# Tarpon in Caney Creek



## hilton

Anyone hear of the thousands of juvenile tarpon in Caney Creek last week?

Creek was full of 14" tarpon, even way up by the bridge.

Pretty cool - been down there all my life and had never seen/heard of this before - I did catch a small tarpon in the creek when I was a kid, but it was a solitary incident.


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## Bruce J

That would be cool if some decided to become residents and put on a few pounds.


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## dpeterson

*Thats great news*

for us tarpon obsessed fishermen. Some rumors of juvvies being caught in the old sand pits in the crystal beach area. some of the pits have channels to the icw. Of course the tarpon usually spend their early years in these kinds of environments.


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## Trouthappy

I don't suppose the state could use a few of those for the hatchery. Probably expensive, raising tarpon and feeding them every day.


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## DA REEL DADDY

A couple of years ago I was fishing at night on the south side of the bridge. I don't know what I hooked, but it strip a lot of line out of my reel real violent like and made two huge jumps before throwing my lure. When it hit the water it sounded like a big belly flop. I've always wonderedâ€‹ if that as a small tarpon, but figured it was either a nice trout or a snook.


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## pocjetty

Trouthappy said:


> I don't suppose the state could use a few of those for the hatchery. Probably expensive, raising tarpon and feeding them every day.


Hart Stillwell's dream. Somewhere Hart's raising a glass to you - and then knocking it back.


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## Trouthappy

pocjetty said:


> Hart Stillwell's dream. Somewhere Hart's raising a glass to you - and then knocking it back.


I'll raise a toast to Hart this very minute...

This past winter must have been mild enough for local tarpon to stay. They sure won't tolerate a big freeze. The 3-foot tarpon I donated to the Flower Bluff hatchery in 1987 died when the '89 freeze hit, and he was indoors, if memory serves. They lost electricity and heating, or some such...


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## Scott A

Trouthappy said:


> I don't suppose the state could use a few of those for the hatchery. Probably expensive, raising tarpon and feeding them every day.


Yea, too long to get them to breeding age and no point in trying anyway. All efforts at spawning tarpon in captivity have been a bust. Some guy in South America claimed he did it in the 1980's but after lots of work, nobody has repeated it. Our tagging has provided a window into why - the tags show females diving deep to around 600+ feet during spawning. The pressure likely has something to do with egg maturity etc. Mother Nature still has lot left to show us about tarpon.


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## dpeterson

*So maybe we need to tag*

some of these candy creek juvvies and see if we catch any some day. I got some tags from the Project Tarpon tournaments, if its ok to use them?


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## southpaw

Pretty crazy to hear but not all that surprising. Juvenile tarpon can be found far from the bays in feeder creeks and rivers. They're an amazingly hardy fish and it's good to hear that numbers are being reported in the GBC.



dpeterson said:


> some of these candy creek juvvies and see if we catch any some day. I got some tags from the Project Tarpon tournaments, if its ok to use them?


I wouldn't think it'd be a bad idea, but I have no idea how long a tag would stay in a juvenile fish since they're growing rapidly. If you put it in a juvenile fish, that tag could fall out long before that fish ever starts migrating.


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## shingleman

*Tarpon*

We have a place on Caney about half a mile south of the first bridge. Memorial weekend we indeed were catching small tarpon, 4-5 up to 17" in length. All on live shrimp under corks letting the kids fish. Was really cool seeing them and surprising with the nonstop boat and jet ski traffic. Made a trip back this past weekend to do the same and nothing.

First ones we've caught in the 4 years of buying the place. Talked to some guys north of the bridge fishing a little creek and told me they have caught them for years.


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## Meadowlark

shingleman said:


> We have a place on Caney about half a mile south of the first bridge. Memorial weekend we indeed were catching small tarpon, 4-5 up to 17" in length. All on live shrimp under corks letting the kids fish. Was really cool seeing them and surprising with the nonstop boat and jet ski traffic. Made a trip back this past weekend to do the same and nothing.
> 
> First ones we've caught in the 4 years of buying the place. Talked to some guys north of the bridge fishing a little creek and told me they have caught them for years.


