We all know our Indian River Lagoon is going through some tough times with algae blooms, seagrass die-off and fish kills. You may find your favorite flats aren’t holding the seatrout and redfish like they used to. Don’t get discouraged, give up fishing and take up golf. There is a sporty gamefish that prowls our coast that thrives in poor water conditions.
Research by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) shows Brevard County waters are a major nursery area for juvenile tarpon. Tarpon have a unique adaptation, their swim bladder functions as a lung, allowing them to extract oxygen from air they gulp from the surface. Juvenile tarpon use this to their advantage and seek out waters with low oxygen content where most other fish, including larger predators, can’t survive.
Juvenile tarpon can be found in creeks and canals throughout Brevard County. In late summer and fall you may run into baby tarpon less than a foot long, and there is always a chance you can find backwater tarpon over 40 pounds, but when I say juvenile tarpon, I’m talking about fish that average 15 to 30 inches long. These are perfect targets for light spinning rods spooled with 10 pound braid or six to eight weight fly rods. Regardless of the tackle, a short shock leader of 30 pound mono or fluorocarbon is needed to hold up to tarpon’s raspy jaws.
Although juvenile tarpon have mouths big enough to engulf the biggest lure in your tackle box, it is best to go with small lures that match the gambusia minnows, killifish and other diminutive prey tarpon key on. Small jerkbaits like the Bass Assassin three inch Shad Assassin and the D.O.A. four inch C.A.L. Jerkbait are deadly on tarpon especially when rigged with an exposed hook like the Trokar TK180-2/0 and –3/0. Small jigs like the D.O.A. Tiny TerrorEyz are also very effective. Plugs three inches long or less can be great for getting bites, but the smaller treble hooks on such lures don’t hook and hold tarpon very well. When it comes to flies I find I have success with minnow imitating streamers two inches long or less.
There is a lot of debate among tarpon anglers about what lure colors are best. Everybody has their favorite, but to be honest, I’ve caught juvenile tarpon on just about every color imaginable. I tend to favor more natural hues, but I think the best advice is to go with colors you have confidence in. Also, if you are fishing an area you know holds lots of tarpon but the bite has shut down, try switching to a color completely opposite to what was getting bit before. In other words, if you were throwing light lures, try something dark, or if you were having success with a color that was subtle and natural, try something bright and gaudy. Often the abrupt color change and eke out a few more bites.
When I am searching for new tarpon spots I use one of the many map websites that offer aerial images. I’ll scan the area I plan to fish looking for creeks and canals branching off from the lagoon. Don’t be afraid to look far inland as tarpon will travel miles into these creeks and canals. In fact you can sometimes find them so far inland that they will be swimming with freshwater fish like gar and largemouth bass.
The most common way to find tarpon once on the water is to look for them rolling on the surface. If you are lucky you will see the splashy strikes of tarpon busting minnows, but most of the time it’s the roll that gives them away. There are certain features that tend to attract tarpon like canal intersections, ditch mouths and culvert pipes with flowing water and locations where creeks widen into backwater ponds. Other things I look for are bubbles and birds. Bubbles are a sign the surface of the water has been disturbed, perhaps by rolling or feeding tarpon. Herons, egrets and other water birds perched right at the water’s edge is a good sign tarpon or other gamefish are feeding below, pushing minnows to the surface. Once you find tarpon, remember the spot as tarpon frequent the same areas year after year.
Observing the tarpon can tip you off on how to fish your lure. Gentle rolls mean the tarpon are staying high in the water column so you want to retrieve your lure just under the surface. More aggressive, splashy rolls indicate the tarpon are running deep so it is better to cast a jig, or flies like the Clouser Minnow that get down in the water. The best tarpon anglers I know are the ones who can fire off quick accurate casts to rolling fish. Most of the time waiting to sight cast to rolling tarpon will get you more bites than blind casting. You want to judge which way the fish is moving and cast you lure a few feet beyond the roll to get your offering in front of the tarpon. Another tip is tarpon will release bubbles after they roll which can tip you off to which way they are moving.
Tarpon bite best during low light, mornings and evenings, and overcast conditions after a summer thunderstorm is possibly their most active time. Canoes and kayaks are great for most tarpon haunts, but you don’t even need a boat to pursue tarpon along the Space Coast. From 2009 through 2012, Merritt Island resident Jon Mallory collected DNA samples for the FWC from the tarpon he caught. In those four years he collected DNA samples from over 1,500 tarpon. All of those tarpon were caught in Brevard County, on fly rod, fishing from shore. In case you are wondering, only 14 of those 1,500 tarpon were recaptures of tarpon Mallory had previously caught, which tells you there are a lot of tarpon prowling our local waters.
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