Episode 145: Earle Waters - 80's in Homosassa

I fished the fabled Homosassa flats for a few years in the late eighties, before it was obvious I couldn’t get much better at this game because of the lack of fish. Sure, they came and went—big ones too—and great records were caught a few years after, but I wasn’t fishing for records. I wanted to be around the best anglers and see what this big tarpon house was all about. Some of the famous names were still there, like Billy Pate and Tom Evans, and Doparik, of course. I stayed in Bayport, where there were a number of rooms all in a line. This is where the guys I gravitated to took residence for the month of May. All the boats would be lined up, with their batteries charging after the long days of fishing. I loved every second of the tarpon pulse that you could feel in the air. I wanted to meet everyone and ask every question I had. There was a name that I heard often but never met: Earl Waters! I read everything I could about this tarpon fever that had a hold of me. Earl was one tha...