Port A Tarpon

[Bill C]

Despite fairly nasty conditions, the tarpon were present and biting in Port A this past weekend. In about 4 hours of fishing over two nights I managed to jump 7. There were many more strikes missed and I had a difficult time getting hooksets but the action was fast enough that it was still plenty fun.

Previous trips over the past few weeks had not been very successful for tarpon because of the big redfish being so aggressive, so it was fun to finally get back into them.

There hasn't seem to have been much posted from the middle coast lately. Is anybody having any luck fishing for them offshore?

[Curmit]

While we were fishing for sharks from the mansfield jetty the tarpon showed up and a friend managed to hang onto one for 3 jumps before losing it. Tackle failure was the problem so I think he had a chance at the very least of seeing him up close or landing it. I only saw one of the jumps and it looked to be just under 5'.

[Bill C]

I have heard many a guide say that what your friend experienced was the best part of the fight. After that it just gets to be work. In fact, I know a couple of guides that advocate breaking off the tarpon after he quits jumping and going looking for another.

Congratulations to your friend.

[Scott]

Okay, I'm gonna throw my 2 cents in worth about that one. I think any guide that advocates breaking a tarpon off after he quits jumping is down right irresponsible. Granted, most line breaks at a knot; however, the possibility of intentionally leaving a trail of line for the fish to carry around is irresponsible. Hooks take a long time to rust out. Straight hooks will eventually get thrown by a tarpon over time. I've seen this first hand in Boca Grande pass, but leaving a hook, leader and potentially line on a fish intentionally is just wrong. I also do NOT advocate anything less than 30 lb test to intentionally catch tarpon. I think fly fishing with 10 pound tippet etc. is a disservice. No disrespect to Billy Pate and the guys that go after the fish for a record, but there are lots of folks that kill fish because the fight lasts too long. I think you should have tackle on hand to land a fish within an hour. Anything else is putting the fish at undue risk. Just my opinions after doing this for nearly twenty years.

[Bill C]

You make sense.

I never saw a client agree with the theory of the long distance release so I don't know if any the guides ever used it in practice. It may be that they were using the idea to make a point about what they thought was the best part of a fight with a tarpon.