Trending
After being on the water chasing fins and scales for over half a century, in my mind there's little question that tarpon can be one of the most frustrating fish to target, especially juvenile tarpon. A few days ago in Boca Grande, big tarpon where as thick as fleas breaking the surface in all directions and ignoring our floating, free-lined, pass crabs snacks. Seems romance, not eating, was on their minds.
Just before sun-up this past Wednesday we made cast after cast to rolling canal juveniles, changing lures, colors, even dropping down to 10-pound test leaders, changing retrieve speeds and techniques — nothing, they just ignored us for 30 minutes doing whatever the heck tarpon do, stopped rolling, then simply vanished.
Tarpon tunnel vision where keying on one food source ignoring all other offerings or just simply refusing to eat is nothing new to tarpon anglers and is simply part of the deal with the only solution being paying your dues by putting in time and keep changing up baits and presentations till the magic happens. Returning to Boca the following morning, we still couldn't get a surface bite so we finally put the crabs down into deep water and hooked multiple fish.
Don't overlook Redfish and Captiva passes for your tarpon hunt if you want to get away from the Boca crowd or, try your luck intercepting tarpon moving along the beaches between them. As of right now and after lots of first hand reports, concentrating on the passes is your best bet, especially the big one — Boca Grande.
Point is, if you've had tarpon on your bucket list for years now, it's time to make it happen. Ask a seasoned friend or hire a guide, just don't miss out making lifetime memories challenging a Southwest Florida Silver King.
If you are a visiting angler on your first tarpon hunt, you've obviously come to the right place but make sure you're physically up to the task of a long and determined fight in near Amazonian style heat and humidity with a prehistoric sea creature weighing as much as you and that is strong enough to pull a boat or maybe pull you out of one. If you have pre-existing health issues or in poor condition, you could get yourself in trouble.
Another personal passion — shallow water sharking — is also in full swing this time of year. When you have lots of tarpon, you'll have sharks. To me making lure or fly casts to big sharks right off the back of the boat then watching them rip drag at warp speed, torpedoing across the flats is a sight I never tire of.
As with tarpon, make sure you equip your boat with all the necessary tools to quickly and safely release a shark of any size. Unless you are very experienced handling these very powerful, seemingly made from rubber creatures equipped with a razor mouth, fight the urge to bring one in the boat as very bad things can happen with sharks in the blink of an eye.
A warning worth repeating: Holding that cute little 36-inch shark up by the tail for a vacation picture is a really great way to get rib stitches.
Gloves, long-handled extractors and wire cutters, in-line circle hooks, great caution and common sense all work in your favor.
BTW, when's the last time you checked your emergency medical kit? This may be the most overlooked (or missing completely) item on your boat and sometime in the future, suddenly may be the most important. Take a few minutes this week to check everything out and restock any questionable items.
From 15 to 20 miles out, it's a bottom fish jamboree with various snappers, grunts, sheepshead, Spanish macs and still some permit. Fill up the tanks for red snapper opening today in much deeper water 150 out to 200 feet. Red grouper still reported to be slow.
Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. You can contact him at 239-282-9434 or via email at captgeorget3@aol.com.