It's Tarpon Time around Tampa Bay!
For today's Color Challenge I present some photos from my last two Tarpon fishing trips. The first two images are of me hooked up with about a 90lb Tarpon off the beaches off Boca Grande. This area is world famous for it's amazing Tarpon fishery during early to late Spring into Summer.
Above you can see the fish jumping out of the water in the distance. These elusive sportfish make high-flying acrobatic jumps out of the water in an attempt to get free. I worked the fish for about an hour and got him close to the boat eventually getting a good look at him in the crystal clear waters before he broke me off. Might have been an inshore light-tackle record if I was able to land the fish since it was only on 20lb leader and 15lb test braided line.
Eventually the large pods of Tarpon move north towards the Tampa Bay area. On this other trip we were fishing off of Egmont Key which is at the very southern end of Tampa Bay. There's a very deep (80-90 feet) cut off Egmont Key where the Tarpon like to hang out. We baited up some pass crabs and threw them out waiting for a bite.
There were so many Tarpon rolling it didn't take long to get a bite but it did take about 45 minutes or so to get the fish close to the boat.
This fish was about 150lbs probably, look at the girth on it! Once these majestic fish, also known as the Silver King, reach a length of over 40in you are not permitted to remove them from the water. You just have to de-hook, revive them and send them on their way.
I can't wait to get out and target some big Tarpon again here in the next couple weeks!
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Hey I liked your skull 💀 shirt, it's very cool, kind of reminds me of the skull on The Punisher's shirt hehe 😉, when did you start fishing?
thanks @mariacherries, it's one of my favorite shirts....I probably started fishing about 25 years ago or so but got heavy into about 5 years later
Thanks for sharing your fishing shots. They are awesome! Hi from Florida's other coast! :-) I found this in the postpromotion channel, so it works sometimes when quality content comes through!
appreciate it @dmcamera, glad you enjoyed it and hello fellow Floridian!....followed
Following you too now. :-)
Nice Silverking.
Thanks bud!
hahaha great blue and awesome fish. Giant one :))) Good work ;))) Up :)
glad you like it @margaretwise, thanks!
You are so welcome. I really do like it ;)))
Looks nice there. My son @silver314 has NEVER been to Florida, but has it in his head he wants to move to Clearwater. I was telling him about me being there 40 years ago. He saw pics of the white sand and was sold on the idea LOL
There are some nice areas around Clearwater for sure!
Wow - what a great post. Excellent photos (especially the first one) and story! So this time it's true the big one really did get away! It's good to know the Silver King are protected by catch-and-release once they are over 40" so other anglers can enjoy the thrill of reeling in one of these beauties!🐟 🎣🐟
There's always that one that got away! Thanks for stopping by @ninhaskin
And it's always the biggest! Lol! My pleasure @liberty-minded
It seems like there's a lot of laws concerning fishing in the US man! In Mauritius if someone catches a fish of this size, there is no way he will release it, that's for sure! Lol!
The first pic is just awesome! Wonderful shot!
Have a great weekend ahead man!
@progressivechef
yeah, plenty of fishing regulations over here but they help protect over-harvesting of the species....suppposedly
That silver king looks huge! To bad about the one that got away, though. Nice photos, as always!
I had something huge hooked on the Boundary Waters Canoe and Wilderness Are, once, that managed to throw the hook. No clue what it was, though, aside from heavy, slow moving, and powerful.
thanks @fotosdenada, the one's that got away always make you think...especially when you never get to see what it was!
Great pictures and some huge fish!
appreciate it @ovij!
Nice fish. The blues/greens in the first image looks really cool.
thanks @nicnas!
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