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First time Tarpon fishing. Last week I had been talking to the guys on the fly fishing thread about catching them on a fly, so that was my plan for the weekend. Was out on the water both days at 6:30am. Got in place and started fishing by 7:00am. Immediately started seeing them roll all around me. As quickly and quietly as possibly got the boat and my gear situated to fish easy. So with rod in hand, I'd wait for the roll then cast, wait for the roll then cast. I threw various flies, 4" gulp shrimp, and free-lined live pin fish at them; Leading them a good ways as to not spook'em. Tried different tactics like letting the bait just sit, jigging it, swimming it, etc... nothing. I was even careful about not using swivels and extra heavy leader in case they could see it. I simply tied line to line then to a hook. ????

A HUGE one rolled about 20 feet from the boat and I swear his mouth was the size of a basketball! Man, you talk about exciting! To see those big fish and to know I may actually jump one.... intense!

The water was very calm in the mornings and things were very "still", maybe they were just high pressured and very spooky. Or, maybe I wasn't as quiet as I thought I was. Either way I had a great time and I couldn't have asked for better conditions and/or opportunity. They hung around the area almost all day each day.

Half the battle is finding them right?!

Oh, also saw a porpoise try to get one, that was cool. He was either just messing with it or trying to eat it, don't know. POW, airborne tarpon gets away!

If anyone can offer some insight as to what went wrong per say, or something I should have done differently, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks for the report. It sounds a lot like my tarpon fishing this past weekend. The tarpon seemed to have major case of lockjaw.

Talltails wrote:Thanks for the report. It sounds a lot like my tarpon fishing this past weekend. The tarpon seemed to have major case of lockjaw.

Yea I fished both Friday and Saturday, i saw tons of fish but couldn't get them to eat. I dont know what was up with them.

Sounds like you had the same luck most people did last week. I heard a lot of lock jaw reports too. Although, I did have a friend jump one and boat one at Lanark on Sunday, using a live pinfish.

Thanks for sharing Koenig. Never been tarpon fishing, but can imagine it's a blast. Two, large tarpon the Shell Island Fish Camp acting like birds at the fishing cleaning station. Just waiting for the next carcass.

Don't sweat it! I had many, many tarpon (saw 2 separate schools of at least 100 daisy chaining and feeding for all around the boat) and couldn't get a bite on the following rigs (The biggest Zara Spook, The biggest Chug Bug, Pilchard imititation fly, Spro Jig, Spro Jig with Berkely Gulp Jerk Bait 5", Spro Jig with 6" curly tail jig, 12" live ladyfish, 4"Berkeley Crab and 4" Gulp shrimp on a jig head. This isn't the first time either. This isn't the first time I have emptied out the bag of tricks and come up empty handed. Sometimes, they are just plain skittish. The times I have hooked up were low light conditions and/ or maximum current flow.

Maybe I will stick to Cobia, Redfish, and Sharks??? I have caught several small ones (<50lbs) down south but never a big one. The big ones either ignore me or throw the hook on the first or 2nd jump.

Keep at it. You will get one eventually. Good luck.

Supa, I think I heard you buddy hollerin WOOHOO Tarpon on! Then I saw him jump. What's funny is I had been out there for several hours when this guy pulls in line and a few minutes later hooks up! Guess it just happens like that some times.... Glad someone got some poon action.

Another thought, the tide swings were not very big so that falls in line with Sharkman's statement about max current flow.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, nice to know I wasn't the only one havin some trouble.

Koenig wrote:Supa, I think I heard you buddy hollerin WOOHOO Tarpon on! Then I saw him jump. What's funny is I had been out there for several hours when this guy pulls in line and a few minutes later hooks up! Guess it just happens like that some times.... Glad someone got some poon action.

Another thought, the tide swings were not very big so that falls in line with Sharkman's statement about max current flow.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, nice to know I wasn't the only one havin some trouble.

That's funny, that was probably us, he was pretty excited.

If it was two people on the boat and two wading the reef it was.

I think for the weekend we had two jumped and one to the boat.

I also don't really remember seeing any boats nearby, I always keep a good distance and stay downline.

One thing I did have them doing was staying off the reef a good bit, so maybe those fish were a little more willing to eat.

As far as lockjaw went, they were really shy earlier in the week. Probably had two eat a fly out of 20 that should have.

Yep that was yall. I was that single fisher in the jon boat just to your west. No worries, yall weren't that close. I chuckled when I heard him holler, thought to myself: yeah, I'd prolly be hollerin like that too! So you got a bite on fly, did you get a bite on anything else?

Question for the Tarpon gurus: When using a Gulp shrimp or something like it, should I jig it or just let it sit and wait for them to pick it up?

I was out there Sunday too I was fishing near the cut through east of Bird island. I had the same results as you all, nothing. We were throwing 2 different storm jigs a mullet pattern and a grayish pattern no bites. Plenty spotted, we saw one come completely out of the water twice it had to be over 120 lbs. I guess it was trying to grab something. I got out there about 7:30 and about 10:30 we decided to go to the other side of the reef for red fish before the tide got to high and I am glad we did they were in there pretty thick. I heard some guy talking to a guy in a kayak and I thought I heard somebody say they saw a cobia. But I must have went in before the hootin and hollerin.

Koenig wrote:Yep that was yall. I was that single fisher in the jon boat just to your west. No worries, yall weren't that close. I chuckled when I heard him holler, thought to myself: yeah, I'd prolly be hollerin like that too! So you got a bite on fly, did you get a bite on anything else?

Question for the Tarpon gurus: When using a Gulp shrimp or something like it, should I jig it or just let it sit and wait for them to pick it up?

Man I'm really sorry, sounds like we did jump ahead of you in line - I honestly dont remember doing that, I do remember a boat to the east but not west, maybe I didn't think you were after Tarpon. Or maybe it was the

Anyways hope we were at least far enough off the reef not to interfere.

I was flyfishing earlier in the week, he was just throwing pinfish Sat & Sun.

As for gulp, I don't ever use it but from experience flyfishing for them, they don't like something that bounces up and down.

I just got a report from a buddy they were very active today and willing to eat.

Like I said, no worries. I really didn't think anything of it. There is plenty of water and plenty of fish out there. My fishing panties don't get bunched that easily.

Unfortunately I won't be able to get out there for a little while so yall catch'em up and write about it so I can live vicariously.

So if they don't like the up and down, then what do you do with the fly, just strip it or let it sit?