How To Catch Tarpon

Tarpon are really big fish with no known food value, and are usually regarded as a catch and release sport fish. However, they are a thrilling catch largely due to their gigantic size. The average Tarpon is about six foot long and 150 pounds with it not being uncommon at all to catch Tarpon over eight feet ling and over 300 pounds large. This giant of the sea normally dines on small fish and crustaceans. They spawn in the spring and are most easily caught from March until June, with the warmer climates showing the most success earliest.

Tarpon are easily fished with live bait. Consider using shrimp, mullet, pinfish, and crabs as bait for tarpon. In most cases, you can just set your anchor, send down a weighted line, so that it will float down the current to the areas you know are holding tarpon.

If you find that your hooks are pulling out when you fish with heavy weights, try a light weight copper wire, and just attach your weights. It will allow the weights to easily fall off, and not be a hazard when you are fighting a big Tarpon. Another option is to attach a small piece of styrofoam as a breakaway float, so that the bait will be suspended over the bottom.

Tarpon fish hooks will vary depending on the size of your bait. If you are using live bait, a 6/0 hook or an 11/0 circle hook will usually work well. Be sure to put your bait on your hook so that it will present naturally. Hook crabs in the corners of their shells, if you are fishing with mullet or pinfish, hook them through the mouth. It may be done either horizontally or vertically. Use a hook up jig, and head or tail hook shrimp, so they will not spin in the water's current. Just be sure to have several kinds of bait available, because tarpon are difficult to catch and where they might bite on crabs today, tomorrow they might be biting clams. You just need to have several offerings ready for these finicky fish. Consider tidal current to help you determine which bait is likely to work for you. In a rapid current, mullet will spin less and provide you with more catches.

You might also have good luck with big topwater baits , plastic minnows and soft plastic baits. For Tarpon fishing leaders, use six to twelve feet, 60 to 125 pound test, heavy fluorocarbon or monofiliment line. If you are fishing topwater, try the Zara Spook. For chuggers and poppers, use a 'walking the dog' presentation, but if you are using big minnow bait with a quick retrieve, but keep it erratic with a slight stall in the mix.

You could do much worse than fishing for tarpon with artificial baits like the bigger soft plastic baits that imitate eels, bait fish, and sea worms. You can either free line these baits, deep rig them on jigs, or dead drift them just as you would live bait. If you keep a bait on the bottom and use three or four different baits set at various levels, you should be able to easily differentiate between which baits work and which do not and at which depths the tarpon are hanging.