Past Tarpon Tournament winning captains sporting their coral tarpon jackets. From left to right: Matt Mitchell, Chasin’ Poon (2016); John Landry, Doc Ford’s and SportFisha (2012 & 2015); Mark Sparrow, YAM (2017); John McDaniel, Boomer Sooners (2014); and Rhett Dixon, Team Teaser (2013).
The newest tradition of the “Ding” Darling & Doc Ford’s Tarpon Tournament awards the captain of the winning team a pink tarpon jacket.
“It’s kind of like the green Masters jacket,” said Doc Ford’s co-owner Marty Harrity, who started the fun tradition last year.
To celebrate the history of the first documented tarpon caught on a rod-and-reel in “Ding” Darling’s Tarpon Bay in 1885, Doc Ford’s and the “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society-Friends of the Refuge have partnered to host this seventh annual “catch, care, and release” tournament on May 11, 2018.
To illustrate how popular this tournament has become, when registration opened on December 4, 2017 at 8 a.m., it was FULL by 10 a.m.!
If you are interested, please email Sarah Lathrop at [email protected] to be put on the waiting list.
