Pine Island Sound, FL
May 7th, 2023
The silver king is back in the large numbers we are used to seeing in Southwest Florida. These fish are one of the most highly sought-after species in all the world and for good reason. Their strength, acrobatics, sheer beauty and difficulty is unmatched. Folks travel from all across the globe to fight these giants in the tarpon capital of the world, Boca Grande Pass. We have been putting in a little time on these fish the last couple of weeks, getting plenty of opportunities to hook into tarpon, we’ve had misses, hookups, jumps, and near-landed fish but as the season prolongs and we get more time to fish them we will have more landed fish. Typically we have spent a couple of hours each day averaging around 3 hookups each time before we go fish our inshore species. Using live crabs on 7/0 circle hooks and 80 lb fluorocarbon leader, not too bulky but strong enough tackle to land just about any size tarpon. The inshore bite has still been strong seeing good numbers of snook and redfish and when we decide to catch some eaters drift for trout. Bait is still great and plentiful in the bay, however we are quickly approaching the new hatch of white bait, this ultimately means we will soon be finding huge numbers of mangrove snapper move into our shallows and mangrove islands. I personally love when those snapper get in, they’re always feisty, plentiful and some of the best-eating fish around.
1 Redfish
2 Snook
1 Tarpon
