Anglers fishing with me on the Snook Fin-Addict, out of CB's Saltwater Outfitters on Siesta Key, had great tarpon action this week. We landed 5 out of 16 tarpon jumped for the week, including a couple jumped on flies. With the 1st quarter of the moon last Tuesday and a full moon on June 16th, tarpon were plentiful and aggressive. We saw numerous large schools of tarpon of 50 or more fish as well as singles, doubles and small schools traveling both north and south. The pattern has been to have a push of tarpon schools at first light for an hour or so and then the action slows until late morning. Once we get a good angle with sunlight, tarpon schools can be spotted crossing light colored bottom in shallow water (4' to 10'). We also found "laid up" schools of tarpon (sitting still with tails and fins out of the water) at first light several mornings.
Cliff Ondercin, from Sarasota, FL, and his dad, Dennis Ondercin from Middleburg Heights, OH, fished their annual tarpon week from Monday through Friday with me. We had steady action all week long with lots of fish and opportunities. They landed 4 out of 12 tarpon hooked/jumped for the week. We also ran into a big school of nice jacks one day and caught one on a top water plug. Instead of eating mostly live crabs, tarpon switched their diet preference to live pinfish. We only hooked up a couple of times with live crabs and all of the rest of the bites were on live pinfish or a threadfin. Since tarpon were not always showing well on the surface, a live pinfish drifted under a float scored numerous times. Several fish that we cast to were caught or jumped in shallow water, so we got to see the fish eat! The fish landed ranged from 60 to 90-pounds.
The most memorable trip of the week was on Saturday with Hal Lutz, from Parrish, FL, his sister, Lyndi Lutz and her boyfriend, Trent DeWald, both from Dallas, TX. The main goal was to get Lyndi and Trent, who experienced their first saltwater and tarpon fishing trips that weekend, hooked up. Lyndi was first, jumping and landing a feisty 60-pounder on a live crab in about 15-minutes off Siesta Key. She also had another hook up on a live crab in the same area. With a fish under Lyndi's belt, we headed for shallow water at about 10:30 AM to try and get Trent hooked up and Hal a fish on a fly. Hal hooked up out of a big school with a black and purple Enrico Puglisi Peanut Butter fly only to have the fish come unhooked after it ate the fly and continued to swim toward the boat.
With only 15-miutes left in our trip, Trent had expressed a desire to learn to cast a fly rod, so I gave him a short course. I stood on the bow with him and after 5 or 10-minutes had him false casting about 25 or 30 feet of line with the proper form. That's when it happened-a single tarpon approached at 10 o'clock position to the bow giving him a perfect "head on" shot. With the fly line already in the air, I had Trent drop the fly in front of the fish and strip it (we hadn't even covered stripping the fly yet). However, due to his watching Hal fish earlier in the day and watching "Chasing Silver" videos, he instinctively knew what to do. The fish charged the fly and ate only about 15 feet from the boat, Trent strip struck the fish, successfully cleared the line and we were tight! After a 15 or 20-minute battle including numerous jumps, the estimated 90 or 100-pound fish wore through 80-pound bite tippet with the fish only 20-feet from the boat. Awesome! They finished the day landing one out of 4 tarpon hooked/jumped, including 2 on flies.
We are having a good tarpon season so far. Tarpon have been plentiful, although not always eating. If you've ever tarpon fished, you know that being successful is a matter of the right presentation to the right fish. Except for a couple of weeks of west wind during the middle of May, conditions have been good and we have had good shots most days. There are more tarpon this year than I can remember recently. Tarpon action should be good as we approach next week's full moon on Wednesday.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rick Grassett
Snook Fin-Addict Guide Service, Inc.
FFF Certified Fly Casting Instructor
(941) 923-7799
E-mail snookfin@aol.com
www.flyfishingflorida.net and www.snookfin-addict.com
