TARPON! Tackle Recomendations Needed

[garyk]

I'm gearing up for a tarpon trip and need some advice (didn't find it in the archives search).

The area is noted for flyfishing and for that gear I'm all set, but I want to take some conventional tackle for backup gear and to handle weather/water situations that are too difficult for fly gear.

The tarpon will range from 50# to well over 100#.

Anyone have specific recomendations for a casting reel and rod? Weight is BIG factor -- we're limited to only 25 pounds per person. Rods need to fit in a 5' airline travel tube.

Thanks in advance!

[ 02-02-2004, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: garyk ]

[Dave Vedder]

Gary: I have fished tarpon in the size range you mentioned and was surprised by how light you can go. A good three or four piece travel rod rated for 25-40 lb test line will do you fine. A high capacity level wind reel loaded with 30 lb test mono or 8o lb test superbraid and you are in business. You can go up to something like a TLD 20 but then you are hitting the weigh problem.

[Fish mojo]

Where you headed to? I was in Bonaire a couple years ago diving with some huge tarpon. At night they would cruise right up to the seawall where they had lights shining down on them. You could watch them for hours, drinkin rum punches in the tropical breeze.....I wanna go back!!!

[garyk]

Thanks Dave. The heaviest reels I have are ABU 7001 - I don't think their drags are up to the challenge.

FishMojo, this place is in Costa Rica, east coast, up by the Nicaraguan border at the mouth of the Rio Colorado.

[Dave Vedder]

Gary: I have fished that area quite a bit. I dunno if I would trust your 7001. But it is big enough. I think I would spring for a bit more reel.

You will have a ball IF you can get over the bar and get out to them. There are lots of them and they are agressive biters. You can jump 20 in a day and land 3 to 5 - maybe more. Have a hoot. And bring a rain coat!.

[garyk]

Dave, I just learned from other anglers that during late March we may not be able to get out over the bar at all, and could find ourselves limited to the river the whole time. I was told in the river that gear is the way to go and that you'll be able to hook up when the guys who insist on swinging flies are getting zippo; kind of sounds like anchoring-up on the Columbia but with bigger plugs. So, that's why I want some stout gear that will handle those Silver Kings in the current and give us some chance of landing them.

Up until now, it's kind of the trip-of-a-lifetime for us, so I'd like to go prepared.

Since you've fished there, I'd appreciate any other advice you can offer - either here or feel free to private-message or email me.

[Beach Caster]

I'm going to Belize/Ambergris Caye for two weeks in May and plan on doing alot of wade fishing for Tarpon, bones, and permit.

I'm not a good fly fisherman, so I figured I would take my 9'6" Dave Vedder Lamiglass along and combine it with a 4000 Stradic spinning reel loaded with #30 braid. I have a good feeling this setup will be a little light to fight a tarpon, but I don't have to cast at the big ones .

Can anyone recommend spin fishing lures to take down there that will work for Tarpon and some of the other local fish? [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

Thanks,

Beach Caster

[Denali]

Garyk,

I fish for Tarpon in the Keys every spring. We use 7 ft Ugly Stiks with Shimano Baitrunner 4500 Spinning reels. We spool them with 300 yards of 20lb. Ande and use a 100lb test shock leader around 6-8ft long. As long as you can follow them around in the boat(like oversize sturgeon) this is plenty. Cirlce hooks are also the way to go if you are using live bait. Bow to the King!

[Otolith]

The biggest thing with catching a tarpon is where you hook him and what he does when he jumps - heavy tackle is not really that important. Their mouth is mostly bone, so you have to either gut hook them or get lucky and stick him right in the hinge of his jaw. Otherwise, at some point he will just open his mouth and you've lost. The other thing is that they have razor sharp gill plates. They will often cut you off on the jump when they start thrashing their head, no matter how strong your leader is. For these reasons there is alot of luck involved in actually landing the silver king. The hook to catch ratio is pretty low (10 to 1 or worse).

