My dream fish to catch has always been a tarpon. Now that im a little more expierienced at fishing(if you could call it that) i think im ready to tackle on these silver kings. I’ll be getting a penn fierce 5000 to put on a 7ft med heavy rod that ill spool with 50lb braid by the summer. we have 2 penn reels on xtrra heavy rods that my dad and i would put 50lb or mono on. We really want to catch one, me more than him. i know the best month is in august but when do you guys start your first tarpon fishing in the summer? i know the tarpon fishing around here is not the best compared to other parts of the lowcountry but we would like to fish around charleston. I do wanna make the trip to bulls bay sometime this summer though to catch bull reds and tarpon there just to say i have been there but i would really like to catch tarpon around here without having to drive to edisto or mclellanville(sp?) so my questions are what areas do they frequent the most(not asking for spots just general areas to cruise with the depthfinder to find a different hole or ledge) and what tactics and baits and tackle do you use? do you just cruise around until they start rolling or do you bottom fish em? do the tarpon around here ever get up on the flats? if the poon are rolling can i throw an 8wt at em or just leave it to the heavy duty gear?
There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the mud minnow.
leave fly gear at home. big baits=big fish. i’d use larger that a 5000 series and med heavy rod, we use 8000s with heavy rods but im sure you could get away with it if everything goes right-which never happens. Just go shark fishing and you have a chance of hooking up with a tarpon. Start to show up in low numbers in june, gets better through august/sept. good luck.
strip…strip…FISH ON!
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so my questions are what areas do they frequent the most(not asking for spots just general areas to cruise with the depthfinder to find a different hole or ledge) and what tactics and baits and tackle do you use?
The advice above is good. To target them, fish just like you would for sharks, but skip wire leader and use 80 or 100 mono. Fresh mullet or whiting, large shrimp, or blue crab are all good bait. Mid to late summer is the time. They like inlet mouths, sloughs between sand bars, deep holes, better if you can find a spot with an underground spring, hint, look for deep holes in inland creeks. One thing is for sure, you will catch a lot of sharks while looking for tarpon.
In my experience around here tarpon are where you find them. They might be 10 miles offshore, or 10 miles inshore. I’ve caught them up at the old railroad trestle in Broad River. They are a hard fish to specifically target and most that I’ve caught around here have been by accident. We caught 3 last year along Broad River while red fishing, and lost a few more, all on live shrimp. They weren’t really big ones, the largest one we landed my son caught, where Euhaw Creek meets the Broad River. It was 70 lbs., got 2 others in the same area in a months time, 25 and 40 lbs. They were both in a small creek, and a blast on light tackle!
In late summer it’s common to see them rolling offshore and in the mouth of the sounds, but (my opinion and experience only) rolling tarpon almost never bite, and they will drive you nuts thinkin’ that they might:smiley: I think they are hot, or stressed, or in the huma-huma mode or something, but all that rolling action is usually not feeding fish. They just do that to tick you off:smiley:
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
my top spot map says tarpon are on the other side of bird key and on the snake island flat. i will be ready to try those come july. and do you fish the shallow part or the bottom of the ledge? i heard from different people that ‘‘oh the rolling ones never bite’’ and ''oh most of the ones i caught were rolling. it surely would piss me off to the see those monsters rolling a few feet away from bait ive een soaking for hours. and do you anchor up or drift for them? would they show up on a cheap depth finder? and if im fishing a ledge or hole or something and a big school of mulllet or haden runs by do i have a better chance of drifting with those to catch poon or bull reds? also what depth do they hang out at? are they on a 4 to 6ft ledge or like a 4 to 15ft ledge or something? thanks
There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the mud minnow.
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it surely would piss me off to the see those monsters rolling a few feet away from bait ive een soaking for hours.
It surely does:smiley:I’ve been going down to Boca Grande for the tarpon run the last several years. We got into a huge school in the middle of Charlotte Harbor, there were thousands of large tarpon rolling all around the boat. You could actually touch them they were so close. We tried for hours to get them to bite. Live fish, live crabs, big jigs, big plugs, everything we had in the boat and never got a hookup, except with a few monster sharks. It was frustrating to say the least. We finally gave up on them and left them rolling. Moved out to the beach front and quickly found another school grey hounding along the beach. They took the first bait we threw at them.
Rolling tarpon almost never bite, they aren’t feeding. When they start grey hounding on the surface like dolphins, they are chasing bait and actively feeding.
Almost every one I’ve caught around here has been by accident. We’ve caught them 20 miles offshore while trolling for kings, in the inlet mouths while fishing for sharks and cobia, and in shallow little creeks while fishing for reds. I wouldn’t say they have a preferred depth.
At Boca Grande you can catch them in the pass in 100’ of water, or along the beach in 10’, or in the mangrove creeks in 1’. Ya just never know:wink:
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do you just cruise around until they start rolling or do you bottom fish em?
If I was going to target them specifically I would fish deep holes in the inlet mouths with live fish and crabs. Stagger the baits from the bottom to the top.
Capt. Larry Teuton
alright thanks cracker larry. i guess the only thing better than advice is experience! haha cant wait until summer rolls around! what is the earliest you have ever caught one?
There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the mud minnow.
Around here, probably late June, but that’s earlier than usual. August and Sept. has the best chance.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
Man I have been to Boca Grange during the tarpon run. That place gets crazy! Saw a guy get one up to his boat only to have about 2/3 of it bitten off by a shark (bull I think). That was a pretty awesome sight. We didn’t fish for then as we didn’t have a clue as to how. Did catch a bunch of trout that week.
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Man I have been to Boca Grande during the tarpon run. That place gets crazy!
To put it mildly:smiley: That pass is the wildest place I’ve ever fished! You’ve got about 300 boats, inches apart, all fishing an area the size of a football field, with a 6 kt. current running against a 20 kt wind, making 4’ standing waves. When you hook a fish you have to drag it out of the fleet to fight it, but it’s jumping between boats, over boats and running around boats tangling everybody’s lines. You have to pass rods boat to boat until you get the fish clear and can pull it out, while at the same time there is 10 other people around you hooked up too. So you’ve got about a dozen 150 pound fish jumping between boats and it’s hard to tell whose fish is whose. Dangest thing I’ve ever seen[:0] No, it’s not. The dangest thing was the proliferation of beautiful women in tiny bikinis fighting the fish:sunglasses:
It was something every fisherman should experience once or twice. From now on I’m sticking to the beachfront!
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
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Saw a guy get one up to his boat only to have about 2/3 of it bitten off by a shark (bull I think). That was a pretty awesome sight
The sharks they’ve got down there put ours to shame! Those sharks eat 200 pound tarpon like french fries. Boca Grande is one of the few places in this world that I aint going swimming!
One more
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
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Originally posted by Cracker Larry
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Saw a guy get one up to his boat only to have about 2/3 of it bitten off by a shark (bull I think). That was a pretty awesome sight
The sharks they’ve got down there put ours to shame! Those sharks eat 200 pound tarpon like french fries. Boca Grande is one of the few places in this world that I aint going swimming!
One more
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
sounds like alot of fun! and i really like the hooters boat:smiley: but it looks like its missing something... hmm maybe, girls in bikinis!
There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the mud minnow.