The tarpon is one of the world’s finest sporting fish. Stunningly beautiful and known as the Silver King, their aerobatic antics make them a favourite of anglers worldwide. From March to July thousands of tarpon pass through the harbour in Key West en route to their breeding areas and fishermen flock into town for the chance to pit their wits against them.

There are a number of varying fishing styles for hunting tarpon, the style changing depending on the type of water that you are fishing. Tarpon can be found on sand or mangrove flats and also in shallow river inlets. In this case the preferred method is either fishing a fly coupled to a very strong rod and line or using an artificial lure. At other venues such as Islamorada the preferred style is livebaiting with small fish such as pilchards or herring. The preferred fishing style in Key West is using a by-product from shrimp fishing. Let me explain what is meant by shrimp boat trash. Many shrimp fishing boats fish the waters in the Gulf of Mexico and apart from catching shrimp they also catch a lot of small fish called menhaden. These are sacked up and sold as bait to the light tackle fishing boats in Key West.

The method sees the Captain cutting the manhaden into chunks and continually throwing them behind the anchored boat to attract the tarpon. The anglers fish with a whole menhaden on the hook, and it is drifted back in the current towards the feeding tarpon.

The tackle suggested when fishing for tarpon in Key West is extremely simple. Our favourite tarpon fishing rod is the 7ft 9in Conolon Boat  12-20 lb test curve rod from ABU. It retails here in the UK at £74.99. There is also a 3 piece version (the Conolon Boat Traveller) which probably better suits the visiting angler. That version retails at £79.99 in the UK. Incidentally, I use that Conolon Boat rod whilst fishing for sturgeon on the Fraser River near Vancouver and last year caught my biggest ever fish with a length of 9ft 1inch and weighing…who knows, with only two of us fishing there’s no way we could lift such a beast but we estimated it at around 400 lbs. Anyhow, returning to tarpon fishing. The most popular reels for tarpon fishing are the Shimano TLD 15 or TLD 20 lever drag multipliers. The TLD 15 retails at around £80 in the UK, whereas the TLD 20 is about £15 dearer. Whatever reel you decide on, it has to be super free running, since you’re attempting to make your bait run down in the current at a similar speed to the bait being thrown in by the Captain. My own preference is for the bigger TLD 20 because the larger spool spins slower when you are running your bait down in the tide plus it needs less turns of the handle to reel in when your bait has drifted as far you want. You’ll want the reel fully loaded with line, I go for the Ande grey in either 15lb or 20lb breaking strain. At the end of the line is securely knotted a 10 foot leader of 50 lb fluorocarbon and a large circle hook. Naturally all of the fishing boats have prestige tackle available free of charge if you don’t have your own.

Let’s now take a look at the actual fishing method used in Key West. Your captain will have motored out to one of the top tarpon spots, maybe the yacht basin, Bokacheeka, the entrance to Key West Harbour or maybe the North West Channel. The boat is anchored at the bow and if there are other boats fishing they’ll probably be only a few feet to one side or the other. The plan is that if every boat is chumming then there will be a good stream of food going down to the tarpon, keeping them in one substantial shoal rather than splitting them up. The skipper will start throwing in the pieces of menhaden whilst you put a whole fish onto your hook. There’s a definite way to hook these baits but don’t worry, the captain will demonstrate how it’s done. You now let your bait drift down the current, paying very close attention to where your line leaves the spool of the reel. A bite can be quite subtle and will normally be just a speeding up of the line leaving the spool. As soon as a bite is seen you have to reel like hell….don’t strike !!. The beauty of a circle hook is that it seemingly hooks the fish itself if you simply tighten the line by turning the reel as fast as possible.

When a tarpon is hooked all hell will be let loose, the fish will likely leap out of the water and it will definitely start running towards Cuba !!. Don’t forget that when playing a tarpon that if he jumps he’ll get rid of the hook unless you swiftly lower the rod to ease the tension on the line. This dropping of the rod is known as “bowing to the King”, and you’ll get plenty of stick from anybody else on board if you lose a tarpon because it jumped and you didn’t bow. If the hooked tarpon is a decent size the skipper will release the anchor and set off in pursuit of the fish. I’ve released fish that were hooked a mile or more away from where they are finally released. It can be a long and hard fight but with any luck you will eventually have the fish alongside the boat ready for a quick photograph before it is safely unhooked to fight again some other day. I recall a ‘first-timer’ fishing with us one year. He hooked his first tarpon and as it jumped he excitedly asked “how big is that” to which one wag replied “about forty minutes” !!.