Preferably in the US.... When? Where? Looking for input to get me through this storm... I can wish, can't I?

keys in mid may. drifting crabs by the bridges. 20# spinning gear :uhuh:. get on them before the sharks do

had a biggun take me down to the knot before i could get off the ball. could feel the mono stretch

there are a lot of options so you have to decide how you want to catch them - deep water, flats, along the beaches, etc.
I preferred the flats and targeted them a few times in the keys in May. There is a place in florida where they are stacked up and guys go deep for them. Tarpon Springs? Seems like combat fishing and not my style.

I'll be in Port Charlotte in mid march, too early to try to find one lurking around?
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Tarpon fishing in Tarpon Springs is more beach-front fishing to cruising fish moving north ... they move north in pods, anglers fish for them with live bait such as mullet and flies as well.

The deep water fishing you are thinking of is Boca Grande Pass between Gasparilla Island (where Boca Grande is) and Cayo Costa to the south end. The boats drift crabs and live bait, as well as jig the pass, it can be a crazy zoo ... but just outside of the pass on either side, the schools/pods of tarpon can be found moving along the beaches as well as daisy chaining up on Johnson Shoals. When I first started fishing that area about 25 years ago, there were not many light tackle boats and lots and lots of fish. These days, there are far more boats, it's a bit crowded, but the fishing in that area and throughout Pine Island Sound can be absolutely phenomenal.

There are resident fish that can be found throughout Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor year round, you just have to know where to go ... and those spots are more secret than the Colonel's secret recipe ... for that area, May is really when it starts to get real hot ... April can have some great fishing too, but I try to catch it toward the end of May and June.

By that time you will find fish through all the passes - not just Boca Grande, but Red Fish Pass and more. It can be really really great.

Further down south, throughout Florida Bay, tarpon can be found moving along the banks and through the channels on the inside of the Florida Keys - they call it bayside ... and there is a lot of different terrain to fish, including Nine Mile Bank, and then further down the Keys areas such as down by the Content Keys and other keys, passes and bays throughout ... keep moving down the Keys and you reach the Key West area.

The areas throughout Key West are even more varied ... there are the passes and channels on the backside, then there are the areas around Key West Harbor (which also has a good late winter/early spring fishery where the boats line up set up chum slicks and drift bait back in the slicks, there can be a lot of fish throughout that area).

A little further west from Key West Harbor is the region called the Lakes - these are flats, channels and bowls where tarpon move through all day long, great great fishing for fish of all sizes, the babies will hang together, the teen-size fish will hang together and then the bigger fish will be found moving through different areas. Similar to any tarpon location, the key points and spots are all secret, but can change from season to season.

Then move further west and you reach the Marquesas - the tarpon fishing is very similar to the lakes and the other flats fishing for tarpon throughout the keys, but get out there in the middle of the week, and you can have long stretches to yourself, no other boats, with lots of happy fish.

From here you can move back east out the front side along the Atlantic side of the Keys up through Islamorada and to Biscayne Bay - where again, the fishing is flat fishing, the boats stake out on the edges of flats ... (as the fish travel along the edges depending upon the phase of the tides, they follow the contours of the bottom) ... using their push poles and wait for fish to move through. There is a real process and order to that fishing, it always pays to get there first, as the other boats will move in behind you to catch fish that pass your boat.

Further north from Miami up, it's fishing along the beaches and through the inlets again. The larger inlets and waterways, such as up in the Stuart area, can find fish inside along the flats, cuts, passes and what not and are very receptive to flies, baits and lures.

One winter fishery for tarpon that is particularly fun is the winter fishing for tarpon at night off Miami - outside Government Cut and the Miami beaches. Often crabs and shrimp will be floating along, the boats go out there at night and throw baits, lures and flies to the fish. It's in the dark and the fish will pop bait in the middle of the night, on the calm nights it sounds like bathtubs being dropped into the water ... it's exciting stuff.

