Tarpon Fishing
Tarpon (Tarpon, Megalops) also known as the “silver king”. This big coastal predator, which visually reminds large herring, has nothing in common with the herring. Tarpons normally are living in the coastal waters, bays and estuaries. Having the ability to swallow air, tarpon can easily enter the estuary , and stay in the fresh muddy water, which holds low percentage of oxygen. These waters – are a great place for them to stay, because of the lack of big predators and competition.
Tarpon characteristics:
Family: Megalopidae
Order: Elopiformes
Class: Actinopterygii
Phylum: Chordata
Size and weight: 250 cm long, weight up to 160 kg,
Life length: 55 years
Environment: coastal waters; fresh and salty water
Depth: from 0 to 30 m
Climate: Sub-tropical; 49°N – 44°S, 99°W – 14°E
Geographical distribution: Atlantic Ocean: Senegal, Angola, rarely appears in Portugal, Azora and France. Represented from the Northern Carolina in USA to the Bahia in Brazil, with some random appearances in the New Scotland and Argentina. Could be often meet in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. Pacific Ocean: Panama and southern Costa Rica.
Tarpon is hunting for different types of invertebrates, fishes and mollusks, so the bait should remind sardines, anchovies, mullets, perches, crabs, crustaceans and mollusks.
Tarpon is a very strong opponent, and he is very hard to catch because of his mouth structure. His teeth are very small, but the lower part of his mouth up to the throat consists of the bone platform, which is very hard to hook in the fish, this is why bait needs to have very sharp hooks in order to reach penetration.
There could be different types of Tarpon fishing:
Live baiting, dead baiting, bait throwing (spinning and casting), vertical fishing (jigging), trolling and fly fishing in all of its varieties.
On of the tarpon’s special abilities is to make huge leaps, so you should stay focused and to keep him strained.
One of the existing methods is called “bow to the king”, when tarpon jumps, you have to tilt the rod towards the tarpon while straining the fishing line, in order to not to give the fish a chance to get off the hook.
Popping technique (surface fishing), is considered one of the best and one of the most interesting types of fishing, when you meet high density of tarpons.