Catherine and I went out tarpon fishing last night. Although the wind was from the north and we fished the incoming tide, they were biting. I only had 6 large pinfish from my canal, there is usually unlimited pinfish in the canal but perhaps due to no fish carcasses being thrown in there the pinfish where scarce.
The winds where from the north-northwest and we got out just after the slack tide. The tarpon seemed to like the pinfish on corks better then free lined. We landed one , jumped 3 and had a shark take one of baits. We only had 6 baits so it was pretty good, also by the time we ran out of baits the sea grass started pouring into the channels fouling everything.
I was using shimano bait runner 6500 with 50# stren super braid for line, with the drag tight. Kind of too much tackle for 50-60# fish but you never now how big the fish are going to be. I use 8/0 gamakatsu circles hooks they seem to 95% of the time hook tarpon right on the lip, if you just keep your line tight and let the fish set the hook itself. Those hooks will break though if you put your drag at over 20-25#. I think the shimanos top at around 20-25# of drag so as long as the drag isn’t on 100% they are usually ok. I use the lighter hooks because I often just break the leader rather then distressing the fish more by getting the hook out. There are different schools of thought on this but I am inclined to think that the hook attached to the outer lip won’t effect the tarpons health and will rust out shortly.
