There's not a freshwater fisherman alive who doesn't overtly or covertly lust for a largemouth bass weighing just one ounce heavier than the 22-pound, four-ounce prize landed by George Perry back in 1932, in Georgia's Montgomery Lake.
Although Ray Easley, a quiet and modest San Diego firefighter, came close in 1980, with a 21-pound, three-ouncer in a southern California lake, it appears as if Perry's fish may yet prove to be fishdom's insurmountable obstacle.
While a new bass mark is certainly the most sought after, there's a dedicated cadre amongst saltwater warriors actively attacking International Game Fish Association (IGFA) records with a vengeance for every category of piscatorial trophy ranging from albacore to zebrafish (sheepshead).
One specie that comes under chronic bombardment is the tarpon.
Many silver king addicts not only want to break existing records, they aspire to new frontiers.
Hang around tarpon buffs for any length of time and the prospect of a 300-pound silver king enters into a conversation. Fly rod enthusiasts not only want to break Billy Pate's record, they want to do it in grand style by landing that elusive 200-pounder. Heck, even Pate has dreamed of that goal for more than a decade.
Most tarpon veterans can tell tales of estimated 300-pounders lost on conventional tackle, or 200-pounders that broke a 12-pound tippet on its third jump.
So far, the closest anyone has come to a 300-pounder was the 283 captured by Mario Salazar in Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo on March 19, 1956. Pate's 1982 Homosassa-caught fly rod dividend scaled 188 pounds.
Another subject usually arising in discussions centering on potential 300-pound tarpon...or 200-pound fly rod tarpon...is locale.
In years past, most IGFA records were established in Florida's waters. During the 1980s, however, may of the world's brawniest silver kings appeared at Port Michel, Gabon, in Africa, a place where some predict will be the site for the first 300-pounder.
Fly fishermen remain optimistic that the shallow grass flats located south of the Homosassa River mouth on Florida's Gulf coast will eventually produce the first 200-pounder.
While they may prove to be correct, the flyrodder may be remiss in not exploring other Gulf areas such as Crystal River and Yankeetown where the aqua habitat is similar and many estimated 200-pound plus fish have been seen and a few caught.
Nor should conventional tackle or fly rod record seekers overlook the Gulf side of the Florida Keys, Florida's lower west coast from Ft. Myers south to Naples, or, for that matter, the Tampa Bay area which appears to be staging a big fish comeback since some semblance of sanity has been injected into tournament formats which previously seemed to reflect "the only good tarpon are dead tarpon hanging at a weigh station to be ogled by tourists and shot by photographers" syndrome.
Another facet coming into play is the $50 permit inaugurated by the state three years ago calling for an immediate release of all tarpon unless the angler had earlier purchased a special stamp authorizing its possession.
Since many fish--especially those scaling on the plus side of 100 pounds--were formerly sacrificed for tournament prize purposes or photo considerations, growth potential obviously ceased. Now, that 150-pounder may, in a few years, develop into a 200-pounder, and a 200-pounder could mature into a robust 300-pounder by the turn of the century.
Located in tropical and subtropical waters throughout the world, tarpon easily qualify as one of the grandest of grand angling targets.
Accessible to bridge and shoreline anglers as well as to small boat owners, the tarpon is often referred to as "the poor man's game fish" because gigantic cash outlays aren't required to drum up feverish action. Matter of fact, in most instances an angler with a small boat and an electric motor or push pole has an advantage over the guy with a 55-foot Hatteras.
Tarpon are generally found off beaches, on bay flats, and in passes, rivers, canals, channels, cuts, basins, backcountry areas, and sometimes in freshwater habitat during spring, summer, and fall months. They range throughout the Gulf and Atlantic coast states north to the Carolinas. In extreme south Florida and the Keys, it's a year-round resident that will readily eat dead bait, live bait, plugs, spoons, jigs, streamer flies, and poppers with gusto.
Few coastal game fish thrive in as many habitats, be taken with as many types of techniques and equipment, or come in as many sizes. And none provide a fisherman with more heart-stopping excitement when hooked.
It's capable of fast, long runs against a strong drag. High, violent jumps are its trademark. Its courage and durability during a confrontation is legendary.
While a few of us consistently wade into an open water-tarpon fray with light or ultra-light gear suited more for yearling bass or saltwater trout, smarter fishermen use a more commonsense approach to tackle selection.
Those fishing from bridge or catwalks are well advised to go with stiff, heavy rods from eight to nine feet in length, 3/0 to 4/0 star drag reels, and lines testing out between 80 and 130 pounds, in order to muscle an adversary into open water and away from barnacle encrusted pilings.
For more conventional applications in bay, beach, and pass situations, a powerful 6-1/2 to 7-1/2 foot graphite or fiberglass casting or spinning rod with through-handle construction, a long butt, and rear grips should be adequate, as should a sturdy freshwater casting or spinning reel that has a smooth but rugged drag system and can accommodate at least 250 yards of 12- to 20-pound monofilament line.
Naturally, fly fishermen who may meet up with a tarpon weighing between 50 and 125 pounds will want an outfit suitable for the occasion, such as a rod designed to handle 11- to 13-weight lines and a reel that'll hold 200 to 250 yards of backing.
