Florida Tarpon Reside In and Out of Rivers
Capt. Mike Locklear
August 17, 2009
Homosassa - Saltwater Fishing Report
Tarpon are in and still giving me the fever. There are a few schools still around on the flats and in the rivers bays. I guess they are native fish. This past season was probably the best I have had in several years. The reason is, I was lucky and had some great anglers.
Great in a way that they could put the fly in the strike zone of the poons face. The zone is about the size of a basketball hoop. Other sports such as basketball where the goal is stationary don't compare, to describe the mental and physical agility it takes to have a tarpon eat the fly.
If you compare your fly-fishing cast to tarpon like golfers do to arrive at the cup, your success would improve dramatically. The playing field is not the same with golf as it is with fly-fishing. First, you have to identify the fish and then the speed it is traveling. Or if it is a laid up fish, you must learn how close you can cast the fly to the fish without spooking it. Even the speed and length of stripping the fly is very important to feed a poon.
There are places I have fished where perhaps are the best fly fishing opportunities anywhere on earth for either world record tarpon or just hungry tarpon in the 60-80 pound range. The reason is I live where they come to every year. True some years are better than others. The fisheries change for a variety of reasons. Weather, water temperature, wind direction and rainfall are the major factors when and where the tarpon will show up and long they will stay.
Some clients believe that there are thousands of tarpon the professional guides never see. They say they are in deeper water where fly fishing is not practical. I don't disagree with this theory. I am sure at least in the shallow water flats of the Gulf of Mexico, which is where 90% of the tarpon are.
We get a run or migration in May and June here in Homosassa, but there are fish here year around. However, the tactics and where you fish changes with the seasons. Naturally, the fish would arguably make the loop around the Gulf States to Mexico. It is their track they have been on for 100 million years. But are there more or less fish today?
The answer may be in where you look and don't look. It does not take the entire population of poons to please the tarpon fly-fishermen. A few steady rollers in a river pool or a few bloopers are encouragement enough to have a chance at hooking one of these ancient giant fish.
To me just feeling the strike or even better watching him take is the absolute best rush. It is a sport of champions against the king of sports. Tarpon fishing it's the greatest sport!
Homosassa Fishing Forecast:
Tarpon are around for the adventure, some in the cooler river and a few out in the hot waters of the gulf.
Scallop are the thickest around[I heard] Steinhatchee or just north of there. You can get your limits in an hour or two.
Redfishing has been and will continue to run through September.
Target Species:
Tarpon - Redfish- Scallops
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