Tampa Tarpon

[axle27]

My boss owns a place in the Tampa Bay area. He does some fishing, but not fly fishing. I'm working that angle....

Anyways, I left the company 4 years ago and just recently came back. Once he's found out that I was a fly fisherman, our discussions usually end up there. Recently, he's invited my wife and I to his place sometime in the spring for the Tarpon migration. This has been a dream of mine to fish for Tarpon, Permit and Bones. It's a long time before spring so I'm not getting my hopes up...things have a way of changing...

When do the Tarpon normally run?

Can I get away with a 9wt or should a 10wt be the standard?

What knots should I practice?

Mind, there will be no guide, so I'm gonna be doing this the hard way...on my own. Any advice would be helpful....

 

[peregrines]

My boss owns a place in the Tampa Bay area. He does some fishing, but not fly fishing. I'm working that angle....

Anyways, I left the company 4 years ago and just recently came back. Once he's found out that I was a fly fisherman, our discussions usually end up there. Recently, he's invited my wife and I to his place sometime in the spring for the Tarpon migration. This has been a dream of mine to fish for Tarpon, Permit and Bones. It's a long time before spring so I'm not getting my hopes up...things have a way of changing...

When do the Tarpon normally run?

Although there are probably some "resident" tarpon year round that you could fish for, the best opportunity to have lots of shots at fish will be during the peak of the migration mid May- June with some fish still passing through in July.


Can I get away with a 9wt or should a 10wt be the standard?

A 10 weight should be the minimum-- (most folks consider the standard for tarpon fishing to be a 12 weight). Although an 8 or 9 weight might be fine for medium sized tarpon to 40 lbs or so, you're probably more likely to run into 70-100lb or heavier fish passing through and you'll want to apply as much pressure to the fish as you can to tire them out as quickly as possible.

You'll also want a substantial reel -- well machined with a large drag surface that can hold at least 200 yard of 30 lb Dacron or Micron. Before I ever fished for tarpon i had caught and "fought" a lot of fish. One thing I wasn't prepared for after hooking that first tarpon was the physical nature of the fight-- it was an absolute slugfest like being in a bar room brawl. You will really want to put it to the fish, from the moment you set the hook in the fish's bony jaw in a ferocious, explosive stripe strike until it's on its side at the boat.

If you have an 8 or 9 already by all means bring it along rigged for action-- there are many times the tarpon aren't cooperating and it's good to have a backup plan-- you might run into snook, redfish etc



What knots should I practice?

Tarpon leaders generally consist of 3 parts-- a heavy butt section of 50 lb clear Ande or Maxima monofilament, a "class tippet" of 16 or 20 lb Hard Mason Monofilament and a 12" long section of heavy shock tippet 60, 80 or 100lb clear Ande monofilament. (Although tarpon don't have teeth, their rough bony mouth will quickly abrade through thin mono-- and can also abrade through even heavy 100lb mono if the fight goes on too long.). The IGFA has strict rules on leader construction, but asuming you're not fishing for a record, you can lengthen the shock tippet to 18" or so to allow for changing flies.

For use with a floating fly line, I use a 12' stealth leader:

fly line to leader butt (8' of 50 lb clear Ande or Maxima): Albright knot

leader butt to tippet ( 3' of 16 or 20lb Hard Mason) Bimini twist and twisted double line in tippet tied to butt section with improved blood knot.

tippet to shock leader (60 lb clear Ande) doubled length of tippet ( not a Bimini, just a doubled strand of tippet) tied to butt section with an improved blood knot

fly to shock tippet: 3 turn clinch knot, snugged tight with pliers or a Homer Rhode Loop Knot (gives the fly more action but a bit more difficult to tie-- Note also that the Homer Rhodes Loop knot is only reliable on relatively heavy diameter line, 30 lbs test and up.)

This results in a one piece leader with relatively few knots. An alternative for easier changes on the water is to replace the knotted connection bewtween the butt and the tippet with a loop to loop connection. This allows you to have easy changes between several pre-tied tippet and shock leader sections. To rig this type of connection tie a doubled surgeon's loop in the butt section and a bimini twist knot and doubled surgeons loop in tippet and connect with a loop to loop connection.

Albright, Bimini Twist, Blood Knot, Clinch Knot, Surgeon's Loop: Fishing Knots | How to Tie Fishing Knots | Animated Fishing Knots

Homer Rhode Loop Knot : Homer Rhode Loop - Instructions

Loop to loop connection-- it's very important that you make a square knot type of connection instead of a cutting connection: Loop-to-Loop Connection | Killroys Fly Tying

For use with intermediate or sinking fly lines a shorter 4' leader is used (this will prevent the fly from riding up higher in the water column as it would on a longer leader). A tippet plus shock is connected to to a loop in a very short butt section, or loop in the fly line formed with a double nail knot.

