The Tarpon or the “Silver King”, as the fish is lovingly referred to, is an awesome fish to fight if you can get him to bite, then hang on for the fight of your life. There are basically three ways to catch a tarpon. The most common is off the flats in a few feet of water, under bridges and for some, in a canal. Canal you say? Why, yes!
The time of year that the tarpon are most plentiful is April thru July. But you can always fish for them a little before or after. The bait normally used depends on where you’re going to fish for one. You will use either mullet, pinfish or small size crabs. If you are around during the worming which usually occurs twice during the high season, you’ll need to fish with a worm because at that time they won’t touch anything else.
When you fish for tarpon on the flats you are fishing in very shallow water, probably not deeper than 5 feet and your fishing with crabs. You can fish with 20lb test or less or fly fish for those who like more of a challenge. You need to find a good spot where the tarpon are known to come through and you can either anchor or poll around in the same general vicinity and just keep an eye out for something that looks like a dark torpedo coming towards you. Tarpon on the flats are very “sensitive”, they will spook at any kind of sound or fast movement so you need to be very quite when they are approaching you. Once you have one in site, you need to cast your crab “gently” a few feet in front of the tarpon so they can see it. If the crab lands to hard on the water you’ll spook the fish and he’ll just take off. Once the crab starts to sink the tarpon should take it and if he does you better HANG on for the fight of your life. If he’s not in the mood to eat your crab he’ll just go around and you’ll have to wait for another to come your way.
Sometimes you’ll encounter one or two tarpons swimming together or if your lucky you’ll have an entire school of 20 or more together. If you encounter a school, DO NOT cast in the middle of the school or you’ll have the school scatter like if a hand grenade was thrown into the middle of the school. You always try to pick the lead tarpon and cast there. When you are hooked up with the tarpon, depending on the size you can either let loose of your anchor and chase him or try to stay where you are and work him to you. I don’t recommend this unless he’s under 50 pounds, you’ll put too much of a strain on yourself and the fish. When the tarpon jumps which is the most awesome site you can ever see, you need to “bow to the king”, which means bow your rod tip down so he doesn’t spit the hook out which is what they are known to do, or cut the line. Once you get him near the boat, you can release him.
Fishing for tarpon under the bridges is another story. You normally anchor close to the pilings with a mullet most preferably, but you can use a pinfish too if they aren’t biting. You’ll use anywhere from 30 to 50lb test with a bobber so you can watch your bait getting nervous when a tarpon approaches. You put your line back as close to the pilings as you can without getting tangled. You’ll see big swirls behind your bait and your bobber will start moving very quickly when there is a tarpon in site. Just patiently wait until it hits, then set the hook, release the anchor and chase that bad boy because HE WILL go under the pilings every which way to try to get away.
Now, last but not least, is fishing for tarpon in a canal. Yep, I know, a little skeptical, but I am witness to the fact that you can catch tarpon in a canal almost on a daily basis if you have the patience for it. The best time to do this is when you’ve come back from a good day of fishing and you have allot of fish to clean. That brings the tarpon to your area right away. Once you’ve got the canal nice and bloodied up, put a piece a skin of whatever it was you were cleaning and send it to the bottom and just wait. Time and again a tarpon will come by and pick it right up, set the hook, and then the fun begins. The tarpons in the canals aren’t as picky as the others. Since you’re on a dock and he’s trying to get out to sea you may need to have a “getaway” boat. I usually jump on my dad’s 10 foot sponge boat and chase him down, usually there are other boats coming into the canal while I’m trying to fight it so there is allot of screaming going on for the boats to get out of the way. One time I hooked a tarpon in the canal that went straight for a boat and almost jumped into their stern. Although, canal tarpon fishing isn’t the best way to catch a tarpon for those “professional tarpon fisherman”, it sure is a hell of allot of fun for us rookies when the wind is blowing over 20 mph and you can’t get out to the flats. They aren’t picky, they don’t spook and the fight is just the same!
So since Tarpon season is coming up give it a try. I’m sure once you’ve caught one you’ll be “hooked”. Good luck!
