2 buddies and I did a 4-hour tarpon trip in brackish water out of San Juan, Puerto Rico (it was 3 couples on a vacation together, with the kids at home with the grandparents). The wives went to the city to shop and sight-see.
The guide bought these "baitfish" (looked like half-pound bream with dull colors) from some guys that waded out into a feeder creek with a cast net. Then we went around to some drop-offs within these backwater bays and free-lined baits. The bites were slow, but we hooked big fish that fought like crazy. I got the first bite, and my fish was probably 80+ lbs. It was a fight! After that, I flipped a quarter and made one of them "call it in the air". The winner of the coin toss was who I was going to pass the rod off to if I got another bite. Sure enough, my line got bit again. The second fish was about the same size.
About an hour before we left, my line got hit AGAIN, but the tarpon knocked the bait in the air, and came out of the water snapping at it all the way up to eye level. I'd kill for a video of that. I was trying to hand the rod off to the third guy, but the fish never got the bait in its mouth and left. Unfortunately, those were the only 3 bites we got for the day, and our time was up.
That type of trip was fun I guess, but we spent way too much time dealing with the bait-netter folks at the beginning of the trip. The guide told us that he had another trip lined up that afternoon, so we couldn't stay any later. He got a smaller tip because of that...we basically paid him to haggle around with the bait catchers for 15+ minutes instead of fishing. It was all in heavy dialect Spanish, so we didn't understand a word of what they were saying...
