Tarpon fishing is mostly waiting, and then it is not. From May into July the pass at Boca Grande fills up with boats holding position, and the day is hours of standing in open sun punctuated by a fight that can run past an hour. Both halves of that ask something different of what you are wearing.
The waiting half
You are stationary, usually facing the same way, on a deck with no shade, at the time of year the sun is highest. There is no wind chill to make it feel manageable because there is often no wind.
That is the case for coverage over cooling. A hooded knit that breathes will keep you in the game longer than sunscreen and a t-shirt, and the hood means you are not making a decision about your neck every time the boat swings.
The fight half
A big tarpon is a full body job. You are leaning, pivoting, moving around the bow and holding a rod high for a long time, so anything that binds across the shoulders or rides up out of the waist is going to annoy you at exactly the wrong moment.
Fabric that stretches and a cut with room in the shoulders matter more here than on any other fishery on the Gulf. So do gloves, because a leader wrapped around a bare hand at boatside is how people get hurt on tarpon.
Mangroves, either side of the season
Outside the tarpon window this coast is snook in the mangroves, reds on the bars and a genuine shot at a slam. Mangrove fishing means casting into cover and brushing branches, so sleeves take physical abuse as well as sun, and a wade means everything needs to dry on the run to the next spot.
Handle them properly
Tarpon over about forty inches should stay in the water. Keep it boatside, get the hook out, revive it facing into the current and let it go. In warm water in June a fish that has fought hard and then been held up for photographs often does not swim away the same.
The short version
- Hood up while you wait, not just while you fight.
- Gloves on before the leader comes to hand.
- Room in the shoulders, nothing that rides up.
- Big tarpon stay in the water.
Gear for it. Have a look at Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida, Wavy Fishing Gloves or tarpon and snook.
