By: Jessica Harris
It’s nearing the time of tarpon season! Florida, also called the Fishing Capital of the World, has so many fishing opportunities, but one experience stands out among the rest – tarpon fishing. Tarpon, aka The Silver Kings, are such a unique catch. Pictured here, I had a wonderful trip in the tarpon capital of the world also known as Boca Grande. This was the experience of a lifetime! It was a full 10-hour day of tarpon fishing. Now if any captain knows, Boca Grande in May is not for the weak. You will be surrounded by other boats trying to catch tarpon. But if you can beat that, you’ll be in for a great time. My trip started out fast. Within the first hour, I had 2 tarpon hooked and got 1 to the boat. It was a learning process on remembering to put the rod tip down when they jumped. The whole day, I used crabs as bait and boy did it work. When you catch your first tarpon, remember to keep a scale for good luck! As the day passed, we had to stop at one of my favorite places for lunch, Cabbage Key. Then back at it we went. The tarpon were biting like crazy and at one point, we were the only boat out there and got to experience a wonderful sight of tarpon rolling at sunset. That was in itself, a once in a lifetime opportunity. The fishing came back on as the sunset, and we hooked up to 3 more! I was able to tag one and become more educated on their migrating, eating and the way they live in general. Each tarpon I caught, was hooked right in the button. (Right where you want it!) This trip and what I was able to accomplish reached a lot of people and I was able to speak about the experience on several radio stations. So, to be able to write about the experience all over again is really special to me. And I would like to give a huge shoutout to James of Boca Coast Bait Fish Chum and Airborne Outdoors Fishing Charters with Chris Fanelli for sponsoring me and making it happen. Happy Fishing!