While a larger tarpon can and often does survive in polluted water, it is sensitive to temperatures and, generally, doesn't get active until waters warm to 75 degrees F. Smaller fish seem to be able to tolerate temperatures in the high 60s. They'll stay active in most places until the cold fronts in fall cool things down and head to deeper water, migrate south, or, in some cases, hole up throughout the winter in warm water run-offs near power plants.
In extreme south Florida and the Keys, an angler might connect with a silver king throughout the winter months. Historically, the fish doesn't show signs of life elsewhere until March or early-April when inshore waters begin to warm.
As the warming trend continues, this gamester works its way north along the coastlines of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. By late April, on through August and September, it'll cause major excitement as far north as the Carolinas on the Atlantic, the Florida Panhandle, the mouth of the Mississippi, and the bays/inlets along the Texas coast in the Gulf. Some rare strays have been reported at Cape Cod.
Particular hotspots throughout the Sunshine State include the Florida Keys, Government Cut, Jacksonville (to a lesser extent), Naples, Ft. Myers, Charlotte Harbor, the Pinellas County beaches, Tampa Bay, and Homosassa north to Yankeetown and Apalachicola.
"The" place to be from May through July and early August is Boca Grande where tarpon by the blue zillions gang up in the pass to ambush "dollar crabs" and other natural goodies being swept along by strong incoming or outgoing tides.
In nearly three decades I've been skunked but once at Boca Grade and this happened in the early 1980s immediately following the "No Name Hurricane" that roared into the area at night without warning with 100 mph winds and scattered the fish from here to breakfast.
On several occasions, during the testing and development of Cotee's deep water jig, three of us jumped more than 100 tarpon on two tides!
Although anglers occasionally encounter a silver king that elects to go deep and sulk, most fish initially opt for a dazzling aerial battle.
Typically, water depths determine the number of jumps a tarpon will make. In the shallower haunts of Tampa Bay, Homosassa, and throughout the Ten Thousand Islands, it's not unusual for a 100-pounder to explode through the water's surface a dozen or more times. In deeper waters, such as found in Boca Grade, a rodman is lucky to get three leaps before his antagonist resolves to slug it out down below.
Various provincial techniques have evolved throughout the 1900s to catch tarpon.
For example, in Tampa Bay, nearly everyone fished such dead baits as pinfish, grunts, shad, and mullet on the bottom. Anglers would take these freshly caught baitfish, scallop-cut each side three times, open the belly to burst its bladder and let it rest on the bottom with a 2/0 reel on free-spool. Many pre-soaked the offerings in a variety of concoctions, most of which had a anise oil base.
It isn't unusual to see a Tampa Bay angler with six or more rods positioned around his anchored boat similar in pattern to spokes on a bicycle wheel. When a fish picks up a bait, the fisherman is likely to allow it to run for up to two minutes before setting the hook.
Until we introduced light tackle jigging 25 years ago to Boca Grande, "the only way" to catch tarpon was to drift a pass crab or small live bait through huge schools of fish seen rolling on the surface. Guides often send baits deep on heavy 80-pound tackle with a throw-off weight.
Today, with a Cotee, 12-Fathom, or other one- to two-ounce jigs, a novice angler in a 14-foot bass boat can regularly out-produce a few of the old-time Boca Grande guides who refuse to enter the 20th century.
Along the Gulf and Atlantic beaches live baiting was and is the traditional way to hook tarpon. However, the late Harold LeMaster, then president of the L & S Bait Company in Largo, demonstrated time and again throughout the 1950s and 1960s that the silver-sided piscatorial dandy can also be victimized by a slowly-retrieved Mirrolure.
Jim Bagley showed us in the early 1970s that his Bangolure and Trout Tout were often irresistible. The late Andy McLain was among the first to pioneer a silver spoon partially painted red with fingernail polish. We've even heard of some anglers in the 1930s and '40s who regularly caught tarpon on hand-lines using fresh bananas around the loading docks in Tampa Bay.
Most recently, guys like Billy Pate, Mark Sosin, Bob Stearns, and others have confirmed to the world that streamer flies and popping bugs will take tarpon with regularity.
This all boils down to the fact that tarpon are likely to grab anything in a tackle box, lunch box, or bait box on any given day, and hunters are well advised to be flexible in their approach.
And, speaking of "approaches," quiet is the byword when advancing upon rolling or tailing tarpon, particularly in shallow water where they tend to become as spooky. A push pole is probably the most practical piece of equipment to have aboard when positioning a boat for a cast. An electric motor is probably second best, although we've occasionally seen rolling or milling schools scatter when a unit is switched on or off.
For what it's worth, my entire tarpon box now consists of but three basic seducers--a 1/4- to 1-1/2-ounce selection of Cotee Jig heads with plastic tails in chartreuse, pink, white, and rootbeer hues; a half-dozen each of 52M-18 and 52M-21 Mirrolures; plus a box or two of the new Pro Bait Tippet for added insurance.
While it's common knowledge that some won't settle for a tarpon under 300 pounds, I'm not so picky.
Anything from six inches on up is fine with me.
Copyright (c) 1997 Herb Allen. All rights reserved.
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