Tarpon yes let’s talk about Florida #1 Trash fish, oppsy I meant to say Florida #1 money fish, dang scratch that, I really meant to say Florida Silver King, the #1 game fish.
Ok I guess I should explain, Tarpon is not edible, nor does it make a good mount, so what do you call a fish that you can not eat, or even mount? Trash fish? Even a sail-cat is less of a trash fish, sail-cat are really pretty tasty. So that explains my dig on the trash fish part, money fish is the most correct name as I believe Tarpon account for about 300 million a year in Florida. Game fish Silver king is only when it is on your line.. Then the 150 pounds of bright silver shinning muscle jumping and ripping line off of your reel, at that time it is the Silver king. One of the most beautiful fish there is.
Now that I over explained myself I will get to the point, If you try to remember that Tarpon are just a fish while trying to hook one, you will have much better success, Live bait, dead bait, they are just wanting a meal. If you want to play with Tarpon don’t over think it.
Last week, the storms had pushed most of them out into the gulf. Yes, they are afraid of lightening. Let’s add wuss fish to their name list. So right now during the day, best bet is out deep. But here is the weird part, tarpon are a wuss when it comes to lightening, but they are not afraid of the dark. Darkness seem to empower them. During our cat-fish, sting ray & shark tournament which is an over night tournament, lots of Tarpon were hooked. They are all through the inter coastal, around the bridges in the deep holes of the Harbor.
Last Saturday night while trying to catch sting-rays and Sharks in the middle of the Harbor several teams had to put up with these Tarpon hitting their lines and trying to get rid of them was a problem at the Pirate Harbor hole I think they had seven tarpon in their way of catching Sting rays.
A lot of Tarpon were hooked near Placida after midnight while trying to catch Cat-fish, yes dead bait, live bait did not matter. The tarpon were in the way of real fishing all night. So if you want to play with these nuisance fish try after dark, pick a bridge a hole.
Hey if a wuss like a Tarpon can be out playing in the dark, why aren’t you, what are you afraid of ??
A long winded way of saying the tarpon fishing at night is great right now. But just this sentence would have been boring 🙂
Writing with a smirk, another man’s treasure….
Fishin’ Frank