Tarpon Fishing

Megalops on the Move

It's June and time is wasting if you want to tame a tarpon. Things started popping last month, and even the month before that on some of the many stages that tarpon appear on. On every stage, it's a different show-you can't begin to describe tarpon fishing in a singular sense. There is no one way, there is no best place. This is a Texas to Florida to Carolina thing. A livebait tIt's June and time is wasting if you want to tame a tarpon. Things started popping last month, and even the month before that on some of the many stages that tarpon appear on. On every stage, it's a different show-you can't begin to describe tarpon fishing in a singular sense. There is no one way, there is no best place. This is a Texas to Florida to Carolina thing. A livebait thing as much as a fly-flinging thing. Whether you've been counting the days, or just got the bug to finally try it, tarpon fishing will put you on the edge of your seat, and quite literally, in places where big fish are played from big boats. There's a tarpon in the mix for every angler's taste. Check out Shallow Water Angler's rundown on summer tarpon fishing, and get out there before the curtain falls. hing as much as a fly-flinging thing. Whether you've been counting the days, or just got the bug to finally try it, tarpon fishing will put you on the edge of your seat, and quite literally, in places where big fish are played from big boats. There's a tarpon in the mix for every angler's taste. Check out Shallow Water Angler's rundown on summer tarpon fishing, and get out there before the curtain falls. By Shallow Water Angler Staff

Feast Your Eyes

This is the glamorous tarpon fishing you see in the high-gloss coffee table books. Arguably the most visual and challenging, it can also be ego-bruising, particularly when you're less than proficient with your spanking-new fly tackle.

When the water warms to the magic mid 70s, tarpon stream into the shallows on both the Gulf and Atlantic side of the Florida Keys and Miami's Biscayne Bay. Similar shallow-water game is had in other Florida locations such as the famed Homosassa flats, and to a lesser degree, over light-bottom, bayside shoals as far north as the Florida Panhandle. Wherever migrating tarpon schools venture over shallow bottom, they can be stalked and cast to with everything from specialized flies resembling shrimp, crabs or baitfish, to plugs and live baits.

Early in the season, say late March (if winter's mild) until early May, takers are more common-they've seen less pressure-and by late June can be quite uncooperative, particularly in hard-hit sectors of their oceanside routes in the upper to middle Keys. Common sense tells you that weekend boat traffic running helter-skelter puts poons on edge. Quieter weekdays are a better option, or at least relatively remote corners that do not get hammered.

First light sees those high and happy rolling schools, and that's when a floating fly line will suffice. Later, the fish cruise a bit deeper and faster, calling for a clear, slow-sinking line. Poling is still practiced on the flats, otherwise anglers stake their skiffs in established tarpon travel routes to await their shots. Electrics can be used to position for a cast, though chasing a school from the side or behind is a waste of time.

Fly tackle-wise, let your experience, and size of the fish, determine whether you'll go light or heavy. For migrating adults in the 70- to 100-pound class, light in fly would be a 10-weight; most veterans prefer an 11-weight, and others stick with their trusty 12s. Baby tarpon, those in the 10- to 50-pound class, are usually the best biters of the bunch. Summer finds them in backcountry basins ("lakes") and flats of Florida Bay, most shallow bayside shorelines, and estuarine river- and creekmouths from central Florida south. All of which can be sight fished, particularly when rolling at first light.

Consider the time-honored code of tarpon fly selection: "light over light bottom, dark over dark," but the call is yours. The big guns have gone crazy for "The Toad," but whatever you tie on, strive to keep it in the fish's face. The take can be delicate. The battle is not. Eat your Wheaties!

-Mike Conner

Passes and Inlets

It's a bit like bottom fishing and a bit like bumper boats.

Classic pass tarpon fishing means Florida's Boca Grande, specifically the 70-foot hole south of the lighthouse. Here rugged inboard cruisers jostle for space with everything from flats skiffs to towering sportfishers. It's as much a boat show as a fishing hole, some days. Everyone's drifting and fishing baits or jigs near bottom on 50- to 80-pound tackle. Drags are screwed down tight, and a lot of boats sport fighting chairs.

May, June and July are the three prime months when mature tarpon, 70 to 200 pounds, stack up here. As water temps warm, the fish come for a seafood buffet of crabs and baitfish sucked seaward on strong outgoing tides. Apparently, spawning is another draw, says Aaron Adams, director of research for Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited.

"Late in the day, around the new or full moon, you can get large groups of fish all of a sudden burst out of the pass heading offshore at a good clip," Adams said. "Some guides have followed those fish five, seven miles, then turned around because it got dark. But the fish keep going. One theory is there's a spawning location, maybe 100 miles or more off the Gulf Coast of Florida."