Hope you got pictures. Those kids experienced something very special. They can tell their grandkids about catching Tarpon when they were little. Cool story.


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## Solodaddio

There's an article in today's newspaper (the facts, Lake Jackson) about tarpon.


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## deerhunter5

This was back in November in Caney Creek. Ended up catching 2 this size. They are for sure in there


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## steve holchak

I caught about 10 baby Snook in my cast net in Caney creek 3 weeks ago. All about 3". I hope they grow up fast!


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## Big Fish

I have seen small tarpon on the north shore of West Galveston Bay also. It would be awesome if they made a comeback on the Texas coast.


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## Meadowlark

These reports are really encouraging...but have been disappointed before. If they bear out, I'd have to relocate back to the coast.


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## gater

Baby tarpon that size up to 15-20lbs are very common on the upper coast and they stay here year round. They are in the creeks and bayous where you would not expect to find them.


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## Notenoughtime

Big Fish said:


> I have seen small tarpon on the north shore of West Galveston Bay also. It would be awesome if they made a comeback on the Texas coast.


Have you landed any for positive ID?

Caught tons of big skipjack over the past 30 years on the north shoreline but never seen any tarpon.


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## BrandonFox

There are a lot of baby tarpon up and down the coast. Most of them reside in places people would never think of fishing.


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## karstopo

Like others have said there are juvie tarpon in most of the local estuaries. This one was feeding in a small school on shad and went for a rapala twitch bait about 4 years ago. I've had a few opportunities at them, but only managed to jump two. They can be a tough sell on arties. Next time I see one whenever that is I'm throwing a fly at them.


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## Snookered

Trouthappy said:


> I don't suppose the state could use a few of those for the hatchery. Probably expensive, raising tarpon and feeding them every day.


sorry I'm late to the party (thread)....four years ago I was doing some work on private lands in the Guadalupe River delta vicinity, and located an awesome tarpon nursery....there were hundreds around 10-12 inches....I got landowner permission and TPWD came in and got a few, and took them to the Sea Center facility....they grew them up in a smaller exhibit, and then the large exhibit there until they were about 3 feet long...they released them last year....

hope y'all can see this picture; photobucket is evidently having issues, and I'm trying other hosting sites...

__
https://flic.kr/p/35223654780

snookered


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## aggies01

We caught a few tarpon on Caney Creek off the pier in Live Oak Bend (just south of bridge) over memorial day weekend too.


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## TIMBOv2

aggies01 said:


> We caught a few tarpon on Caney Creek off the pier in Live Oak Bend (just south of bridge) over memorial day weekend too.


I bet that little bastage put up a good fight


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## aggies01

TIMBOv2 said:


> I bet that little bastage put up a good fight


He did. Didn't know at first what was on the line. He started jumping out of the water and thrashing about. It wasn't until I had my hands on him that I realized what it was. Definitely fun to catch.

Also even the little ones are slimy as all get out.


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## SCREAMINREELS

We have a place on Caney in Sargent they are caught every year but not in big numbers or size occasionally you'll see pics of someone catching a nice one at the cut


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## SCREAMINREELS

We're also seeing more snook which is pretty cool. Nothing big in numbers but fish enough and you may snag one...let it go. Saw posts of people keeping them and can't understand why with the way the numbers are


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## aggies01

SCREAMINREELS said:


> We're also seeing more snook which is pretty cool. Nothing big in numbers but fish enough and you may snag one...let it go. Saw posts of people keeping them and can't understand why with the way the numbers are


Have also heard a few Snook being caught recently too.


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## DA REEL DADDY

Yup spoke with a buddy who caught one too.


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## Action BC

Saw a 4ft tarpon on the North Shoreline in west bay one day... Crystal clear water about 1.5 ft deep. He was gone quick once i raised my rod to cast though.


