Fishing Information

Tarpon Fishing and Catching The Elusive Silver King - Megalops Atlanticus


If you have ever had the priviledge of hooking up on a big tarpon then you know the exhilaration and thrill of testing yourself in battle against one of the most sought after gamefish in the world. This distinction is easy to see at first glance as the tarpon starts a series of spectacular acrobatic leaps in the air that will have your heart pounding, your rod bending and your drag screaming. You better hold on!

Since the tarpon's habitat is so close to the shoreline, fishermen of all types and skill levels can catch them. They can be caught from jetties, passes, docks, bridges, beaches, piers and rivers. Tarpon can be caught while using many types of tackle, rods, baits, lures and rigs either while fishing from a boat, canoe, kayak or walking and wading from the shoreline as the tarpon work up and down the beaches.

Live bait fishermen's bait of choice is the 'dollar crab'. A small live blue crab about two inches across its carapace, hooked through one end of it's shell or underneath through a swimmer leg. Other extremely effective live baits include pinfish, threadfin herrings and pilchards. On days when the tarpon is being finicky in it's tablefare selection, try these for the best results, and oh, by the way, don't forget about a live mullet. If you can get them, use them. Flyfishermen are not left out either. The stealth of casting the right fly can sometimes be the trick to hooking up.

But Just What is a Tarpon?

Scientific classification:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Elopiformes
Family: Megalopidae
Genus: Megalops

This exceptionally fine creature is a prehistoric animal and the only fish with an air bladder. This allows it to absorb oxygen and live in waters with very low oxygen content. You can see them gulp air at the water surface. Tarpon are also called poons, tarpum, sabalo real, cuffum, silverfish or silver king and belong to the bony fish family Elopidae. The Latin designation is Megalops atlanticus.

While only microscopic at birth, tarpon have been documented at lengths of more than eight feet and weighing 280 pounds. Catches weighing more than 200 pounds, while uncommon, do occur. Many fish caught are well over 100 pounds. Their growth rate is slow, taking 8 to 10 years to reach maturity, and generally those over 100 pounds are female. Tarpon can live 55 to 60 years. They are greenish or bluish on top, and silver on the sides. The large mouth is turned upwards and the lower jaw contains an elongated bony plate. The last ray of the dorsal fin is much longer than the others, reaching nearly to the tail.

They are found primarily in shallow coastal waters and estuaries, but they are also found in open marine waters, around coral reefs, and in some freshwater lakes and rivers. Their normal migratory pattern ranges from Virginia to central Brazil in the western Atlantic, along the coast of Africa in the eastern Atlantic, and all through the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. Florida is widely regarded as having many of the best tarpon fishing locations in the world, especially the world-renowned Boca Grande Pass in Southwest Florida.

Fishing for the tarpon can at times be an excercise of patience and discipline. You may be surrounded by large schools of rolling tarpon containing hundreds of fish and they will not hit anything you throw at them. Other times, it is a feeding frenzy. So, go fishing for tarpon every chance you get, that next world record catch may be waiting just for you.

Greg Smith is a life-long fisherman and publisher of fishing information websites. Visit http://www.tarpon-fishing-i.com/ for more resources, tips, tricks and techniques.


MORE RESOURCES:

Wilkes Barre Times-Leader

Ice-fishing festival gets assist from cold weather | Outdoors
The Seattle Times
With a deep freeze settling into areas east of the Cascades, anglers are breaking through the ice to catch fish. By Mark Yuasa No comments have been posted to this article. With a deep freeze settling into areas east of the Cascades, ...
Mild weather not as nice as iceWilkes Barre Times-Leader

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Bellingham Herald

OUTDOORS: Lower Columbia fishing set, halibut hold line
Bellingham Herald
Early 2012 salmon, steelhead and sturgeon fishing seasons are now set for the lower Columbia River, giving anglers some hard information on which to plan trips. Expectations rate as good for the lower Columbia's early returning chinook fishery this ...
Biologists predicting strong run of Columbia spring chinook this yearTheNewsTribune.com
Outdoors Digest: Tuesday's ODFW meeting will explain public proposalsCoos Bay World

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Minister Ashfield Announces a 2011 National Recreational Fisheries Award ...
MarketWatch (press release)
GRANBY, QUEBEC, Feb 04, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- The Honourable Keith Ashfield, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Gateway, today announced that Claude Bernard is a winner of a 2011 National Recreational ...

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For-profit fishing limited on reefs off Georgetown
MyrtleBeachOnline.com
Commercial spear fishing was stripping clean artificial reefs that were meant for recreational fishing, anglers claimed. Two years later, after The Post and Courier's 2009 report of the alleged abuses, a federal law has been put on the books to ...
For-profit fishing limited on reefsCharleston Post Courier

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Fishing the rivers will be different in 2012 than last year
The Times of Trenton - NJ.com
One of the most important of these facts is that fish, no matter where they live, being creatures of habit and their environment, thrive on stability. A stable environment causes fish to fall into patterns when it comes to movements and feeding, ...



Craftsmen have a passion for bamboo fishing rods
Duluth News Tribune
He's fishing a bamboo rod again. But he didn't buy it. Bamboo rods are prohibitively expensive for most anglers, running from $800 to $3000 or more. So, in his retirement, Johnson learned to make bamboo rods. He buys bamboo from the south of China.

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Feb. 2 fishing report
The Tennessean
There's still too much generation at the dam to allow for decent fishing. • Center Hill. Lots of smallmouth bass are being caught on swim baits and jigs. Try the creeks. • Cheatham. Striper are being caught below the dam. Crappie bite is good in main ...
Fishing reportsPryor Daily Times
Fishing Report 2-6-12Log Cabin Democrat
Outdoor notebookMuskogee Daily Phoenix

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Federal wildlife officials offer ice fishing day in Mississippi River refuge
The Republic
Federal wildlife officials are planning a free ice fishing day for kids on the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Children between the ages of 6 and 13 will be allowed to fish for free at a Mississippi River boat landing in Winona, ...

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Fly Fishing Film Tour hits Seattle on Feb. 4
Highline Times
Fly fishing's most celebrated annual event, the Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T), the original and largest event of its kind begins its continent-wide trek January 26th. The Traveling spectacle serves as a stage for the best filmmakers in the industry, ...
A fish tale, in honor of tonight's fly-fishing photo show, Surface Film IIWestword (blog)

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Today's THV

Rescue team searching for humpback whale caught in fishing line off Hawaii
Washington Post
HONOLULU — A humpback whale rescue team is looking for a whale off Hawaii that is caught in fishing lines. Jeff Walters, the marine mammal branch chief at the National Marine Fisheries Service, said Friday the gear could kill the whale.
Whale caught head-to-tail in fishing nets off MauiBoston.com

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