Fly line to backing-- Note, if you hook a tarpon you WILL see your backing, so make sure you have a solid connection and that it will easily pass through all the guides without hanging up. I use a loop to loop connection: Create loop in backing with Bimini. Make a Loop in fly line by doubling it and using 3 nail knots tied with 12lb mono over the doubled fly line cinched real tight to secure th loop in the fly line. Trim tag and standing ends of ends of 12lb mono after tightening the nail knots.

Note it is important that all knots be kept relatively small, and you'll want to make sure the knot between both the fly line and the backing and the fly line and the butt section can pass easily through the guides.



Mind, there will be no guide, so I'm gonna be doing this the hard way...on my own. Any advice would be helpful....

Advice is to practice casting-- tarpon fishing often involves a lot of hours standing around and then all heck break loose-- you'll want o practice casting to take advantage of any opportunities that sudden arise. Generally you won't have a lot of opportunities for false casting, or much time to get ready once they show up. You'll have to get off casts quickly. Being able to cast far is an asset of course, but perhaps more importantly than distance is being able to cast accurately-- often, even if you can't cast far to distant fish when they first appear, if you can cast accurately in their line of approach and land it several fish lengths ahead of them, you can just let the fly sit there until they swim close to it and then start a stripping.

To practice casting under semi realistic conditions, place a couple fish targets on the lawn from 30 to 50 feet out-- imagine different scenarios for example that they are swimming at a 45 degree angle to you with current coming from your right. Tarpon although big fish, can spook very easily -- one of the things that can blow up a fish or school is to have a fly come towards them-- you do not want to cast beyond a fish so that your strips have your fly, even though it might just be the size of shrimp, seem to be attacking a fish.

It's better to land short than on the far side of a fish- So for example if you spread out your right hand and imagine the fingers represent a school of tarpon, your best shot would be casting on the near side and slightly ahead of the fish represented by your thumb -- since casting to any other "fish" would have the fly "attacking" another fish.

To practice you might strip off 50 feet or so of fly line, hold the fly in your left hand by the bend (clip off the point if you're over grass), with 10 feet of fly line out of the tip, the rest of the fly line at your feet to shoot. Your first back cast should pull the fly out of your hand, your next forward cast should shoot some line and have things moving, your next back cast should be the last one and either shoot or drop (without shooting) your fly line on your forward cast to lay 2-3 fish lengths ahead of the target you've picked out.

Rearrange targets, scenarios and distances, and practice casting in wind coming from different directions.

There's a lot to digest, and an experienced guide of course makes it a heck of a lot easier-- since you'll be doing this on your own to help get you prepared the best advice I could give you would be to track down a copy of this:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Tarpon-Fly-Donald-Larmouth/dp/1571882707"]Amazon.com: Tarpon on Fly (0066066004598): Donald Larmouth, Rob Fordyce, Flip Pallot: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K8VYZ0RZL.@@AMEPARAM@@51K8VYZ0RZL[/ame]

This is an excellent book, with detailed instructions on gear, sharpening hooks, rigging and excellent diagrams on how to present a fly to fish in different circumstances ( when fish are daisy chaining, approaching in schools at different angles from the boat, and to laid up fish), and how to exert maximum pressure with a rod to fight a tarpon by keeping the tip low to the water and applying pressure or pulling in the opposite direction the fish is traveling (a technique called "down and dirty"). The book is well worth the $18. I fished in the Keys with Captain Rob Fordyce for tarpon for a number of years and he is outstanding, the book will give you a ton of useful info he's put to use in many 1,000's of hours on the water chasing after these fish.

I hope this helps a bit, and that others on the board also weigh in--- good luck this sounds like it's going to be a great adventure.

 

[gatortransplant]

I'm very new when it comes to fly fishing, but I think a 9wt might be a little light for tarpon. Also, I may be mistaken but I don't think Tampa has bonefish, I haven't heard of people catching them that far north on the West Coast. As far as permit, that I can't tell you, I know they target them offshore in Tampa sometimes but I have no idea about targeting them in the flats in that area like you would see down near the Everglades.

I have fished for tarpon, though not on the fly yet. The tarpon really start moving around late May, though you can definitely catch them into June and July in that area on the West Coast. Good luck!!

 

[wjc]

Axle,

When tying flies onto 60lb fluoro you will need something strong to hook the hook into small enough that it will be behind the barb. Many of the knots used with thick fluoro - Rhodes loop, Duncan loop, Lefty Loop - require pressure on both standing and tag ends. You will need one hand on the standing line and pliers on the tag end. A "hook ring" or steering wheel spoke will work.

I think Mark made a typo here

To rig this type of connection tie a doubled surgeon's loop in the butt section

The butt section will be 50 or 60 lb. test and a single loop is way more than adaquate. It is the tippet only which requires a doubled loop in this type of connection.

I would also bimini both ends of the tippet so the tippet is doubled at the bite tippet connection too via a strong knot in that end of the single tippet.

There is another alternative also but it requires stronger backing, like 60 or 80lb gel spun and a 12 wt line. Then you can go with straight 60 lb fluoro or mono with no knots (except at the fly line end and fly itself). The hook will pull, straighten or snap well before the fly line itself breaks.

