Tarpon Fishing In Tampa Bay with Frank Sargeant!

Well I had the opportunity to take Frank Sargeant out fishing to write an article on Tarpon fishing. Frank Sargeant writes the outdoor section of the Tampa Tribune local paper among many other magazines. Our targeted Species was Tarpon and Snook. With a limited amount of time I had my work cut out for me. We headed out to catch bait with our bait of choice being big green back (A.K.A Scaled Sardines) Once the bait was caught we headed to the Tarpon spot. Tarpon normally migrate up the cost from the Keys all the way to the Texas coast in just one year and our Tarpon migration ends around end of June. But we have resident fish that stay here year round and push way up into Tampa Bay. These are the fish that we would be Targeting and I have had great success in recent trips. As we found the schools of fish it was a site to see as they were crashing the glass minnows on the surface. The technique I used was simple but effective. Simply Anchor up tide and start chumming smaller baits to create a chum line or as the schools of fish become more aggressive I would use the trolling motor and site cast them. My Tackle of choice is bigger tackle I light a Daiwa 5000 excellar reel with 50 lb class 7 ft Spinning rod. Rigged with Fins 50lb Prt braided line, 6 ft of 60 lb Fluorocarbon leader matched with a 5/0 Daiichi Wide Bleeding circle hook. After a few hours of fish crashing the surface on glass minnows and simply ignoring our baits, we finally got our hook up. We started the chase and in 25 minutes and 4 jumps later we had a leader touch. After the epic battle I nor Frank was ready to tangle another fish that size so we dropped over and caught a few Snook to end our trip. We did this and was back at the dock by noon for lunch! If you would like to experience a trip like this feel free to call for more information 813-727-9890.