I pulled in a 38" tarpon in Boynton Inlet several years back on a medium weight spinning rig on a 1/0 circle rigged with a live finger mullet while fishing for snook. Took me an hour of give and take and a lot of cooperation from the other folks fishing inside the inlet, but I got it up and over the sea wall. One day, I'm going to fish Boca Pass for them.
Nice catch. We target them down here and it's always a good time but you only want to catch a couple 100+ a day or they'll wear you out. :toast
I have a boat but sometimes the gas is really expensive to go out in. Is it hard to get them on the beach from wading or using a pier like ft desota? I have hooked up with a lot but never actually got one in. They seem to shake the hook out of their mouth every single time when they jump.
Maybe I should hire a guide to learn how to even catch one.
I caught a little one when I was a kid and worked on deep sea charter boats. It was eating the snapper carcasses after I filleted them at tossed them in at the dock. So I hooked up a 4/0 with a nice big hook and dropped a half of a decent mangrove snapper into the water and watched the thing eat it. I'll see if I can dig out the picture. It was a little one, but it was fun, and I was getting paid for my time while catching the thing. Can't beat that.
One of my clients asked me to go Saturday morning with him off Anna Maria. He says the tarpon are all over out there. Gonna go out before sunup if the weather is ok.
