Fishing from a dock is generally a relaxing pastime, unless you happen to be using your hand as bait and know there are giant, voracious fish lurking just beneath the surface. The accompanying footage shows a Florida man, identified as Ryan Reynolds, wresting with what looks like a large tarpon after the giant fish had inhaled much of his right arm. He quickly rams his left arm through its gills and the struggle ensues. The tarpon nearly drags Reynolds into the water before he manages to rise to his feet and hoist his quarry onto the dock. However, the tarpon ultimate flops back into the water.
Tarpon, in some locations, are known to gather near docks because humans toss them food. One of these locations is a place called Robbie’s Pier in Islamorada, Fla., which is where this footage may have been captured.
If the footage looks somewhat familiar, perhaps because this same technique, called noodling, is used to catch giant catfish holed up in underwater caves. But noodling is practiced from the water, not from neighborhood docks.
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