Fishing is mysterious — and that’s part of the magic.
As if to prove this, about a week and a half ago, a very large southern fish was caught from a beach on Cape Cod.
It was a tarpon, measuring more than five feet, probably weighing a hundred pounds. It was landed from a Mashpee beach, by a fisher who was going for sharks at night.
Tarpon are one of Florida’s prized game fish. So what’s a 5-foot specimen doing on a hook in Mashpee? Turns out, there's a precedent.
Kevin Blinkoff of On The Water joins us to talk about "strange visitors" — fish who don't belong here, who occasionally show up.
While warming oceans may have a role in these recent incidents, strange visitors have a long history of appearing. Of course, before there were cell phones, such fish were only occasionally documented. Many simply became wild fish stories, more doubted than not.
The historical record does include a 5-foot tarpon found in Provincetown harbor back in 1915.
We've got more on strange visitors, and a roundup of the week's fishing action, in this week's Fishing News. Give it a listen.