Most of my trips since my last fishing report have been evening tarpon trips.
The tarpon action has ranged from outstanding to normal for this time of year.The shrimp ran very heavy during two of the trips and we’ve seen shrimp in the water during most of them.
Russell Jones took his first tarpon trip and had the pleasure of see a major shrimp run.This got the tarpon going hot and heavy.Using live shrimp, we went 5 for 8.We also saw action with the Berkley Rattle Shrimp.The final count at the end of the evening was 5 for 10 and a Spanish mackerel.
The next evening, the shrimp ran big time again.Alexander Schmieder and Burkhard Schulz fished a ¾ (6 hour) evening trip.The wind from the ESE/SE @ 9 – 13 knots gave us just enough wave action that Burkhard experienced motion sickness.We dropped him off at the Haulover fuel dock and went back out.The action was outstanding.By the end of the trip, Alexander had caught and released 8 of the 10 tarpon we hooked.
Bob Lubin, his son Bobby and friend Jeff Walker came out on the night when the shrimp didn’t run.The action slowed down, however, the bigger fish showed back up.Bobby had his hands full fighting a large tarpon and did a fabulous job.The battle was back and forth for quite a while before Bobby finally got the upper hand.Jeff got into the action next and caught his tarpon.We had to work hard to get another bite for Bob.Unfortunately his tarpon decided to give us back the hook on its first jump.
Alexander Schmieder was back for some offshore fishing.We had a sailfish come up and attack our bait.It slashed at it and chased it around before losing interest and swimming off.The next action came on the downrigger.This fish turned out to be an 18# kingfish.We had no further action.
Frank Reda, Brad Skaf, and Shamus Bartnett wanted just a few fish for dinner.We started with a sailfish chasing bait.We pitched a bait to it and watched as the sail stalked and slashed at the bait before swimming off.Prior to that, we hooked a small brown shark.With no further action, we moved out to deeper water.In 500 feet, we found some big weed patches and caught 2 dolphin.That was dinner.In 800 feet a major weedline that went on for miles produced nothing but a bar jack.
John and Gary Masel and Rodney Raub saw action with 1 tarpon, several ladyfish, several Spanish mackerel, a large jack crevalle, bluefish and bluerunners.
Cenk Durukal and I took the tour of Government Cut only to find a Spanish mackerel and bluerunner and no tarpon.We ran back north and on the last drift of the evening, we hooked the large tarpon that Cenk was looking for.The battle went from deeper water to shallower water and back deeper again.Cenk wanted to get the perfect picture, however, the tarpon just did not want to cooperate.We had the leader in the rod tip several times and got a very good look at the fish.Every time we got the fish up close, it would just power away from us again and again.After a 40 minute battle on 20# line, the fish won and released itself before posing for any pictures.
Bob and Ron Wegner saw plenty of action with 90 – 100 tarpon during their trip.We had to wait till it got completely dark before we saw the first tarpon.Prior to that we caught 2 Spanish mackerel and a bluefish.Bob was first up on a tarpon.With that fish released, he wanted his brother to catch his first tarpon.The next hit saw the fish make a short run before the hook pulled.On the next fish, Ron was doing everything right and we had the leader close several times.The fish had us going all over the area and finally came up and made a terrific jump.That’s when the hook pulled and shot back at us.On the last drift of the evening Ron got another chance.This time the fish hooked up solid.The incoming tide has us going through the Haulover bridge and into the Bay.Ron caught his first tarpon (100#’s) and Bob got the pictures to prove it.
There you have it.Some very good tarpon action.It should continue from now through June so don’t delay in getting in on the action.
