Tarpon Fishing. Also Known as "the Silver King"
The first time a 125+ pound silver rocket goes off twenty feet from your boat, with gills flaring, water flying, you'll know what brought you to tarpon fishing. There is nothing like it -- a true big-game fish in a small-tackle environment. And every time it happens thereafter, it will take your breath away.
Getting to Know the Tarpon
Tarpon are found as far south as Costa Rica and French Guiana and northward along the southern Atlantic coast. They are rife in the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Keys where they inhabit estuaries, creeks, canals, saltwater and eelgrass flats, and other various inland saltwater configura1ions. The larger fish roam the outer tidal channels and open waters of the Gulf of Mexico and southern Atlantic. Tarpon appear off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and other southern states.
The tarpon is built like a giant herring, with a deep, compressed body that is Greenish blue on the back and sides, sloping to a silvery belly.
The tarpon's lower jaw hinges out and up, fitting like a scoop over the upper jaw. The tarpon's body is covered with layered armor-like scales one to three inches in diameter, and the throat is protected by a similarly constructed bony plate. The dorsal fin is distinctively elongated.
The silver king will average 85 to 115 pounds, while catches of 40 to 60 pound fish are much more common in shallower waters. The catching on rod and reel of any tarpon over 200 pounds is considered an "event". The world record was a monster 283+ pound Venezuelan tarpon fought to its 1956.
This Tarpon is a prehistoric relic that has become one of saltwater fishing's most sought after prizes. For fight per pound, no other saltwater fish beats the tarpon -- End of story. Only a small fraction of the tarpon hooked on rod and reel are actually landed, for no fish, whether fresh or brackish water, can match the tarpon's tackle-busting power and acrobatics. Not only does the fish leap so swiftly and high -- often hurling itself 10 ft above the water, it can throw the hook before the angler can get the hook set, but its mouth is also plated with tough armor-like jaws that resist penetration of the sharpest hooks.
What to Expect from a Hooked Tarpon
Once this silver destroyer is hooked, however, the angler's challenge has just begun. The tarpon will throw itself in the air four, five, six, or more times, often either spitting the hook or snapping the line to break free, and if still on line, it will peel off on a reel scorching, rail rattling run across the flats like a freight train going full steam downhill. Then, if the trembling angler can exhaust the tarpon and eventually haul it boat side, the fish may still explode in a last series of desperate jumps which may even put it into the boat. If this happens, clear out into the water, and let the tarpon smash up the boat and tackle. It beats what it might do to you!
Local guides are usually mandatory in tarpon expeditions. Tarpon movements differ from one saltwater environment to the next, but they are generally found around the canals and tidal channels that bridge flats, estuaries, and inshore waters to the open ocean. tarpon also wander these shallow lower waters on ebb and flow tides.
Tarpon will usually hit large, silver mullet plugs, needlefish imitations, yellow brown, white, and silver jigs, poppers and bucktail streamers.
A tarpon will take any number of live and dead bait, including crabs, mullet, skimp, catfish, pinfish, and needlefish. Bait is either drifted to sighted schools of tarpon with a float or "balloon" to suspend it in mid-water, or slowly trolled with a stainless steel leader.
When pursuing larger, 100+ pound tarpon on the like of a fly rod, the angler (fisherman to us southern guys) must go to the extremes of heavy fly fishing tackle: a nine- or ten-foot graphite or boron rod and heavy indestructible saltwater fly reels that can carry at least 250 yards of 30 lb-test line.
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