Tarpon and a Whole Lot More

For decades, June was my favorite surf fishing month as it produced the best fishing for big sharks and tarpon. Now our best surf fishing for the most species is September, October, and November. I'll keep my opinion on global warming to myself as it seems everyone wants to debate it and personally I find the debate tedious. But I will absolutely guarantee you that we live in a time of climatic change; whatever the reason.

The problem with these three months is that there are too many fish of too many species present at the same time. Huge shoals of ladyfish (skipjacks) and Spanish mackerel are terrible about cutting your lures off. Even when using wire these fish will cut you off as they aren't actually hitting your lures but are running through the water chopping baitfish and your line gets hung in their mouths and they cut your line without ever knowing it. If you are catching skipjacks for fun cast to the edge of the school; never into the middle of it or you will immediately be cut off by other fish that have snagged your line in their mouth or become gilled in it.

The first tarpon I ever saw was in the summer of 1959 and in June of 1961 I successfully landed a 6 foot 3 inch specimen that weighed 108 pounds off Bob Hall Pier. We got home and I told my mama about the fish and she said to my papa, Ollie, you have absolutely ruined this boy! Without even looking up Papa replied, Naw Hazel, this one never was going to amount to anything anyway. All he was ever going to do is fish and one tarpon won't make any difference. Guess he was right.

Often the tarpon are intermingled in frenzies of other species of gamefish feeding on anchovies. The tarpon will eat a skipjack as quickly as they will an anchovy and sometimes the best bait is a small live skipjack or a large chunk of a dead one thrown right into the fray. But I learned a trick along the way. You must use at least a 30 pound test Ultra Green Big Game mono top shot or the skipjacks constantly getting fouled in your line as you cast to tarpon will fray your line quickly and badly and then when you hook a tarpon or shark the line will part instantly. Lots of bull and blacktipped sharks are frequently present in large numbers in these killing frenzies so one must be on the lookout at all times and if you use mono or fluorocarbon most will bite your hooks off. Mono or fluorocarbon of at least 60 pound test is recommended for tarpon. Personally I've came to depend on Hard Mason mono leader material due to its abrasion resistance more than anything else. It's not easy to get knots to hold with this stuff so crimps might be advisable.

The way this scenario comes together is the first northers signal massive numbers of finger mullet to migrate into the surf from the bays. With each successive norther more and more mullet move into the surf. The redfish will move into the surf in larger numbers following them. At the same time huge shoals of anchovies will migrate along our coast line headed south for the winter and migrating tarpon in varying number will follow them. Jack crevalle and numerous nearshore species; including kingfish, intuitively know that all these baitfish are in the surf zone and move in to fatten up prior to making their own annual migrations.

The water in the surf has been unusually cold all summer. While the recorded water temperatures at Malaquite beach has typically been in the 80s, I have found surf temperatures down island to be running from 74 degrees to 76 degrees. It will be really interesting to see what the fall brings. Shark fishermen would be extremely well advised to use floats on all their leaders in this time frame. It's also an excellent time for sightcasting as I have seen over forty sharks during the course of a single day cruising the waters edge. Best bet is to find a large group of anchovies with fish working them and bait up a castable leader and just watch for a shark to show. It's a sure thing as long as you don't hit him on the head with the bait.

A couple of years ago I was sightcasting to a bull of about seven and a half feet that was just about as far away as I could cast. I reared back and threw and hit him dead center between the eyes. I think the customers got a bigger kick out of that than they would have had we caught the shark.

Years ago Buddy Gough and I drove up on two acres of dusky anchovies getting hammered in the first gut by skipjacks and maybe fifty adult tarpon. It was windy as hell and there was a deep and wide wade gut, try as I might I could not get a lure to the tarpon. After about an hour of waiting for them to come into the wade gut I said I can't take it anymore and waded out in that deep gut. I was on my tip toes and a big blacktip kept making straight for Buddy who was ten yards north of me. Then I saw Buddy throw a spoon at him. I cussed him out and he said he thought it was a tarpon.

We had to swim a little and the waves on the first bar were big. Just as I got thigh deep on the shore side of the bar I saw a twelve foot tiger in knee deep water directly in front of Buddy, who was a little behind me. The fish was about thirty feet in front of me. I called Buddy to go back to shore and we never did get a cast at those tarpon. That tiger was laying up there hidden by the surf on the bar waiting for anything to come within reach. I can clearly see it laying there as I type this. Shortly afterwards an acquaintance drove up from the south and he was visibly very badly shaken. When I asked what was wrong he said that three miles to the south he had walked dead up on a ten foot tiger. I told him, That's chump change. Go look out on this bar and you'll go back where you came from and jack slap that ten footer. These are cool stories, but keep in mind they are also true and accurate and it was all in the middle of a bright sunny day.

I have personally got to fish very little other than on trips when we were targeting trout with lures for quite some time and I really miss it. It is a genuine heartbreak when as a fishing guide you have tarpon all around you but your customers want to catch redfish. Now that I'm heading into what you might call semi-retirement from guiding, taking only selective charters, I'm definitely looking forward to taking Billy fishing a lot more than I have been.

Always remember the surf fishing gets the best the opening day of dove season. What a Hoot.

If we don't leave any there won't be any. -Capt. Billy L. Sandifer