dahlberg wrote:
> Hi C
> I'm curious as to which months you are catching tarpon. Also curious as to
> the physical description regarding surf, substrate, and distance from
> nearest adjacent change in substrate. (rock to sand, cliffs to rock,
> submerged islands, etc)
> Are they coinciding with some other run of smaller bait? Dropping back from
> river systems? Do you see them rolling? How big are the biggest you've
> actually seen alive or photos of?
> As you may know, the world record Maracaibo tarpon that stood for so many
> years was caught not that far from you by tarpon standards.
> best,
> L
Hey Larry! Thanks for your answer!!
Usually the biggest tarpons are seen around late September through December...but there are cases when you see them randomly on other months, althought the biggest seem to hang out on Sept-Dec. The physical description of the place are lots of submerged rocks, and in the same place, you cast from a cliff or from the shore, either way, there are lots of submerged rocks, the sand is full with oyster shells. Now the thing here is that there are no studies about the tarpon habitats and behaviours, as in many places, the locals seems to have the answer. They usually told us that there is a very small population of tarpon that lives nearby, but the bigger ones come with the mullet run (which is around Late October - December..the peak season seems to be November). Yes, we doo see them rolling, but most of the times we saw their backs as they swim pretty slow through the waves. They tend to appear also whith Jack Crevalles. This year, we had a very strange season, the mullet came around late November-December, where the wind is blowing hard and it's a bit difficult to cast. The nearest river system is the mouth of the Magdalena River. In a small stream of this river I fish for baby baby tarpon year round with fly.
Well, I've seen giant tarpon actually jump several feet over the water chasing mullet, and man, they're big! They are like logs in the water, the locals say they have landed tarpons around 200 lbs!!!! And you can actually see some busting on the mullet that are pretty big! The ones that my friends managed to land are the smaller ones, around 60 lbs, the bigger ones just broke the line off or spooled completely the reels, that's why I started this post..lol!
Thanks a lot Larry!!
Best regards!
Carlos