I once had a 200 pound tarpon come up to the boat and swallow whole a redfish I just brought up. The lure and hooks were in the redfish's mouth, the redfish was in the tarpon's mouth, and the whole package started heading West at about 20 knots. I was attached to the other end with a shimano bantam black magnum, 8 pound test, 15 pound leader, and a seven foot med/lt. ugly stick - basically a bass fishing setup. Eventually he just opened his mouth and gave me back my redfish :grin:

[garyk]

Thanks all.

The reason for the heavy gear is I'm getting the impression that if conditions force us to fish inside the river's mouth, (rather than outside in the ocean), we may not be able to follow them very far due to breaking waves.

It sounds a bit like fishing the Tillamook Jaws when the Bar is closed - strong outgoing current, and you have to stop a hooked fish before they get to the breakers where you cannot follow.

Any more rod/reel recomendations?

[Otolith]

For spinning reels that you plan to use in the salt/estuary, you can't beat Penn Spinfishers. A 5500SS or bigger.

[TillamookChinook]

I fished for tarpon over 30 years ago in a lake at the head of Rio Passion in the Guatemala jungle. We were trolling from a dugout canoe. I had a surf casting spinning reel with about 20# mono, my friend had a salmon-type trolling rod and my wife had a trout spinning rod. The two larger rods had large spinners or plugs. My wife kept tying on trout sized spoons. She got nearly all the strikes. Each hookup would last one jump on the strike. We finally got a hookup on the salmon rod and fought the fish up to the side of the canoe. We never got it in the boat as the homemade harpoon didn't penetrate the giant scales and the fish eventually got off. Probably a 75# fish.

So, don't forget to take some small spoons.

TC

[Beach Caster]

This site:

http://www.kevinmodera.com/gear.htm#Spincasting

has some great information for tarpon gear and lures.



BC

[Otolith]

The best bait is probably gonna be a big hunk of mullet anchored to the bottom - or a live free-lined one. But for fun, bring some Zara Spooks and learn to "walk the dog". Lots of fun seeing tarpon smack one of those puppies up on the surface.

[garyk]

Thanks again.

BeachCaster, this place is in CostaRica. The final leg is on "Nature Air" out of San Jose, the destination is, I believe, a dirt airstrip and the plane is a small ~8 passenger craft - hence the tight weight restriction. Thanks for the link!

[greenbuttskunk]

I've got a penn 650S spinning reel and a matchingrod perfect for tarpon, especially if you fish bait. You're welcome to borrow the set up if you'd like. I have'nt used it in a number of years. Drop me a PM if interested.
Have a great time!
GBS

[Banknit]

Just a suggestion, Check out the Avet reels. In my opinion they are ther best bang 4 the buck on a saltwater reel. I actually use my Avet SX for fresh also. It's small at a glance but dont let the size fool ya. They have a drag that can handle anything and built for a lifetime of heavy use. www.avetreels.com or http://www.cabbagekeyrodandreel.com/AvetReels.html

[TarponSlayer]

I'm sooooo envious!!! I had my life altering experience in Peurto Rico a couple years ago and it nis incredible. We used 20# test with 50# leader and hooked into some dandy's. I landed about a 75 #er and watched my friend fight 100# plus for two hours. I would reccommend maybe going a little heavier and catch more instead of fight more. We used a Penn spinning reel 5500 series and believe me the bigger the spool the better, they love to run and run and run!!!
Good luck and looking forward to some pics.

[garyk]

TarponSlayer, I like what you're saying about going a bit heavier on the tackle to shorten the fight so we can actually land some instead of multi-hour fights.

Any thoughts on some casting reels? I'm hoping to go to the Sportsmans Show with a short list of a couple casting rods and reels that would serve us well.

[Dave Vedder]

GaryK:

Be sure to bring some light tackle for fishing Maharra (sp?) and Machacka (sp). Both live up in the swamps, and both can be a lot of fun on light tackle. Bring something like a seven foot spinning rod with a reel loaded with eight-pound test. They will hit small poppers, small bass plugs and small spinners and flies. IF you can't get out of the river mouth your chances of a hook up will be greatly diminished. Pray for good weather. But, if you can't get out you can have a lot of fun targeting the maharsa and machaka. There are also some places that may hold good snook.

