by Capt. Matt Mitchell
May 1 marked the start of our tarpon season, though we have been lucky enough to have plenty of tarpon around over the past few weeks. I’ve learned over the years that the ups and downs of April weather can quickly make these early-season fish disappear. When clients want to book a trip to target tarpon, I will always recommend any time after May 1. There is nothing more frustrating than booking an earlier trip, only for the weather to have other ideas, and April cold fronts are not that unusual.
This past week, we have seen tarpon all through our waters. The causeway bridges just keep getting better and better every year. Side-image sonar has also been a game-changer in locating these bridge fish. Seeing hundreds of tarpon moving in through and up into the sound is an amazing thing. Deeper channels from the C-Span towards Picnic Island had lots of tarpon. Both live and cut bait anglers got in on this action as these fish pushed up through the St. James hump channels and towards the power lines.
Fosters Point on the back side of North Captiva also had huge numbers of traveling tarpon this week as they come in and out of the passes. Although these fish can be hard to get to eat, seeing so many tarpon so early in the season is a great sign. Getting up here early and being one of the first boats on these fish can often make all the difference.
With so many places in the sound that these tarpon gravitate to, it’s often a matter of making the circuit through the usual places. Observing how tarpon are behaving is a major part of the puzzle. Daisy-chaining fish can be really hard to get to bite, as are fast-traveling high rollers. What I’m looking for are slow rolling, laid up fish that I can present a live bait under a float to.
Without a doubt, there is no more exciting way to fish for tarpon than sight-fishing for them. Quietly approaching laid-up fish at first light is as much hunting as it is fishing. This stalk and cast method is as good as it gets, though the day’s conditions and the way the fish are behaving dictate what’s the best method to catch them. Our early-season fish will also respond very well to cut bait, including threadfin herring, mackerel, and mullet.
Tarpon are, without a doubt, one of the most amazing gamefish that swim. After you hook into a tarpon, every battle is different. Some fish jump over and over, while other fish jump very little and make crazy long runs. This past week, after stalking some laid-up tarpon we hooked up to, we fought a 15-minute battle, and it looked like the fish was ready to give up. Then it pulled out all the stops and did a crazy triple jump. This first jump was higher than the tower on my boat, basically 10ft, then as soon as it hit the water, it launched again, and then again. This triple jump makes it all but impossible to keep the fish on the line. No matter how many tarpon I’m lucky enough to hook, these fish never fail to surprise me.
Capt. Matt Mitchell moved to Sanibel in 1980 and has lived in St. James City since 2000, when he started his fishing charter business. He spends over 300 days a year “living the dream” fishing. For questions and info: bookings@captmattmitchell.com
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