It's the ole' pier rat back at ya once again with another great fishing homepage. I bet you thought that your old fishing buddy only fished the Juno Beach Pier? Well, I'm here to tell you that it's not so. Check out my homepage on tarpon fishing from the beach.

As I sat there on that sandy beach in the predawn darkness, a light breeze whispered across the calm Florida ocean. I was once again "waiting for the bite." It was almost daylight and I could hear the silver kings as they surfaced to gulp air, I knew that it wouldn't be long. My dead sardine laying on the bottom also awaiting the silver gladiator, the beast of all beasts, the Megalops Atlanticus, aka the Tarpon.

As those who know me can attest, tarpon have a very special place in my heart, although the "elusive snook" take second to none, as well as the tackle wrecking permit! But, come late spring I leave the line-siders to spawn and I get into a tarpon state of mind. For my mornings are spent with a hot cup of coffee sitting on the Juno Beach sand in my favorite fishing chair waiting on a hungry silver king to come along and swallow my bait.

Know Your Adversary

So, what exactly do we know about the Megalops Atlanticus? Well, actually not much. We know tarpon are prehistoric animals, traveling the warm seas back as far as 125 million years ago. They are one of the few fish known to us as possessing an air bladder. This unique organ allows them to actually breath from the atmosphere. They obtain this air by "rolling" on the surface and taking a gulp. Tarpon use this exclusive feature to survive in fresh water and oxygen-depleted, stagnant waters. This air bladder is a gift to tarpon anglers from the fish gods. Tarpon rolling makes finding and fishing Florida tarpon a wee bit easier.

Shortly after the first moon in spring, adult tarpon begin to show up along our Florida coast. The migration continues all through April, May and June all along our beaches, passes and flats. This migration to the shoreline is related to some sort of pre-spawn ritual.

Tarpon often display a courtship in which they "mill" or "daisy chain." Often they are very much preoccupied in the show of affection, and can be very temperamental, particularly around the major moon phases. Tarpon are true lunar fish. Besides a snook, their behavior and movements during these periods is that of no other fish that I target.

Beach Tarpon Fishing

Most of my big tarpon have all been caught on the beach in Juno Beach Florida. I fish a ten foot rod, with either a Shimano Calcutta 700 or a 4/0 wide Accuplate with usually between 25 and 30 pound test. For bait I use dead sardines. I use a wind-on leader so I don't get tail cut, an 8 oz. bank sinker with a slider rig, for maximum casting distance. My hooks are usually size 8.0's with a 100 lb mono short leader.

I nose hook the sardine and send it out as far as I can toss it. Then I put the rod in a sand spike and sit and "Wait for the bite". If they're around it usually isn't long at all. The tricky part is getting to rod before the tarpon screams out the drag, feels the hook and the weight of the clicker and then jumps! If you can survive the first three jumps you've got a GOOD chance in landing the fish. But most tarpon will jump before you even can stand up and get to your rod.

The best time I've found for beach tarpon is early morning and late afternoon. I like getting to the beach by at least 4:00 am and then maybe fish to the heat of the morning, which is usually around 9 or 10 am. So I usually give it several hours in the morning and if they arn't there then you call it a day and try again another day. Most of the time when I hook up I don't even know they are around. By this I mean I don't see them "rolling." I catch more fish when I don't see them rolling.

Fishing Mullet Schools

Now, when the winter mullet run begins to show up on the beaches it's a whole different ballgame. It's time to fish these schools for the monster tarpon that feed on them. Here's the way I like to fish these mullet schools:
I use a two rod method. One spinning rod rigged with a double snag hook and a leaded weight for snagging the mullet. Once I snag a live mullet from the giant schools of bait, I reel him in and hook him onto my second rod which is already rigged and waiting. I use a hundred pound mono leader with a small egg sinker above the swivel. A medium sized live bait hook will do. I myself prefer the Gamagatzu circle type hooks, I have had a much better hook set ratio with the tarpon.

I have had more luck with the weighted live mullet due to the fact that there are so many mullet in these monster schools of bait that if you can get a live mullet underneath the bait schools you are more likely to get a quicker bite! And beleive me, when you see these monster tarpon swimming through these mullet schools and crashing them along with jacks, barracuda, spinner sharks, snook and bluefish, you'll see why I fish the live mullet schools on the beach every year. Three years ago I hooked and fought a tarpon well in the 200 pound class, but lost him after several jumps, and him dumping line on my 4/0 wide Accuplate! The only thing I ended up reeling in was a huge tarpon scale that was stuck to the end of my lazer sharp hook! One of the locals was fishing next to me and said, "Hey Rat, that's better then catching the fish!" I shook my head, acknowledging the fact that I probably won't ever do that again in my entire life!