Spring 2002  Using Live Tarpon For Bait

The moment we arrived at  Boca Grande a giant tarpon was being held against the side of another boat for a picture. Then a very large shark ate its tail. The fellow holding it threw his hands in the air to let go quickly and move away from the area. There were gigantic shark everywhere that had keyed in on the tarpon action over the last few weeks.

The boat circled the soon to be dead giant tarpon hoping to witness the final shark kill close up. One fisherman on the boat had anticipated this and cast a large metal ball and bare hook onto the freshly bleeding and de-tailed tarpon now flopping on its side. Then the largest Hammerhead many had ever seen charged out of the depths, revealing its back and whale-sized dorsal, and swallowed the tarpon whole. The two native Floridian guides on our boat said they'd never seen one that huge. The shark fisherman did not successfully hook up.  I didn't understand what he expected to do with a  14 foot 2,000 lb Hammerhead on the hook. Test his strength and gear I suppose. 

Boat Traffic

There was a wall of 4,000 tarpon 60 feet below. At any given time 20-40 boats circled each other above the school and followed it with their fish-finders. Tarpon traffic etiquette was very important. The boat drivers all seemed to know each other and fished in very close proximity. At times we were only a few rod-lengths away from each other, occasionally sucking in engine fumes. When someone on a boat hooked up, etiquette required getting out of his way. All the fisherman in a boat would reel up very fast when a fighting tarpon swam in their direction. Inevitably a fish was lost after a very long struggle if another boat failed to reel-up fast enough. The fisherman was justifiably angry and threw a few gestures and tantrums to let everyone know.

Tarpon Sperm, Egg, or Emerger? - Nobody knows for sure

The fishing lure was bazaar.  It was a bright yellow 1 1/2" solid metal ball  with a hook and a variety of choices for rubber tails so that the final presentation looked like a giant sperm. Nobody really knew what it imitated. My theory is that it imitated either a tarpon sperm, egg, or emerger.  The fishing tech was to drop it straight down till it hit bottom 60 feet below  and then reel up two or three strokes . Then when you felt a small bump your task was to reel up as fast as possible to set the hook.

Our Captain - Is this fun yet?

Our boat was truly challenged trying to land three giant tarpon. These monsters were so huge they didn't jump. Well maybe one head shake but then it was a 40 minute yank and crank from down deep. Two mercifully broke off after long fights before shark keyed in on them. Our captain finally wrestled a tarpon to the boat but a mid-size hammerhead was close behind. Fortunately he knew exactly what to do and immediately flipped the bale so the tarpon could  escape. It raced for the shallow water near the beach until it was trapped but it had temporarily lost the shark.  Our boat driver  quickly followed and began a tight circle around it at high speed. This 360 maneuver kept the shark away while the captain reeled up his line and then purposely broke the tarpon off. There was no point in sacrificing another one. ---  Gearman