Tarpon hunting gives solace to recovering addict

Hours wrestling a 200-pound tarpon isn’t everyone’s idea of peace, but it is Jill Sanders’.

Because when you’re a recovering addict, keeping busy helps.

“I don’t have any bad things going on in my life right now, but I want to always reflect on the past and when I do that I get into a dark place and fishing brings me out of it,” Sanders said.

The Kentucky native is in recovery from heroin addiction.

“I knew that if I didn’t do something I was going to die,” Sanders said. 

In 2020 she packed her things and headed for Florida.

“I packed up a $200 camper I found, a pop up camper, with what I could and hit the road,” Sanders said.

With no final destination in mind, she stopped all along the Gulf Coast before finding Fort Myers Beach. 

“When I came across the bridge for the first time, I knew I was home,” Sanders said. “It never felt like home even with my family, like you never felt that sense of comfort. As soon as I hit the bridge, I felt it.”

She learned how to tarpon hunt and found another sense of family when she joined the Fort Myers Beach Tarpon Hunters Club.

“They’re incredible to watch and they’re incredible to catch and they’re so much fun,” Sanders said.

In 2023 Jill caught ten tarpon, making her the club’s angler of the year.

She’s followed closely by Mary Laser marking the first time in the club’s 60 year history that its top two anglers are women.

“I think it’s great,” Laser said. “It gives me a feeling of triumph to know that I can do that and enjoy it and have fun with it.”

Two ladies grateful for the sport, the meaning and the healing it brings to their lives.

“This place, fishing and tarpon fishing, dancing on the water is absolutely the most incredible, beautiful thing you will ever see in your life and I would go out every day if I could,” Sanders said.

When Jill’s not on the water she’s working on her art, another hobby she picked up when she started over in SWFL.