Tarpon, the Majestic Silver King

Tarpon really are the silver kings of our local coastal waters. Ranging from 50 to 150 pounds, there's probably not a faster runner, harder fighter, or a higher jumper within 100 miles of our shores. Boca Grande Pass is the acknowledged tarpon capital of the world. There's no known place on this earth where tarpon gather in such large numbers to feed. It follows, then, that Boca Grande has been the traditional place to fish for tarpon on the west coast for about a century, now.

The traditional method of tarpon fishing the pass is with 50 to 80 pound revolving spool reels on standup rods, with wire leaders and large break-away lead weights used to get live pass crabs down near the bottom of the two deep holes where most of the fish congregate. The classic tarpon boat is a large sportfishing type. The captain stays at the helm with engines running, barking instructions to the clients that are aimed at keeping the baits from hanging in the rocky bottom 70 feet below. When there is a strike, the captain drives the boat forward quickly, in an attempt to hook the fish and pull it away from the many other boats competing for the small holes. This also helps reduce the chances of a hooked tarpon jumping into someone else's boat. If you get the idea that traditional tarpon fishing is crowded and hectic, you're right. That may be an understatement! It can be downright dangerous.

There's a much better way to fish our waters for tarpon that's only come to the fore in the last decade. Our prime tarpon season is from mid-May through mid-July. During that time tarpon are migrating south to north from the Florida Keys on around the gulf coast for the summer. On a typical summer morning the air is still, the gulf water is like glass, the sun is coming up behind the shoreline, and tarpon can be sightfished right along the beach in 15 to 25 feet of water. The best vehicle for beach fishing tarpon is the flats boat. It's equipped with a poling platform and one to three trolling motors. The technique is to run slowly along the shoreline on the gas motor with all eyes looking west. Tarpon usually travel in schools, or pods, which are easy to spot when the roll on top of the water. Yes, this is sightfishing. When a pod is spotted, the captain runs ahead of the school on the big motor, then lowers trolling motors to make final adjustments to position the boat on an intercept path with the oncoming tarpon. If everything goes right, and the fish don't spook and change course, the baits are put out just in front of the approaching fish. The hits are usually immediate and violent. Tackle for this kind of fishing is either spin or revolving spool with 15 to 20 pound test line spliced to several feet of 80 to 100 test mono shock leader. Rods are usually 6.5 to 7 feet, and hooks are usually 4/0 to 7/0, and must be razor sharp. The bucket sized mouth of a tarpon is lined with rock hard bone, and it takes some doing to get penetration of the hook. The fish is often struck three or four times to try to insure a good hookup.

When the tarpon feels the sting of the hook, you had better be hanging on for dear life, because she's going to take off with all the authority of a top fuel dragster, and jump with all the splendor of a Polaris missle. This is not a suitable fish for the beginner or the faint of heart. An experienced angler may be able to whip a 150 pound tarpon into submission with good tackle in 25 to 30 minutes, where an inexperienced angler may fight the same fish for hours on end, and ultimately lose the fish. The worse part is that the lost fish will probably die. No, tarpon fishing is not high percentage fishing. A typical angler will be lucky to land 1 or 2 fish out of 10 hookups. Probably because of this fact, tarpon sucess is measured in the number of fish jumped. If you jump half dozen tarpon in a morning of fishing, you've had a great day.

I generally try to discourage all but very experienced anglers who understand the risks and rigors of tarpon fishing, and rather encourage them to hone their skills and have their fun on the high numbers of snook I generally catch during that time of year. Most people are much happier catching lots of fish than they are catching one or two. But, if you have you sights set on tarpon they can be fished with live bait, artificial lures, and flyrods. Live baiting with small crabs or pinfish is the easiest way to hookup, and flyfishing tarpon is the ultimate challenge to both captain and angler.

Bottle at Sea Or, call 1-239-628-3522.


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A 60 pound tarpon struggles for freedom on 12 pound gear!

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