Angler wanted tarpon, and did he ever get one

Malcolm Condie went to Florida in July to go tarpon fishing with his brother-in-law in Cape Coral. He struck out.

Last Wednesday, Condie went king mackerel fishing at the Sea View Fishing Pier on Topsail Island and landed his first-ever tarpon, a 193-pound, 5-ounce behemoth that is expected to be certified as the state record.

"You go down to the tarpon capital of the world and not catch one and then come back to North Carolina and catch a state record," Condie said.

Go figure.

Condie, who said he averages about a king a year from the piers, used a jumping mullet weighing more than a pound to hook the tarpon. That launched an hour-long fight that started 30 yards off the end of the pier, reached about 400 yards into the sea and ended on the beach.

The fish hit at about 12:30 p.m.

"Nobody saw it when it actually hit," the Newport resident said by telephone from his job as operations manager at Franklin Baking Co. in Morehead City. "It was running but not screaming [the reel's drag] like a king. We were thinking it was a big shark, but it wasn't shaking its head like a shark. I said 'I'm just going to play it like a real fish.' "

Condie was aided by other anglers, who helped clear lines and eventually helped secure the fish with rope gaffs.

"I could not have landed that fish by myself," Condie, 49, said. "It's a team effort out there."

Once the fish was beached, Condie and three helpers loaded it into his pickup truck, and Condie hauled it to East Coast Sports, where Chris Medlin, store owner and fishing guide, certified the weight and contacted the Department of Marine Fisheries for the proper paperwork.

"I had no idea it was a state record," Condie said.

The current state-record tarpon was landed on the Bogue Inlet Pier in Emerald Isle on Sept. 7, 2005. It was caught by Jesse Lockowitz of Cape Carteret and weighed 175 pounds.

Condie plans on having a fiberglass mount made of his fish, which was 89 inches long and had a 42-inch girth. He also plans to keep fishing from piers, especially the Sea View Pier, where he has a season pass.

"I used to be a season-pass holder at Sportsman's Pier. Guess what? It's gone now," he lamented. "I mostly do my stuff from shore, and mostly from piers."

Condie said that he's looking forward to October and the fall run of "smoker kings." Until then, his tarpon will have to suffice.