When I used to use a loop to loop for fly line to backing connection, I would do a "cat's paw" connection with one more pass through the fly line loop. I can't find a decent video but here is one that will work. Instead of doing all of them just pass the reel through the big backing loop twice instead of the standard once ("square knot" or "figure 8" "non-cutting" way).

Bimini Cats Paw Splice

This will tighten up the knot profile so it will come back thrugh your guides easily without hanging up and will insure that it remains "non-cutting". With a decent size tarpon, this connection could be going back and forth through your guides numerous times. It works even better with a twist between the first and second pass through with the reel, but that may complicate it too much.

Spring is a ways off, so you have plenty of time if you don't wait till the last minute like I do.

PS: Couple other thoughts. Generally speaking, if fishing from shore, if you can be set up to reach a channel with your fly that drains flats or estuaries when the current switches to outgoing (ESPECIALLY if it occurs at just before sunset), blind casting can be really, really productive right into the night. I would estimate your chances of hooking tarpon blind casting to be at least 10 times greater when fishing from shore than sight fishing from shore (and better than sight fishing from a boat too, if you are in a good spot) . However, blind casting a 12 wt, or even an 11 wt for several hours a stretch can wreck your tirp if you have not been working up to it.

The thing to practice for sight fishing is getting the fly out QUICK. As Mark said, that is more important than distance, as often you don't even see them until they are close. Accuracy, of course, goes along with quickness.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[seajay]

This is a great video for a quick cast and for fishing off the bow.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQtjJ8LjNk0&feature=related]Saltwater Fly Casting on the Flats - The Quick Cast - YouTube[/ame]

 

[axle27]

Thanx for the info, guys. I really appreciate it.

 

[axle27]

Have another question:

I'm thinking of using a furled leader as I love them in the fresh. To connect the class tippet to the shorb loop, what material should I use for the tipped/bite tippet? Similar to what was discussed above?

Secondly, what knot should be used to make the connection? 3-turn Surgeon's loop?

 

[wjc]

I'd can the furled leader idea. It's hard enough to stick a tarpon with straight 60lb from the fly to the fly line. You add 4 or 6 or however rmany feet of twists in there and it's going to be like a slinky on a tarpon.

It will also be harder to cast in the wind. Tarpon flies are easy to throw because they are small with relatively heavy hooks. They will straighten out with their own momentum.

I'd just go with a standard rig as described very well by Peregrines.

 

[axle27]

wjc,

Thanks for the info. Although our primary quarry will likely be tarpon, we might go after bones or reds or whatever else shows up. THe trip is not real firmed up, but the guy who is hosting this needs to get some lessons and practice in (I will need practice, too) so I'm looking into the lines/leaders now to give him a chance. We'll likely get a guide for a half day to begin with, then fish from his personnal boat. Will this leader set up be useful for bones or will I need to re-rig?

 

[wjc]

Bite tippet for big tarpon ranges from 60 lb to 100 lb. Most guys all use fluoro for this now. I use 60 lb fluoro and have not had an abrasion issue with it, but have not fought any tarpon since it came out for longer than an hour or so. For tarpon to around 60 lbs, 40 lb should be fine but it sound like you will be there when the big ones are in. Longer is better than shorter (IGFA 12" is too short).

For snook 30# fluoro should be good though some guys use 40# along the Altantic beaches, and you don't need a bite tippet for redfish. 20 lb fluoro tippet is fine. Don't slide your fingers into the gill plate on snook, it is razor sharp. There aren't any bonefish in Tampa, and I think most of the permit fishing there is offshore wreck fishing with live crabs deep. I haven't heard of anyone fishing the flats for them there.

Your plan of hiring a guide is the best one. You will learn all you need to know from him. Just ask him well before you go out so you can be rigged up ready to go when you meet him at the dock.

 

[chuck s]

Keep it simple is great advice on leaders but you risk loosing a fly line, backing, etc by using straight anything over about 30lb test as the backing most used is 30 lb test and the saltwater fly line cores range from 25-35 lbs max. use a 60 lb test piece of mono if you'd like but add a 22 lb test or lighter between that and your shock or bite tippet. Rather than risk losing backing and fly line, use a short length of what is commonly called the class tippet to ensure the weak link is near the fly, not near your reel arbor.:thumbsup:

 

[grassonfly]

most tarpon lines have 60 pound core

 

[chuck s]

Name a couple please for instance? perhaps some of the new ones do but a couple years back the max was as I stated. I do note that Rio put out a couple of deepwater lines with high core strength. By the way my research back then was directly from Rio, SA and Cortland.

Here's Rio's offerings: http://www.rioproducts.com/fly-lines/saltwater/floating/tarpon click on the specifications box to see the technical specs.

Here's SA offerings: http://buy.scientificanglers.com/lines/fly-lines.html?sa_technologies=183 look at the chart that's on the left side
Cortand says: http://www.cortlandline.com/products/section.asp?id=244 clicl on the more info blocks on the Tarpon lines!