Originally Posted by Finaddict
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.
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