Tarpon in the St. Marks?

Ratred · Post by **Ratred** » February 16th, 2006, 8:39 pm

I was fishing just north of the power plant in the St. Marks last week, landing a bunch of Sheepshead and several rat reds, when I noticed a few certain fish rolling near my boat. They dang sure looked like tarpon, the movement and coloring was the same I saw when I lived down south in the Cocoa area. Now a buddy of mine who has lived here his whole life said they were Carp and not Tarpon. Now I had Carp in a pond near my home in Orlando and I never seen a Carp roll like a Tarpon or grow silver scales. Any truth to my story, just curious.

Post by **bman** » February 16th, 2006, 9:15 pm

We get tarpon but they are usually here during the warmer weather.
There is a lot of activity near Alligator Point and Lanark.
Could they have been Gar?
What does the rest of the group think?

EddieJoe · Post by **EddieJoe** » February 16th, 2006, 9:33 pm

bman wrote:We get tarpon but they are usually here during the warmer weather.
There is a lot of activity near Alligator Point and Lanark.
Could they have been Gar?
What does the rest of the group think?

I don't think tarpon in this weather. Gar maybe.

Post by **birddog** » February 16th, 2006, 9:49 pm

Gar will roll on top when feeding. They look a lot like tarpon.

Post by **Chalk** » February 16th, 2006, 10:04 pm

Probably a gar.....But there are resident tarpon that stay around....a undisclosed BBF.NET member hooked a 3 foot one a few weeks ago between here and there...

Ratred · Post by **Ratred** » February 16th, 2006, 10:21 pm

Well maybe it was a Gar, because I threw everything at it but my anchor. Either way it was cool to see and a great day of fishing. FYI, I took my 4 year old out with me today to the same spot and on his second fishing trip ever, he hooked up with a little 16" Redfish. His grin afterwards was absolutely priceless.

Post by **birddog** » February 16th, 2006, 10:30 pm

Post by **tin can** » February 16th, 2006, 10:39 pm

Ratred wrote: FYI, I took my 4 year old out with me today to the same spot and on his second fishing trip ever, he hooked up with a little 16" Redfish. His grin afterwards was absolutely priceless.

That's what it's all about.

Post by **Charles** » February 17th, 2006, 5:51 pm

I would say, most likely gar. There's quite a few in the Wakulla, and some pretty fair size ones.

Post by **Redfish Jim** » February 17th, 2006, 7:16 pm

I'm guessing gar too.

Seeing a kid catch a fish is about as cool as it gets.

Thanks for the report.