Also inside the Everglades, you can find fish laid up during the winter in the back country and the various creeks and bays - again, this is a very protected fishery, you have to be out there every day to keep track of where the fish are hanging ... in the tannin water, these fish eat flies like crazy ... another great lure is the DOA Terroreyze for these fish ... I have poled into to pockets on the lower tides where dozens of fish in the 100-pound range are hanging out and they eat like mad, it's so much fun, and when you find them hanging out in the backcountry hideaways ... there often are no other fishermen around.

We can add a lot more info on this, but that should provide a top level skim of what is available and when.

But it always pays to book a guide no matter when you go for tarpon, or where ... there are guides fishing for tarpon all along the Florida coastline.

One fishery I left off is the late spring fishery up along the panhandle, there are stretches where big fish move through and are very receptive to flies, plugs and baits. again, it's always best to book a guide though, as you save on time.

Tarpon fishing in Tarpon Springs is more beach-front fishing to cruising fish moving north ... they move north in pods, anglers fish for them with live bait such as mullet and flies as well.

The deep water fishing you are thinking of is Boca Grande Pass between Gasparilla Island (where Boca Grande is) and Cayo Costa to the south end. The boats drift crabs and live bait, as well as jig the pass, it can be a crazy zoo ... but just outside of the pass on either side, the schools/pods of tarpon can be found moving along the beaches as well as daisy chaining up on Johnson Shoals. When I first started fishing that area about 25 years ago, there were not many light tackle boats and lots and lots of fish. These days, there are far more boats, it's a bit crowded, but the fishing in that area and throughout Pine Island Sound can be absolutely phenomenal.

There are resident fish that can be found throughout Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor year round, you just have to know where to go ... and those spots are more secret than the Colonel's secret recipe ... for that area, May is really when it starts to get real hot ... April can have some great fishing too, but I try to catch it toward the end of May and June.

By that time you will find fish through all the passes - not just Boca Grande, but Red Fish Pass and more. It can be really really great.

Further down south, throughout Florida Bay, tarpon can be found moving along the banks and through the channels on the inside of the Florida Keys - they call it bayside ... and there is a lot of different terrain to fish, including Nine Mile Bank, and then further down the Keys areas such as down by the Content Keys and other keys, passes and bays throughout ... keep moving down the Keys and you reach the Key West area.

The areas throughout Key West are even more varied ... there are the passes and channels on the backside, then there are the areas around Key West Harbor (which also has a good late winter/early spring fishery where the boats line up set up chum slicks and drift bait back in the slicks, there can be a lot of fish throughout that area).

A little further west from Key West Harbor is the region called the Lakes - these are flats, channels and bowls where tarpon move through all day long, great great fishing for fish of all sizes, the babies will hang together, the teen-size fish will hang together and then the bigger fish will be found moving through different areas. Similar to any tarpon location, the key points and spots are all secret, but can change from season to season.

Then move further west and you reach the Marquesas - the tarpon fishing is very similar to the lakes and the other flats fishing for tarpon throughout the keys, but get out there in the middle of the week, and you can have long stretches to yourself, no other boats, with lots of happy fish.

From here you can move back east out the front side along the Atlantic side of the Keys up through Islamorada and to Biscayne Bay - where again, the fishing is flat fishing, the boats stake out on the edges of flats ... (as the fish travel along the edges depending upon the phase of the tides, they follow the contours of the bottom) ... using their push poles and wait for fish to move through. There is a real process and order to that fishing, it always pays to get there first, as the other boats will move in behind you to catch fish that pass your boat.

Further north from Miami up, it's fishing along the beaches and through the inlets again. The larger inlets and waterways, such as up in the Stuart area, can find fish inside along the flats, cuts, passes and what not and are very receptive to flies, baits and lures.

One winter fishery for tarpon that is particularly fun is the winter fishing for tarpon at night off Miami - outside Government Cut and the Miami beaches. Often crabs and shrimp will be floating along, the boats go out there at night and throw baits, lures and flies to the fish. It's in the dark and the fish will pop bait in the middle of the night, on the calm nights it sounds like bathtubs being dropped into the water ... it's exciting stuff.