This pattern is duplicated at Egmont Channel, the entrance to Tampa Bay. Similar bodies of tarpon show at a handful of other deepwater passes along Gulf and lower Atlantic coastlines. Whether they come to forage or spawn-and whether certain fish instinctively home in on specific watersheds-are questions currently under study, said Adams. The entrances to Apalachicola and Mobile Bays certainly attract tarpon, as do the mangrove rivers of the Florida Everglades. The St. Johns and St. Marys rivers, on the east coast of Florida, also have fish in summer, albeit mostly around beachfront pogy pods.

Not all pass fishing is a summertime affair. In winter, tarpon hole up in Government Cut, Miami, where near-tropical latitude keeps water temps close to the favored 70-plus-degree range. Here, live shrimp is the featured dish. Some nights big tarpon come right to the surface to pop shrimp-quite of few of them carrying a 5/0 hook through the horn.

-Jeff Weakley

Beach Battles

Beaches are the great tarpon equalizer. Don't want to be one of a hundred boats jockeying for position over that pod of inlet tarpon? Miles of adjacent shoreline offer migrating tarpon-and tarpon anglers-room to spread out and relax a bit. Don't want to mess with the boat at all? Hoof it down to the surf. You might discover your own private school of big, hungry tarpon, milling around like carp yards off the sand, anxious to inhale a jig, surface plug or baitfish fly pattern.

Tarpon track rising water temperature curves and bait schools north from wintering grounds in the Keys. Seventy-eight degrees seems to be the magic common denominator in delivering tarpon to beaches from Pensacola to Jacksonville. Methods of catching beach tarpon are as diverse as Florida's lengthy shoreline.

Tarpon bound for famed Boca Grande first pass Southwest Florida beaches. Shallow, sandy bottom off Keewaydin Island, Wiggins Pass and Doctors Pass consistently holds roving schools. Search out diving birds that mark threadfin herring and probable tarpon. Herring under a cork or cutbait on the bottom is favored here, as is chumming, so plan on sharing with sharks.

Along Florida's east central Atlantic and west central Gulf coast, northbound tarpon roll just off the first reefline. Minimize use of outboards and even electric motors, and better yet, position your boat well in front of traveling schools, shut down, and wait quietly for them to get close enough to launch a live bait, crab, plug or swimbait. You won't be the only boat plying these fish some days, so play polite if someone else finds the school first-no cutting in.

Atlantic surfcasters also stalk these fish on foot; long-casting plugs are the ticket here, unless glass minnows (small bay anchovies) are pinned to the sand. Then, flyrodders score, too. Not many are landed. That's okay-jump-offs count in tarpon surf fishing. Farther north, same game, different rules. Menhaden-pogy in northeast Florida vernacular-rule here. Drift or anchor. Anticipation grows as tarpon navigate their way up a surface chumline of air-inflated pogies, right to the stern, until they find the floater sporting the circle hook.

-Jerry McBride

Tarpon in Hell

Break out the bug spray and the lighter tackle. In summer, juvenile tarpon thrive in fetid canals lined with ghoulish mangroves teeming with biting insects. If Dante had ever seen such mangrove creeks or experienced no-see-ums, he would have created circle of hell for coastal polluters much like the best places to play with baby tarpon. Of course, the polluters would have been deprived of fishing tackle, and hopefully, bug dope and sunscreen. Don't forget those items, and plenty of water.

Tarpon evolved with capacity to take oxygen from the air. Tiny capillaries on their swim bladders perform this function. Even though they can breathe air, they will be friskiest early and late, or at night, when the water is coolest and holds the most oxygen.

A general rule is to use soft-landing flies or lures in shallower creeks, canals and ditches, where tarpon can be spooky. If they are happy, they'll make slow, lazy rolls. Then, unweighted streamers such as small Deceiver, Sea-Ducer or Muddler patterns are good, as are soft-plastic shrimp and small unweighted jerkbaits. In deeper ditches, where fish "tail-kick" after rolling, throw something that plunges to the bottom. The fish will eat near bottom. The strike probably will be a soft "thump." Lures such as leadhead swimbaits and flies such as heavy Clouser Minnows are effective. Live bait rarely fails, but then again, we're talking tarpon.

-Terry Gibson

Bridge Over Tarpon Waters

Catching tarpon at bridges can't be called a game of finesse; it's about certainties, patience and force.

The fish are either there or they're not, and you can see them plainly or mark them on your finder. They'll either eat or they won't eat, and you can't change that (even if you bring live mullet to entice them). When you do hook up, they can beat you to the bridge pilings where they can break you off. Your captain must have quick, cat-like reflexes to get your boat off anchor on the quick-release line so that you can follow the fight away from the bridges, out of the channels, onto the nearby flats, where you have a chance at a release. That is, if you can beat the tarpon before the bulls and hammerheads come and leave the fish that you love cut into two pieces.

It's either do or die, from start to finish.

