Posted on 04/21/2008 3:19:16 AM PDT by jsh3180
Accomplishments continue in ex-president's fishing adventure
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
The Citizen
There are few things George Bush Sr. has not accomplished. He flew fighter planes in World War II, earning himself the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in action. He attended Yale University. He was head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Ronald Reagan's vice president, and of course, became the most powerful man in the free world when he was sworn in as the 41st president of the United States in January 1989. He sky dived on his 80th birthday and again last year at 83 after recovering from hip surgery.
But he'd never caught a truly large tarpon, much less a 130-pound tarpon, until this weekend.
Bush, 84, crossed that task off his To-Do list Saturday afternoon while fishing in Islamorada with Keys backcountry guide George Wood. Bush, an accomplished fishermen with a bonefish tournament in the Keys named after him, has for years fished the Keys backcountry, catching bonefish, tarpon and other fish, but he'd never caught anything this big.
Bush, Wood and former Olympic skier and fellow accomplished angler Andy Mil headed out into the backcountry early Saturday. The fishing trip, however, started out on the slow side. The trio combed the backcountry for the elusive "silver kings," but to no avail.
"It was horrible," Wood said. "We were looking to see where they were moving, but couldn't find them."
They took a mid-day break for two hours and waited for the tide to go out, which lets the fish "drop into channels and sloughs," Wood said. Their strategy paid off.
"They were everywhere," Wood said.
Armed with a conventional reel and a small crab, Bush hooked into a 130-pound tarpon on the bayside of the Ligumvitea Channel shortly after 2 p.m. About 45 minutes later, the ex-president posed proudly with the fish on his lap and Wood by his side. The fished jumped several times. Its gill plates rattled.
"He's a great angler, and he did a spectacular job," Wood said. "This was a huge tarpon. He (Bush) looked a bit stressed, but he kept smiling. He was so determined to catch that fish."
The fish was tagged properly and released back into the wild, Wood said. Anglers can't take tarpon out of the water without a tag from the state.
"He's been a serious angler his whole life," said Mil, who has fished with Bush in Panama, near the Arctic Circle and Venezuela. "It was great to get it done. We don't know how many more times he will get down here to Islamorada."
tohara@keysnews.com
Thought you’d like to see this.
President Bush shows by example how an ex-president should act, unlike some others who are still trying to get into the limelight.
Oh my! That is a big fish.
We have an eight-and-one-half foot long striped Marlin, caught off Mazatlan in ‘86, hanging on our sunroom wall. But that tarpon looks a lot more impressive, like he could eat children.
I wonder if the fish read his lips.
Sr. squandered the Reagan legacy, that’s for sure. Not that I agree with every president on every issue, but he was far and away better than what we got in return.
Trapons don’t eat children but they do occasionally hurt boaters. Tarpon tend to leap out of the water and land in peoples face. Kinda brutal if you are riding a jetski 30 mph and take a 100 lb fish to the chin.
And it's been downhill ever since.
Not exactly a monster tarpon. Current world record 286 lb. 9oz. Not bad for 80+ years old. Hell, I'm 61 and I've never caught one of any size.
I am not bad-mouthing GHWB. He is my favorite Bush. I would love to go fishing with him. I ain't about to jump out of an airplane with him.
What an absolutely gorgeous fish. Thanks President Bush (and jsh3180) for sharing!
Priceless.
Could he take Carter with him? He could use some bait.
*Sigh*
We need an angler's thread here at FR. I'd love to know the line poundage, hook make, etc.
This is what I want a former president to be doing, compared this to Jimmy and tell me which can be used by our enemies as a propaganda tool easier.
Heck, even terrorist scumbags probably like to fish on their days off....
When do we hear about Hillary’s fishing trip and how she caught the big one while all her brother caught were crabs?
hope they released it like the rest of us
Fishie ping
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