DIY Florida Tarpon, Part I

Tarpon on your own?

Yes, it can be done, especially during late winter and spring - but it does take some serious research, exploring, and detective work to put yourself in the right place at the right time with gear that can match the strength, speed and jumping ability of the silver kings. Renowned for their raw power, blistering speed, gills-flared jumping ability - and sometimes fussy feeding habits - these fish are pure muscle and the ultimate challenge for shallow water fishing in south Florida and the Florida Keys. That makes them a great target for Long Islanders in need of a winter hiatus.

While many areas of southern Florida hold smaller resident tarpon throughout the year, larger fish weighing 30-pounds or more tend to migrate from the southernmost Florida Keys and Cuba up the coast beyond Jupiter Inlet on the Atlantic side and Homosassa Bay on the Gulf side. For Long Islander’s looking to tangle with their first do-it-yourself tarpon experiences, however, the odds are best if you stick to the extreme southern end of the mainland and the upper Florida Keys. Figure the waters around Miami as a good bet for mid-winter and early spring action that lasts through April. Access down here does take a little poking around, but South Pointe Park, Bear Cut Bridge, and Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park at the south end of Key Biscayne, are all worth investigating. Also, if you just need to see a few tarpon to get your blood boiling, you can’t go wrong at Miami Beach Marina. No fishing there, but plenty of tarpon to observe in season.

Bryce sending one back after a good fight.

For a late winter reprieve or spring break visit, Key Largo and Islamorada are good bets, as are Redfish Pass and Blind Man’s Pass where they enter Pine Island Sound behind Sanibel and Captiva islands on the Gulf Coast. By April and May, Marathon is tarpon central in the Keys even as catches begin to heat up further along the Gulf Coast in the passes near Tampa between Anna Maria Island, Fort DeSoto Park and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, where the action usually breaks wide open around Mother’s Day and tarpon approaching or even exceeding 200 pounds are caught each year.

One of the great things about tarpon fishing in the Keys, especially, is that tarpon water is fairly accessible. If you have the means to head out with a guide on your first couple of trips, that’s always going to be a good idea as you can get a little firsthand experience and some tutoring on managing these big fish, especially in regard to the end game. If you’d rather go it alone right from the start, however, know that many productive tarpon waters can simply be waded, fished at night from a dock or in a bridge shadow line, or accessed via kayaks or rental boats – and there are no shortages of the latter two options in this region.

Depending on where and how you choose to fish, and your personal preferences for hooking-up, you can cast lures, live-line, soak bait or fly-fish for tarpon just about anywhere you find a few pods - but you’ll likely need different gear and altered approaches for each of these choices.

When sight-fishing the flats, for example,  casting unweighted 6” to 10” skinny soft-plastic offerings like Lunker City Slug-Go Soft Baits, Z-Man XL 8 Soft Jerkbaits and Hogy Original Series Soft Baits is a good opening technique. Look for intersections of deeper channels, where tarpon and other large gamefish can safely and easily transition from shallow to deeper water and back, as being smart starting points. Prominent points and sand bars extending out from the shore or the shallows to reach deeper water can also be hotspots, as can deeper slices around mangrove islands due to current flow and acid erosion that creates moats around these spots – some of which you can actually identify on Google Maps or satellite images.

As you probably suspect, a quiet approach and advantageous casting positions are keys for flats fishing success. If in a boat, especially, you’ll better your odds of success by picking an ambush spot, anchoring, and waiting for the tarpon to find you rather than poling around noisily in unfamiliar waters. If you are lucky enough to spot a few fish coming your way, lead the pack with a cast that lays your offering in front of and slightly beyond the fish. A 5’ to 10’ lead is about right, with a slow walk-the-dog retrieve often triggering an accelerated attack. If that technique fails after a few tries, dropping your bait or lure right on top of your target’s head can inspire ferocious reaction strikes – or send the pack powering off at full speed. Since there is no way to tell beforehand which of these presentations will work best, start with the long lead as it is least likely to spook your targets.

For more info on DYI tarpon fishing, check out Part 2 coming up soon!

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