Legendary Louisiana tarpon guide Lance Schouset recently got a call from his long-time friend Mike Strohmeyer. Strohmeyer asked Schouset, who’s based in Houma, to take his grandson Cruz tarpon fishing so he could catch his first silver king. Schouset was only too happy to take him.
On Sept. 21, Schouset set out with the high-school sophomore. Joining them on board the boat that day were Cruz’s dad, Heath Strohmeyer, and Cruz’s pal, Henry Dillon.
“There have been a lot of big tarpon on the east side of the Mississippi River mouth this year, and that’s where we headed,” Schouset tells Outdoor Life. “We ran about an hour and found some fish at the Northeast Pass. There was just a pile of tarpon, and I got my boat in front of them, cut the engine, and we started casting.”
The anglers were using the renowned “Coon Pop” tarpon lure, which Schouset first designed back in 1986. The lure is a 3-ounce breakaway soft plastic jig attached to a 10/0 Mustad Circle hook, and it has proven highly effective on big tarpon over the years.
“My first cast I had a fish and didn’t get the hook set,” says Schouset. “Then Henry had a fish take his bait, but that fish came off.”
He says Cruz got a strike on his third cast. He was using an orange Coon Pop, and the young fisherman made it count. His rod bowed deep as the fish jumped almost beside the boat.
“I knew it was a giant tarpon as soon as it came out of the water. Then it jumped again, and I figured it would weigh 200 pounds. On its third jump I knew it weighed over 220 pounds, maybe more. I told Cruz he had a junior world record tarpon on.”
The tarpon jumped six times, coming completely out of the water, during the first few minutes after it was hooked.
“A lot of people say giant heavyweight tarpon don’t jump,” says Schouset. “But they are absolutely wrong. We catch 200-pound class fish regularly and they jump like crazy.”
Schouset says Cruz’s tarpon jumped again about an hour into the fight. And near the end of the more than two-hour battle, the massive tarpon jumped a final time right beside their boat.
“Its head came up and out, and then it laid on its back completely exhausted,” says Schouset. “The fish was done. They fight so hard they are completely spent at the end. They are so whipped that some fish surely are taken by sharks after they’re released.”
Schouset says he almost always releases the tarpon he catches. But since he knew Cruz’s tarpon was likely an IGFA record, which requires the fish to be killed and weighed, they gaffed and boated it. Then they ran to Cypress Cove Marina in Venice to weigh it on certified scales.
The giant tarpon weighed 228.8-pounds, with a 94-inch length and a 44-inch girth. It was caught using a heavy, 7-foot-long spinning outfit and 60-pound braid.
“This is Cruz’s record, and he wore himself out catching it,” says Schouset. “All the paperwork is being filled out and sent to IGFA, and we’ll know in a few weeks if it qualifies as a junior world record.”
IGFA’s Junior record division is for anglers 16 and under, and the organization maintains both male and female records. The current record in the junior male category weighed 222 pounds 9 ounces, and it was caught in June 2022 by Joey Rufin near Clearwater, Florida. Cruz’s 228.8-pound fish should easily replace that, provided the organization certifies the catch after inspecting the leader and all necessary paperwork.
Read Next: California Kid’s Giant Sea Bass Could Be a New World Record, Except for One Technicality
If that happens, Schouset will have played a role in both the male and female junior records. He guided Ivy Robichaux to the female junior record tarpon she caught near Grand Isle, Lousiana, in 2016. Robichaux’s fish weighed 118 pounds 3 ounces. The all-tackle world-record tarpon weighed 286 pounds 9 ounces.
Battling a 228-pound tarpon for over two hours is tough work for anyone, and the fish really whipped young Cruz, Schouset says. But he already wants more tarpon.
“His grandfather Mike wants to go with him to catch another one, and Cruz is raring to go.”
Read the full article here