Also inside the Everglades, you can find fish laid up during the winter in the back country and the various creeks and bays - again, this is a very protected fishery, you have to be out there every day to keep track of where the fish are hanging ... in the tannin water, these fish eat flies like crazy ... another great lure is the DOA Terroreyze for these fish ... I have poled into to pockets on the lower tides where dozens of fish in the 100-pound range are hanging out and they eat like mad, it's so much fun, and when you find them hanging out in the backcountry hideaways ... there often are no other fishermen around.

We can add a lot more info on this, but that should provide a top level skim of what is available and when.

But it always pays to book a guide no matter when you go for tarpon, or where ... there are guides fishing for tarpon all along the Florida coastline.

One fishery I left off is the late spring fishery up along the panhandle, there are stretches where big fish move through and are very receptive to flies, plugs and baits. again, it's always best to book a guide though, as you save on time.

Good god... thank man! Great info even though it puts my hopes of finding fish in March a little further out of reach.

Maybe I can find a guide who will show me one of those holdover holes so I get my tarpon checked off my list. My girl's family used to own a little boat rental place in Punta Gorda so maybe they will have some connections to a guide willing to help me out.
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Seriously the most incredible fishing experience of my life. It was a little early for them the first week in April but they were there. We must have hooked up with 8 fish that took us into the bridges and broke off. They are smart fighters. Our guide was great and way on overtime and it was literally the "one last cast" before I hooked up and landed one. It took us into the bridge, around a piling, back out into the channel, then came back in to the bridge and we ended up landing it well out in between the two bridges at Bahia Honda. The one we boated was only about 90 lbs but was just the most incredible fighting fish. Not to mention that in complete darkness as we were bring the fish to the boat a 8-12 foot tiger shark came after the fish, swirled around and t-boned the boat (22 foot center console). Unfortunately, that also means no pictures were taken but the memory is strong.

Lived in the lower Keys for 9&1/2 years. Get ahold of Larry @ strike Zone Charters in Big Pine Key.

Good god... thank man! Great info even though it puts my hopes of finding fish in March a little further out of reach.

Maybe I can find a guide who will show me one of those holdover holes so I get my tarpon checked off my list. My girl's family used to own a little boat rental place in Punta Gorda so maybe they will have some connections to a guide willing to help me out.
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There are lots of chances to catch fish in March in the Charlotte Harbor area ... so long as you have the right guide ... here is a section from the website of Capt. Mike Rehr from Sanibel, "www.captflyrod.com" ... he has taught me a lot about tarpon fishing, so always good to give him a ring.

"January/February: the earliest I’ve had a fly fisherman hook up on a tarpon was January 16th. My best winter day was February 14th a couple of years ago. A fly rodder jumped 9 tarpon with not one fish under 100 pounds, all laid-up fish. January and February are “iffy” months because the water temperature in the inside bays has to be over 73 degrees in order for the tarpon to show up. It’s not something you can book in advance and count on. It’s “situation fishing” dependent on the water temperature. If you’re here on Sanibel and Captiva at that time and the water temperature is right, we can go after them.

March to mid-April: the water is generally warming up to over 73 degrees. We begin seeing more laid-up resident tarpon in our crystal clear water. While we can count on seeing more tarpon the last week of March to the middle of April the fishing is weather dependent."

You can catch tarpon in Florida year round, but during the winter months, it's a bit more challenging but they are around ...if you can find the baby tarpon, they are a lot of fun as well. But again, the opportunities are there ... just hope you get four to five days of warm weather ... sunny, low winds and temps in the mid to upper 70s, it should turn them on.

I just returned from the Islamorada.
They were all over the place where the kids pay for herring and feed them off the dock !!!!! Some up to 100 lbs. Man I wanted to bring a rod there after hours...but....

But to fish for them......
Our guide said in the summer (when no-one vacations in Fl.), the Tarpon on the bay (north side) up by flamingo are thick enough to walk on.

I did Key West in May one year and they were easy to find, but hard to land.