Tarpon - Leaping silver sides!
As many tarpon as I have caught over the years, none was like the one we caught at the mouth of the ST Johns River a number of years ago. Tarpon fishing was never designed to be like this
Mention tarpon fishing and visions of fly rods and saltwater flats skiffs come to most people's mind. No one ever thinks about trolling when you mention tarpon, at least no one with any sense If you've read many of my past features you will know that sometimes my fishing exploits are a little different!
As soon as we anchored up, we began cutting dead pogies into chunks and letting them float down current. While the chum is drifting down current, we put several live pogies out the back of the boat, one or two free lining on the surface, and two of them on the bottom. The idea here is for roaming tarpon to find the chum line, follow it up current and encounter the live baits.
Here's an article that ran a few years back in the Florida Times Union about a tarpon my son and I happened upon. We only got one good picture of him, though, before releasing him.
By-catch from shrimp boats can be anything from baitfish to crabs to most any kind of fish that happens to get caught up in the shrimp net. As they clean their decks, this by-catch forms a huge chum line of dead fish, fish parts, and fish oil on the surface. It’s this line that draws the interest of a number of fish this time of year, more specifically, tarpon. It also draws the attention of savvy anglers looking for a great morning of fishing.
Another nice description of fishing for the Silver King.
This fish won a tournament for somebody. Too bad it couldn't have been released.
A nice description of the Florida Tarpon spring migration.
A description of the tarpon from the State of Florida Marine Fisheries.
Part one of a four part series on Tarpon Fishing by guide Captain Robert McCue. The other three parts are linked on this page.
When and where to catch Tarpon around Sarasota.