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## Rubberback

I've hooked up with quite a few tarpon down that way. Lots of hook ups on mirror lures. Nothing like a 5 or 6 ft tarpon coming out of the water chasing a mirror lure. August is a good month.
Its the 5ft bull shark that blows up on a top that freaks me out.


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## trout250

a lot of these that look similar to a tarpon are not a tarpon but some form of shad that gets in the creek, look back on page 1 and compare pic of that 1 's dorsal fin and the 1 on pg 3 that the young man is holding one on page 3 does not have the long portion on its dorsal fin.
not trying to stir the pot but we were catching a lot of the big shad several yrs back and thought they were tarpon. But have seen some actual tarpon, snook and bull shark in the creek even had a eagle ray that was hanging around the pier for a while.


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## aggies01

trout250 said:


> a lot of these that look similar to a tarpon are not a tarpon but some form of shad that gets in the creek, look back on page 1 and compare pic of that 1 's dorsal fin and the 1 on pg 3 that the young man is holding one on page 3 does not have the long portion on its dorsal fin.
> not trying to stir the pot but we were catching a lot of the big shad several yrs back and thought they were tarpon. But have seen some actual tarpon, snook and bull shark in the creek even had a eagle ray that was hanging around the pier for a while.


There's no pic on page 1 any longer. Which were you saying is not a tarpon? Genuinely curious. Page 3 pics look a lot like google images of juvie tarpon.

It would be kind of cool to see a Bull Shark in the creek. Maybe it would get all the wakeboarders to think twice


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## BrandonFox

trout250 said:


> a lot of these that look similar to a tarpon are not a tarpon but some form of shad that gets in the creek, look back on page 1 and compare pic of that 1 's dorsal fin and the 1 on pg 3 that the young man is holding one on page 3 does not have the long portion on its dorsal fin.
> not trying to stir the pot but we were catching a lot of the big shad several yrs back and thought they were tarpon. But have seen some actual tarpon, snook and bull shark in the creek even had a eagle ray that was hanging around the pier for a while.


The fish on page 3 is a tarpon. The fin is on the other side of the fish.


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## deerhunter5

Just spent the weekend down there and Saturday night I had at least 30 baby tarpon throughout the night rolling and tearing up schools of shad. Coolest thing I've ever seen down there


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## 22'baykat

Post #s would help more than page numbers. Due to my settings, this whole thread is on one page. :biggrin:


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## rtoler

My dad pulled a baby tarpon out of Mud Lake next to Clear Lake 55yrs ago. It has always amazed me that we do not see a lot of tarpon in our estuary system but I am sure there is a logical answer. It probably has something to do with bay temps during the whole year.


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## ShadMan

We catch very small ones (10"-14" range) now and then off our dock on Caney Creek.


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## sharkchum

Got this one out of the creek last night on a Pop-R. They blow up our topwaters like crazy, but get very few hook-ups.


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## DA REEL DADDY

Wow that's awesome!!!!


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## trout250

that is a nice one. congrats on the catch. Glad to see creek is in good shape. maybe when my thumb ( table saw accident) completely heals I can do some fishing. Some good pics of other good fish being posted also snook reds and trout


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## schoalbeast101

Was down there last weekend. Water was pretty fresh near Jackson's ditch. Bait Shad and mullet) was every where. Guy across the creek caught one tarpon Friday night on cut mullet. That fish jumped a good 4 feet out of the water. I estimate it was at least 24 inches long. Guy next to me swears kids were catching largemouth bass in that area because of the fresh water. I caught 1 redfish about 16 inches long. Teased some gar by pitching a live shad weightless in front of good sized gar. Fun watching them hit the shad.


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## rtoler

*Mud Lake/Clear Lake*

FYI: My pop caught a small tarpon in a small adjacent lake to Clear Lake 55yrs ago. To bad they are not more prevalent in our estuary systems....


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