Summer Tarpon
by Richard French, 26 August 2010

The warm summer months mean one thing when you get into the tropical waters of Florida and the Caribbean. TARPON! And lots of them!!! The 2010 summer months have produced a bumper crop of excellent tarpon fishing from the Boca Grande Pass down into the rich Caribbean water of Belize, Cuba and Mexico. August in particular has been absolutely stellar for producing some very big tarpon in a variety of places.

Chris P. and his bride spent their Honeymoon in Belize where he actually got to fish for 7 days (No, she does not have a sister. I know because I asked!!!) On his second day ever fly fishing the salt, out of San Pedro, he landed a Super Slam. Unbelievable! We then sent them down to Caye Caulker to fish for 3 days and it was there that Chris got into some huge tarpon. He fought a tarpon for close to 2 hours guestitimted at 150 pounds before the circle hook broke. The fish above weighed about 65 pounds and Chirs was absolutely thrilled to get this one into the boat for a picture. 

Our old friend Dario C. is a self professed tarpon nut and he plans his trips around when he thinks the large tarpon will show up. He landed this absolute beast in the Rio Hatiguanico, Matanzas Cuba. The Hatiguanico is renowned for its numbers of juvenile tarpon that are found it its waters year round. Fish of this size in the river are rare but leave it to Dario to find them.

Steve F sent us this incredible photo which he took at about 7 am just south of the Boca Grande earlier this month. He had just gotten the tarpon to the boat when this huge Hammerhead Shark showed up looking for an easy meal. Steve was smart and released the drag right away, allowing the tarpon to bolt without being held back by the line. Steve and his wide starting stomping on the bottom of their flats skiff and the shark took off. They reeled in the tarpon after tightening the drag and released her to live another day, completely unharmed. Just look at the size of the dorsal fin on the Hammerhead!!! That is one big shark. 

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