But then, bridge fishing has its subtleties, as well. It takes patient waiting, sometimes for hours, for the change in current to start the bite before all hell breaks loose. It takes testing to find that depth where the finicky brutes will take a bait, before one will try to rip the rod from your arms, and your arms from your body. The bridge scene instills the camaraderie of teamwork among your crew. It offers the beauty of the sunrises, sunsets and moonlit nights in the spring and summer when the fishing turns on. And of course, it gives the singular experience of feeling the awesome power of a big tarpon firsthand, and at close range, so that you know forever what Megalops atlanticus really is.

-David Conway

"Low country" Tarpon

Tarpon fishing in Low Country (Georgia and South Carolina) can be exceptional during the summer months. The fish will show along the Georgia coast late May and peak mid-June, and in South Carolina, tarpon arrive in fishable numbers by late June.

Out of St. Simons, Georgia, tarpon run the beach around Jekyll Island, primarily along the many shoals and bars that run out into the ocean. One drill is to anchor and soak live and dead menhaden, both on the bottom and freelined shallower, or under a popping cork. At times you can sight cast to Georgia beach tarpon with either fly or heavy spinning tackle. Small tides and light winds are best, because the water is clearer and tarpon easier to see. Swimbaits and plugs will produce nice fish, especially those that are daisy chaining.

In South Carolina, menhaden start showing up as the water approaches 80 degrees, and tarpon are in hot pursuit. Fish can arrive in early June but best numbers are to be expected in late June and early July. Again, calm days and small tides are the ticket. During September and early October the roe mullet migrate along the south Atlantic Coast, and large schools of tarpon follow.

Finding the tarpon involves setting up where the most bait washes through the inlets, jetties or beachfronts in water anywhere from four to 15 feet. Livebait fishing is most productive. Many of these fish are in the 100- to 140-pound range, so tackle up sensibly to leader them as quick as possible, before you exhaust the fish or yourself, or a shark takes a swipe. A good outfit would be something in the 20- to 30-pound class, rigged with a 7-foot leader of 100-pound-test and a 13/0 circle hook. As far as fly rods go, a 12-weight with intermediate line is sufficient. Throw large baitfish patterns. I have also found a fast-sinking line can be good for tarpon along the beaches. Three hundred fifty to 450 grains will get the fly down and in their face fast.

-Scott Wagner

"En-Gulfing" Strikes

Central Gulf Coast anglers are all abuzz when the first tarpon show along beaches around Orange Beach in southeastern Alabama. Initial reports are usually from the fishing piers or from cobia anglers spotting a school or two moving west in mid-June. During this early run, anglers run the beaches in search of the schools, setup in their path and then cast live pinfish or mullet in front of the fish. The Alabama state fish then sets up shop in the estuary of Mobile Bay and the Mississippi Sound.

Beginning late June or early July, most Mobile Bay tarpon are caught near the mouth of the Bay at Navy Cove. Chumming while fishing with fresh, dead menhaden or live, large croakers or pinfish fires up the tarpon bite, with regular interruptions from jack crevalle and blacktip sharks. By August and early September many tarpon are caught farther up the bay around the Point Clear area using the same technique.

Migrating tarpon are also landed regularly along the Mississippi barrier islands. The West Delta Block in southern Louisiana has also gained fame as a tarpon hotspot. The preferred technique here is to troll a spread of those funny looking lures called Coon Pops, essentially a lead jighead "soft wired" to a circle hook, adorned with rubber tail. When a tarpon jumps, the head is thrown free, decreasing the chances of the fish tossing the hook. A close eye is kept on the bottom machine for the huge schools, and the lure is fished at that depth.

-Bobby Abruscato

Lone Star Leapers

There was a time when people from all over came to Texas to sample what was once a spectacular tarpon fishery. While some shine has worn off the fishery, schools of migrating tarpon can still be found cruising the nearshore waters of Texas.

For dedicated anglers, a tarpon fishery still exists primarily along the beachfront near the passes out to 40 to 50 feet. Slick days are best for spotting fish at the surface, where they often shadow bait pods. Though big conventional rods and reels, circle hooks and dead bait are standard for this pursuit, more Texas anglers are gearing up with lighter tackle and getting into casting position via electric motor. When the fish are actively feeding, they're easy to work. However, if too many anglers mistakenly start up their outboards to follow fish on the move, that only drives them deep, or farther offshore.

The first of the migrating schools usually arrive off South Padre Island in early June and slowly work their way north along the Texas coastline. Eventually they make it to the mouth of the Mississippi River where it is believed they mingle with migrating schools from Florida, sometime in August. Early fall, they reverse their steps giving Texas anglers a second shot at hooking up with a silver king.

Fly casters have found dependable tarpon fishing success by working the jetty rocks for smaller tarpon at Port Aransas, Port Mansfield and Port Isabel. Some believe that these smaller fish are resident fish and perhaps the beginning of a future generation of Texas tarpon.