See if someone can take you up Spanish creek all the way to the lagoon. Lots of snook there and the trip is well worth the day spent.

[Beach Caster]

GaryK:

Are you staying and departing near Belize City or you out on one of the Islands? San Pedro/A.Caye? What airline is putting the restrictions as far as weight (25 lbs.) and rod tube size?

I plan on taking some magnum rapallas, soft plastic crab & shrimp imitations, & Wiggle jigs. Maybe even a float and bait setup.

Thanks everybody for the advice so far, very interesting.

BC

[175]

Try taking some small yellow jigs with yellow feather with you. No bigger than 1/4 oz. Tip them with shrimp if you can get them down there. Throw it out in front of the school so it has time to get to the depth and let it drift into them.

[Pilar]

GaryK, I've used winter steelhead gear in the Keys and live shrimp. The fish were 4' to 5' and we fished off a bridge on what is called 'channel 5'. Rig just like a sandshrimp rig, slinker, leader egg loop tied 1/0 hook, but use a live shrimp, rigged head down. In the keys you can buy these at any tackle shop. Dunno what you can buy in the bush of Costa Rica but you might be able to cast net for them. A bait pump will keep them alive in a bucket. They also make live bait containers that float in the water.

The line was only 12lb and the rod was a 1025c Loomis. My thumb got hot a couple of times but I landed a few nice fish and lost several more. The locals thought I was nuts until they saw the drift fishing technique on the tide flow under the bridge and the hookups. The Abu drag is not up to continuous abuse of this type.

Have fun.

[Beefcake]

Gary- I have a Penn Spinfisher Big Game - Surf rod (Med/Heavy, 15-30#, 2-6oz lure, 2pc. lightweight carbon graphite, Fuji guides) that I got a good deal on but have never used. I think I bought it at FMS last year for about $35. I would be happy to loan it to you, and it was cheap enough that it wouldn't be a big deal if anything happened to it. I don't have a reel on it (I was planning to throw on a basic Shimano 4000 w/ 30lb Power Pro, but a Penn 5500 would be ideal). I don't get a chance to surf cast much, so I would love for someone to get some use out of it while I save my money for a trip like yours!

You can email or PM me if interested.

[Otolith]

Originally posted by Pilar:
GaryK, I've used winter steelhead gear in the Keys and live shrimp. The fish were 4' to 5' and we fished off a bridge on what is called 'channel 5'. Rig just like a sandshrimp rig, slinker, leader egg loop tied 1/0 hook, but use a live shrimp, rigged head down. In the keys you can buy these at any tackle shop. Dunno what you can buy in the bush of Costa Rica but you might be able to cast net for them. A bait pump will keep them alive in a bucket. They also make live bait containers that float in the water.

The line was only 12lb and the rod was a 1025c Loomis. My thumb got hot a couple of times but I landed a few nice fish and lost several more. The locals thought I was nuts until they saw the drift fishing technique on the tide flow under the bridge and the hookups. The Abu drag is not up to continuous abuse of this type.

Have fun.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Since moving out here a few years ago I have learned a few new fishing techniques that would absolutely KILL for snook and tarpon in South Florida. A bait wrapped kwikfish, backbounced or with a jet diver is one of them. Nobody down there has ever heard of these, but I can assure you that they would be even more effective on tarpon and snook than they are on salmon and steelhead.

[garyk]

Back to the top, in case anyone else has some advice.

Otolith - I hear ya on the Kfish, I bought a few of those new ExtremeK16's cheap at the Sportsmans Show, just to try on the tarpon. One salty angler didn't think they would hold together, that the hooks would pull out of the plastic. I was thinking about attching some Tuffline through all eyes as insurance. Do you think the K16's strong enough, or will they break ?

I'm still wondering whether my Abu 7001 reels have enough guts for tarpon?

[garyk]

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