Palm Coast Fishing
Palm Coast fishing has been awesome over the past few weeks! For myself and my clients tarpon has been the name of the game lately, with water temps warming drastically we have been seeing our resident fish feeding very well. As well as a push of migratory fish moving in from the south. Tarpon are one of my favorite fish to target the first reason being that tarpon are such an interesting fish there behaviors are unlike most other fish, huge migrations up to 1,500+ miles in a matter of 30 days, to the way that they feed, how moon phases effect them, to swimming hundreds of miles offshore to spawn in the spring and summer. Tarpon are among the largest fish to target in an inshore and nearshore estuary, with explosive bites, and an impressive airshow when hooked its easy to see why theses are some of Floridas most sought after sport fish.
How I target tarpon, once I find an area with fish, the next thing to do is assess the scenario, what are the fish doing? Are they slow rolling, floating, down deep, hard rolling or slapping the surface of the water or moving fast? Let’s start with slow rolling and floating fish, my personal favorite, and the scenario that generally makes catching them easiest. Tarpon typically “roll”(rolling is when a tarpon breache the surface of the water gulping air, due to tarpon having a swim bladder they are able to breathe this way) early in the morning due to low oxygen content in the water, overnight oxygen levels decrease because photosynthesis has ceases, photosynthesis is a chemical process of which sunlight produces carbohydrates and oxygen in the water making it easier for these large fish to breath.
For fly anglers wanting to sight cast tarpon I always try to position the skiff just outside the bulk of the fish, trying not to interrupt them and let them know that we are there. From there its a waiting game, diligently scanning the surface of the water waiting for a fish to come up, once a fish breaches the surface of the water anglers will want to make a quick cast leading the fish by about 3-4’ and 2-3’ beyond its path once the fly hits the water a I like a medium length, medium to slow strip. Making sure to get a good grip on the fly line with each strip, bring the fly past the fish and don’t quit moving that fly, once the fish takes the fly give a solid strip set, NOT raising the rod, once the fish is hooked then you can raise the rod and get ready for the first jump as it usually happens almost instantly. When the fish jumps anglers need to “bow” a process of quickly giving the fish slack line, when tarpon jump they have incredibly violent head shakes “bowing” prevents the hook from being thrown out of its mouth.
Spin anglers looking to sight cast tarpon can also take advantage of slow rolling fish or laid up fish, using the same techniques as fly anglers, small subtle presentations like twitch baits and jerk baits are a great option. Spin anglers can also take advantage of using live baits such as live shrimp and mullet free lined on a small enough hook to ensure the presentation looks natural.
Now lets talk about fish that are staying deep in the water column or fish that are “hard” rolling. When the water has plenty of oxygen tarpon do not need to roll as much to breathe, this can make them a little tricky to catch in dirty water. When tarpon are behaving this way getting baits deeper to the fish is the only way to get them to bite. Heavy hard twitch baits, weighted jerk baits and paddle tails, and drifting live baits way ahead of the fish can be productive ways to catch fish staying deep. For fly anglers trying to catch fish behaving this way need to get their presentations down as well, weighted fly’s and intermediate sink lines can be very helpful. With all of that being said finding and fishing for tarpon can be a tricky game but very rewarding when it all comes together!