Little is still known about these fish and their lives. In most places where Tarpon are found, the juvenile fish (up to 50lb’s!) can be found throughout the year with the larger migratory fish appearing from May through to August/September. They travel in shoals sometimes hundreds at a time and have the ability to live in both fresh and salt water. Fresh water rivers, act as a nursery for the rapidly growing youngsters with the larger fish preferring to live at sea, cruising the mangroves and flats, often to be found in deep channels and the open water rolling and feeding on any available morsels.

Once located Tarpon can be surprisingly difficult to tempt; which is unusual for a fish that spends it’s time swimming, eating and making little Tarpon! The main aim of the game is to spot a shoal and cast to lead the first fish with your fly. A series of long steady pulls increasing in speed will allow the fly to pulsate and mimic a fleeing fish enticing your target.

Tackle

For tackle Floating lines with tapers designed to turnover large flies are essential, such as the Wonderline Tarpon. This is ideal in shallower water but in the deeper areas Clear Intermediates and fast sink lines such as the Depth Charge series are needed. These lines are designed to withstand the baking heat of tropical weather and don’t go limp and lifeless. These large lines need a reel that is up to the job, with a large capacity and incredibly powerful drag systems the Mach and Vortex reels are more than man enough for the job, together with a minimum of 35lb high capacity gel spun backing. Rods of 9’ in length are ideal; I recommend a 10 weight for the smaller Tarpon with 11’s and 12’s being more the tool for the big boys. T3 and the TLS Power Matrix series are perfect apparatus to fulfil the challenge.

Leaders

Leader set up’s are far cry from delicate tapered leaders; with no teeth the Tarpon’s mouth has series of hard abrasive pads that can only best be described as a ‘bucket of bone’ because of this we use a shock tippet of around 12” in length of 80 or 100lb’s in breaking, the remainder of the leader being between 20 and 35lb’s. I find the best material to be either Mirage fluorocarbon or the Super Strong Abrasive Resistant. If you don’t have confidence in creating your own leaders then why not try the Mirage pre-tied Tarpon leaders which are available in a series of different braking strains.