Oil on canvas

36" x 48"

SOLD

Now this looks like fun! Imagine the excitement when all these old wooden inboards take off at the sound of the gun on their way to catching Tarpon, one of the most exciting species of game fish in the world because of their jumping abilitiy when hooked. The flags in the reference photo seemed to indicate that this was the way of keeping track of who was in the event. I thought they should be red. All the rods were laying in the boats, so I assume no one had thought of pole holders in those days. When I painted this scene I chose to put the foreground in shadow to emphasize the boats at full throttle taking off about as close together as safety would allow. In those days, everyone wore large hats and long sleeved white clothing to block the sun. Unfortunately, the Tarpon Rodeo was discontinued when the species fell to the pressure of overfishing and destruction of their upriver spawning grounds. I hear they are making a come-back. I had one on my line a couple of years ago fishing the reefs on the South side of Mud Island.