Corn and soybean fields are the last scenery that blows past my SUV as I turn left onto a country road in the heart of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. It’s late August, and humidity hangs in the air as a dragonfly goes kersplat! against my windshield. A tractor rumbles by as I pull over to figure out how I’ve become so lost.
It’s not the backdrop typically associated with tarpon fishing, but that’s what I am here to do.
I sort my bearings and make my way to a remote launch ramp where longtime friend and tarpon devotee Kendall Osborne is rigged and ready with his Dragonfly Emerger, a 16-foot flats skiff that’s perfect for the skinny waters where we’ll hunt for silver kings among marsh-lined bays, guts and creeks.
Osborne has spent the last 16 years deciphering these Virginia waters while learning how to find the tarpon that summer here between July and September. I’ve promised to remain vague about locations and obscure any photos that could potentially reveal his fishing spots.
