Jumpin’ tarpon every day! We’re entering that magical June phase and there are plenty of tarpon arriving in the forty to sixty pound class. Three to six hookups a day, easy. There are giants, too, in certain spots you can find fish over a hundred pounds, some even bigger. We’re on the water at sunrise every day now, departing the dock at least an hour before the sun comes up in order to be in the lagoons while the ladies are out for their morning stroll.
Tom Hartman on the foredeck, hunting sleepers. He jumped six today, three of them were in the eighty pound class. Tom is on a mission to learn how to catch an Everglades tarpon and working hard at it. We’ve had a few mishaps, losing a few fish, but Tom hung in there and got this one to the boat, his first landed tarpon, an Everglades sleeper. It may not be the biggest one we jumped but it’s a milestone in Tom’s fishing career and I was proud to be there for an angler as dedicated as Tom is. Congratulations Tom, let’s go get another one!
It’s breezy, the wind is steady out of the northeast and the nights are cool. The weather has the sleepers, for the most part, hunkered down in deeper water. But there are a few magical exceptions, small concentrations of active fish. We’ve jumped several over the last few days; you really have to stick that hook if you want to keep ‘em on, they’re not bluegills! Smaller fish are beginning to appear among the giants, 40 to 60 pound class, and this usually indicates a new push of migrants arriving. It’s quiet in the Islands, snook season is closed and there are few other boats in the areas we’re fishing.
We’ve spent the last couple of days chasing snook and red’s down south. Here’s a few photo’s of Patrick, Kevin and Brian and some of their victories. It’s been a pleasant change but there’s always the thought, in the back of your mind, of those sleepers, lolling about in the lagoons out front. We’re getting a new Yamaha four stroke installed tomorrow and then it’s back on the tarpon quest on Tuesday.
Dan Newman hooked up this morning on Dawn Patrol. She was an easy hundred pounds and made a spectacular leaping run of a hundred and fifty yards before falling back on the tippet and snapping us off. He was using an eight weight rod, the Billy Baroo model by Biscayne Rods, an excellent, ultra light tarpon rod.
Later in the day, as the tide came in, the action slowed. We stopped in a pass to cast to a school of spanish mackerel that were in a frenzy, leaping and feeding on what we thought were glass minnows. The first one we caught regurgitated dozens of tiny eel-like larvae. At first, expecting glass minnows, I didn’t get it; it wasn’t until we caught several and I was washing the spew off the decks that I realized what they were. They were leptocephalus, the minute, fifteen day old, initial life form of megalops atlanticus, tarpon, thousands of them, migrating with the dark moon tide on their natal odyssey from the open waters of the Gulf to the safety of the Everglades.
Tarpon on fly, Everglades Style. Jim Ressmeyer on the foredeck, hunting sleepers with a nine weight on his first trip to the Everglades.
Bill Chorske on the foredeck striking two today. We had lots of chances at sleepers but they were lazy and the takes were light, it’s difficult to stick the hook when they’re behaving that way. We saw a lot of fish, some new arrivals, giants, and some smaller fish beginning to show among them. Snook season is closed and the Islands are quiet, very few boats on the water, it’s beautiful out there, more tarpon are appearing, the weather is moderating and the excitement level is rising. The best is yet to come.