If you have never felt the rush of a 100 pound class tarpon after you’ve set the hook and he starts blazing drag, then you really should head down the Dunedin Causeway, Honeymoon or Caladesi Islands this month and make it happen!
Every year around this time thousands of tarpon make their annual migration up the coast toward the panhandle and spend lots of time along our beaches looking for something to eat. While they love live pass or blue crabs, they’ll also take live pinfish, threadfin herring or mullet and even big fresh cut baits soaked on the bottom.
While it sometimes helps to have a light boat equipped with a fast trolling motor to position yourself ahead of the oncoming pods of fish, tarpon can be sighted and targeted right from the beach or bridge. The trick is to be out there right at sunrise to watch for rollers, once boat traffic starts picking up they will disappear. Year in and year out rolling tarpon can be seen right along the Causeway beaches and moving through the bridge passes, as well as the gulf beaches on Honeymoon and Caladesi. The sandbars at the south end of Honeymoon and north end of Caladesi make great spots to ambush fish.
You’ll need some stout tackle if you want to land one of these bruisers. A seven to eight-foot medium heavy rod equipped with a quality 6000 to 8000 pound class spinning reel spooled with 30 to 50 pound test braided line will do the trick. Use six feet of 50 to 80 pound test fluorocarbon leader and an eight to ten-ought razor sharp j-hook or circle hook to complete the outfit. Tarpon have very boney mouths so every hook should be sharpened to a needle point.
The trick with this type of fishing is to spot the fish at some distance off and present your bait right along their line of travel. When using live baits, it’s best to hang them five or six feet under a big bobber or balloon. Big cut baits like mullet or bonito should be fished on the bottom, so a few ounces of lead are needed to keep the bait down.
I like to leave the bail of my real open until I feel a fish moving away with my bait. I’ll let him run off about 20 or thirty yards of line before closing the bail and setting the hook. Most hooked tarpon are lost before landing because of poor hook sets, this is where those sharpened hooks really pay off. Just remember not to tighten your drag too much and let the fish run until you wear him out.
Remember that it’s illegal to drag your fish into the boat or up on the sand. Keep the worn-out fish in the water and get all the pictures you want.
Barracuda Bob’s is your sportfishing headquarters on the Dunedin Causeway and is the big yellow building on the right as you’re heading towards the water. We carry everything you might need to enjoy a day of productive fishing, no matter your targeted species. Our knowledgeable crew is happy to help you get rigged up with the right gear and baits to bust the big one; we’ll even tell you where the fish are biting!
Visit us at 240 Causeway Blvd. Dunedin, FL. 34698 (727) 466-1776. Check us out on Facebook or on our website at www.BarracudaBobs.net