An Unforgettable Florida Adventure Is Key West Tarpon Fishing

By Cathy Mercer


Mankind has been gaining sustenance from the sea for as long a they have walked the earth. With some form of creature in nearly every body of water, hunter gatherers also included the waters in their incessant search for sustenance. Now rarely a key to sustenance, angling is still popular and Key West tarpon fishing is a very popular vacation event.

There are many sea creatures that provide a challenge to those who seek to catch them, whether for food or sport. With big enough equipment anything can be captured, but for an average angler, there needs to be a sense of fairness in the effort. At 2.5 meters and up to 150 kilograms of excitement and ferocity, the Silver King is a worthy challenger.

The number of their population across their range as been dramatically reduced since 1960, with a reduction thought to be as much as 30 percent. Considering the intensive fishery hauls in South America this is a surprising low number. Part of the reason for their survival is they can spawn year round and lay as many as twelve million eggs per female.

Another reason the fish is such a popular sport fish is that it feeds night and day, and because it cannot bight off chunks For sportsmen, one of the thrills is that it feeds day and night, and it has small teeth, so it cannot bite off chunks of food. It takes the bait-fish whole, to the delight of anglers, who use barb-less hooks to reduce injury to the fish.

It is not the most glamorous sea creature and is rarely sensationalized in Hollywood films, the way Marlin or sharks are depicted. This is undoubtedly good for the strength of its numbers. For the avid angler however, it should be known that this is a species that can provide the same level of physical challenge and thrill as the more famous open ocean counterparts.

The fact that it feeds at any time during the day and takes its food whole seems to make it an easy catch, but that is not the case. After finding a school of feeding predators, one must present the bait lure or fly in front of its cruising vector. Casting directly at them as the swim toward the fisherman is ineffective as they expect food to run away from them.

Casting in front of a school of creatures six to eight feet in length moving rapidly toward you is not as easy as it sounds. Once lucky enough to get a strike, the typical reaction is one long hard yank to set the hook, but a number of smaller yanks is more effective. When the fish leaps out of the water, stop pulling and pint the pole at the spectacular jumping fish.

Finding the fish is not difficult, fish the size of people create a fair amount of surface disturbance when feeding. If lucky enough to hook one, and even luckier to land it, consideration must be given to getting the victory photo and releasing it back into its native waters. Key West tarpon fishing is a colossal thrill, one that everyone should help preserve for future anglers.




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