Florida Trip: Monster Tarpon and More - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

JDTuna · #1 02-22-2018, 08:05 AM

Decided to take a trip down to South Florida for a little mid winter fishing fun. I had lived there previously for 9 years, so I also wanted to head down to catch up with friends. Plan was to tarpon fish and hit some freshwater bodies for some exotic species. What awaited me was one of the craziest fights I'd ever had with a monster tarpon.

We headed out of Key Biscayne (Miami) at 7am on Thursday in search of tarpon. The Miami International Boat Show was being held out on the Key, and traffic was already beginning as we headed out. We were right on the new moon, and he mentioned that slowed the bite. We got to the first spot, and started drifting. I immediately noticed the fleet of sailboats moored just to the south and wondered how we would successfully maneuver and land a big fish amongst the obstacles, should we be lucky enough to hook up.

We made a few drifts, marking individual tarpon on the side scan and watching some roll on top, but no bites. Saw another boat release a nice fish. We decided to make a move to a few other spots. The other spots we much of the same. Marked them and saw a few rolling but no bites. After checking out a few other areas, we decided to return to the original spot and just keep drift through them until one decided to eat.

Shortly into the first drift we began to see a lot of tarpon. As we continued the drift, we marked a very big fish on the side scan. A minute or two later my rod bent hard and the reel started to scream. Seconds later, a huge silvery tarpon burst through the surface 6 to 8 feet in the air. It continued making several jumps in succession before taking a drag-melting run. We had to chase the fish to prevent it from cutting us off on one of the moored sailboats. To add to the difficulties, a strong outgoing tide was slowly pulling us toward the Rickenbacker Causeway Bridge.* If the fish went under the first few spans, the boat couldn’t fit and the tarpon would certainly break off. Luckily, I kept the fish out of the bridge just long enough to make it to a span we could fit through. However, on the other side there were sea trials going on for the Miami boat show.

After we cleared the bridge, the other side was a mess of boat traffic. Some of the boats stopped to watch the fight, and a few got way closer than they should have. In addition to the boat show traffic, we had to contend with water taxis and other assorted watercraft. Luckily we managed to get out of the traffic without losing the fish. It looked like we were in the clear, but then the tarpon ran towards a boat moored a hundred yards or so from shore. We tried to head the fish off and keep it from wrapping the line on the anchor chain, but the fish ran under the boat and wrapped the line up. I was pretty sure at this point that it was over and I was going to lose the fish.

We tried to unwrap the line to no avail. The line was wrapped solidly around the anchor chain midway under the boat (it was a catamaran). The tarpon kept swimming down current, and the line was rapidly disappearing from the spool, yet miraculously, it hadn’t cut despite rubbing on a chain and a rope.* The captain suddenly said “I’m going to snag the line,” as we drifted towards the transom. With one cast, he snagged the line running behind the transom of the catamaran and grabbed it. About 30 seconds later, the reel was spooled. With the line in his hand, he backed the boat down to put slack in the line. I grabbed the line, threaded it backwards through the guides, and tied it off to the spool.* In one quick motion, he turned the boat and we chased the fish down while I gained line.* We were back on top of the fish in no time.* *

The fish was tired, and I got her next to the boat relatively quickly, and we couldn’t believe how big she was. Easily 7 feet long and 200+ pounds! By far the largest tarpon I’d ever caught, or seen. The captain grabbed her jaw, but the fish easily shook him off. I then grabbed her by the jaw, and the bone was so thick I could barely get my hand around it. Once she shook her head, she easily threw me off. Despite the 2-hour fight, she still had plenty of energy left. We quickly set her free and watched her swim away. We called it a day at that point, having released a huge tarpon after an insane fight.

For reference, the leader from the float to the fish is 5 feet:

The next day was on the slow side as well, but I managed my personal best sheepshead and jumped a small tarpon in the 60lb class.

I wrapped up the trip with a little freshwater fishing. I ended up with a small snakehead on an afternoon trip to one of my spots, and my friend and I had some bass and a big channel cat the next day from his boat.* All in all, it was a great trip with awesome weather.

And last but not least, a solid brown trout from Sat 2/10/18: