Any Tarpon sightings?

[campne]

We'll be in KW in lt 2 weeks. I know my son would get a kick out of the Tarpon waiting for scraps in the Schooner Wharf/Turtle Krawls area. Are they around this time of year?

[woodofpine]

We'll be in KW in lt 2 weeks. I know my son would get a kick out of the Tarpon waiting for scraps in the Schooner Wharf/Turtle Krawls area. Are they around this time of year?

 

I'm not real KW knowledgeable, so I don't know the specific area you refer to. But Tarpon probably wasn't the fish you thought you saw (if eating shrimp and other cast offs at a pier area was your memory). You probably saw Snook. Snook is another larger fish that is common in Florida waters and very common congregating around piers to poach discarded bait and other cast off stuff. Large snook are 30-40 inches and as many pounds (they can get a bit larger). Tarpon feed more on crab and don't congregate around piers like Snook. Tarpon are even larger too, often 100-150 pounds or more. They are both great sport angling fish (although Tarpon aren't generally eaten and Snook are great on the plate). Tarpon have few natural predators. About the only thing that bags Tarpon besides fisherman are sharks, and sharks will sometimes bag hooked Tarpon. Linked is a pretty interesting video from our area,

 

[keywesst]

Au contraire, my Englewood friend (I love Englewood, nice little town from the River Road approach). There are huge tarpon swimming around docked boats and piers behind the Half Shell almost year round. They will be there.

[woodofpine]

Interesting, I've seen them periodically in pier areas - but not congregating for hand outs... Lordy! What next? I suppose in Key West they dance with sharks too! Natural behaviors tend to get a bit disoriented and squirrely in KW!

 

Fun place though... just ask the tarpon!

[dablondebabe]

You can surely see tarpon year round here. In addition to hanging around Schooner Wharf area you might want to wander down the Boardwalk to Conch Harbor Marina and look for the Tortuga fishing boat. They usually come back to the dock early afternoon and again around 5. The tarpon seem to know when the boat docks and there are quite a few big ones to see. Have fun!

[MuffyKismet]

YUP we have seen them many times there , I could not beleive how huge they were.........that is a big fishy!

[woodofpine]

Big and tough! If you can sink a hook into their boney mouth, you're going to have a REEL time of it! :D

 

If one jumps into the boat during a fight (as is known to occur once in a while; they jump like crazy) it's bedlam; the best thing you can do is jump up onto the gunnels and let the thing beat itself unconscious. Otherwise, it may break your leg!

[Kevin's girl]

Here is a photo we took when we were there in February. There were a lot of Tarpon. We were right near the Schooner wharf Bar.

 

[ParrotRob]

Interesting, I've seen them periodically in pier areas - but not congregating for hand outs... Lordy! What next? I suppose in Key West they dance with sharks too! Natural behaviors tend to get a bit disoriented and squirrely in KW!

 

Fun place though... just ask the tarpon!

 

[Kevin's girl]

Great shot, you's beats mine lol.

[woodofpine]

Those do appear to be Tarpon, albeit 'little' ones no bigger than the Snook that dominate the pier action around here.

 

Annually, from April-June, Gaspirilla Pass at Boca Grande features the congregating of Tarpon from all over the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It's a unique marine phenomena thought to be related to mating/spawning. Its pretty amazing (but for the proliferation of sharks in recent years attributable to commercial overfishing of Tiger shark [for oil] which is the only natural predator of the Bull sharks and Hammerheads that fish on Tarpon among other things). A $100,000 prize Tarpon competition is held each year.

 

During the height of 'Tarpon Season' (which attracts anglers from all over the world) the pass is heavily congested with fishing boats, but equally below with Tarpon which on fish finding sonar can be seen 'stacked up like cord wood' (to quote a local guide I used to fish with). The typical fish is 80-120 pounds or more and >150 pounds is not extraordinary. Tarpon fight like crazy, jump, and are intuitively a challenge. They seem to understand that running deep along oyster beds and even shallow around propellors results in cut lines. Once I stood next to an aluminum pilot tower watching my brother fight one (est. 140-150 lbs.) when that fish ran and jumped at the boat, slammed into that tower a foot or two from my shoulder. It sounded like 150 lbs of muscle and bone hitting the superstructure at velocity. Talk about startling! That fish shook the hoof and got away, but spattered all of us in slime and blood. THEY ARE AN AMAZING FIGHTING FISH!!

 

After late June, the fish disburse until the next year.

[keywesst]

They are indeed great game. The scales on tarpon are huge--the "prize" of catching one is plucking one scale off the fish (you don't eat them), and certainly mounting is just a greedy ripoff.

I was on a boat this morning at 0800 and enjoyed some bottom fishing. Crystal clear water, we anchored over a structure in 24 feet surrounded by 34 feet. My best catch was a three foot reef shark....they are fun on light tackle, it took about a half hour but I had my drags set light so we could play (in other words, he could easily swim away and take line from me, then I had to reel it all back in). My fishing buddy managed to drop his beer every time it got close to the boat, making a loud thud and scaring him off again......I think he was doing it on purpose.

[bhopal21]

Check out the front page of today's fishwrapper for a specimen tarpon at

www.keysnews.com :D

 

 

Mike:)