternoon of catching dinner ended as abruptly as if a cannon had been fired. The end of the pier now belonged to Kennerly. The entire pier would be his before this battle would end.
With the power of a draft horse, the tarpon swam away from the pier while Kennerly pressured it as hard as he possibly could considering the tackle that tethered them together. He had all the muscle necessary, more than enough to break the big tarpon off, but his reel was on the short side of adequate. This was going to be a battle of wits and strength — a battle for the ages.
The tarpon’s acrobatic leaps several times stripped as much as 200 or more yards of line from Kennerly’s reel. Then it turned parallel to the end of the pier and the shore so that Kennerly could not turn its head.
That position allowed the tarpon to put incredible tension on the line while saving swimming energy at the same time. Moving the fish would be like dragging a car sideways down the road.
Another angler poured fresh water on Kennerly’s hands and reel to relieve some of the heat and stress the fish relentlessly applied.
Kennerly welcomed the cooling, but asked the angler, “How did you know?” referring to the angler pouring water on his hands. The older man just grinned and said, “I’ve had a big fish on a time or two in my life.”
Eventually, Kennerly and his mighty tarpon began the trip down the pier toward the beach. Sixty feet along, the fish proved it was not ready to be taken, and it swam back to the deep water with Kennerly in tow. That scene repeated itself twice more before the fish began to fatigue. By now, Kennerly owned the pier, but not the tarpon. Not yet, at least.
Nine hundred feet of pier would be like miles with 80 pounds of tarpon unwilling to surrender. Each barnacle-encrusted pylon threatened to separate Kennerly from his great fish. The evidence of his ability as a sport fisherman was apparent at every one of them. Watching how he carefully monitored the wave action, fish behavior and obstacles as he overcame each pylon was a lesson in wits and skill. His timing and rod handling were impeccable. Class was in session, and the professor was showing us all how it was done.
It was like watching an artist put the finishing touches on his masterpiece.
Finally, about an hour-and-a-half after the initial hookup, Kennerly delivered his mighty tarpon into the hands of his friends Heffner and Williamson, who were waiting in the gentle surf 20 yards out from the beach. The grace and care with which his friends handled the defeated tarpon was a powerful testament to their respect for the great fish.
With the connection between line and fish undone, Kennerly took off like a bullet down the pier to get out to his prize so he could hold it and see it up close.
Ever so carefully, they lifted the fish for a couple pictures, and Lademann snapped a quick cell phone photo of his prize. Then began the process of reviving it for release back into the sea.
It was indeed a heartwarming sight to watch him swim his fish back to the safety of deep water as released it.
The tarpon swam peacefully out to sea, forever taking with it a big piece of Kennerly’s gentle heart while leaving the fisherman with a lifetime memory.
