Many tarpon captains have come and gone from Boca Grande over the years, but some stand out in our history as prolific ‘poon hunters. Some of these men are living, some are gone. Here are a few vignettes excerpted by local historian Bob Edic, from formal oral histories interviews conducted by the Boca Grande Historical Society oral history project. Bob Edic was a resident of Boca Grande for many years, and is one of the island’s leading historians. It is fitting that we pay tribute to the historic guides, as a celebration of their lives in the context of the fishing heritage of Boca Grande. We admire their unique skills, impressive fortitude and commitment to fishing in a menace of increasing competition and an adversely-impacted environment. They must master boating and navigation skills, possess specialized knowledge of the weather, the environment, fish identification and their individual peculiarities, likes and dislikes, be able to read the water by the swim patterns on the surface, know about the tackle, and seasonal behavior and natural habitats of the fish. Merritt "Babe" Darna, son of Alfonso Darna, noted that the captain you have usually knows what to do and what bait to use. "Sometimes," he said, “you get a fish and sometimes you don't. That's why they call it fishing instead 32 GASPARILLA ISLAND May/June 2017 By Bob Edic and Boca Beacon Staff Photos from the Boca Beacon archives of catching. You really don't have to look for the tarpon out in Boca Grande Pass. When the water temperature gets up to 75 degrees and over, normally they come from the south and they will get in the Pass. “There’s deep water and plenty of bait coming through there. Later on in the season, in June, they start going offshore and spawning. They spawn way offshore. You can see them going offshore, and you can see them coming back. When the eggs are laid offshore (when they become fingerlings) they come into the bay with the tide, and then they'll get around the mangroves, etc., that's the reason you find the smaller ones up the HISTORY A RARE BREED: TARPON FISHERMEN Merritt “Babe” Darna
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