Tarpon Fishing In Key West

Probably the best picture I've ever seen of a leaping tarpon...I've got many pictures of splashes (the tarpon was in the air just a second or two earlier) but this one is amazing. Taken by a UK angler Roy Marlow who is himself a very tasty tarpon angler (but don't tell him that I told you else he'll get big-headed).

The tarpon is considered one of the great saltwater game fishes, not only because of the size it can reach and its accessible haunts, but because of its fighting spirit when hooked; it is very strong, making spectacular leaps into the air. The flesh is undesirable and bony and the fish is always released after an epic battle.

The tarpon fishing in Key West Harbor is world renowned. April to June are the prime months for tarpon fishing although there are often a few stragglers around at any time between mid-February and July. Known as the "Silver King", these fish can grow to over 200 lbs although a 100 pound tarpon is still a memorable fish.

The Silver King - Airborne as usual

Although it's possible to hunt the tarpon with a fly rod aboard a flats boat, most of the Key West tarpon fishing is done by "chumming" with small dead fish that are caught by the shrimp boats. The skipper will cut up these small fish into even smaller pieces and throw them just behind the boat. By continually doing this (chumming), the tarpon are attracted to the supply of food and can sometimes be seen flashing and rolling right behind the boat as they eat the chum. Then it's just a case of hooking one of the chum fish onto a big circle hook and letting it drift down behind the boat. Actually it's not as easy as that, the art is to make your bait run at exactly the same speed as the chum being thrown in and in detecting a bite when it comes along. In any case it's great fun and on a good day you can easily hook 10 or more tarpon although you'd be very lucky to land them all. We're typically using mainline between 15 and 30 lb breaking strain with a 50 or 60 lb fluorocarbon leader when fishing this style.

This video clip taken aboard the light tackle boat "Windy Day" with Captain Jack Kelly shows UK angler and fishing show presenter Keith Arthur fishing for Tarpon at the entrance to Key West Harbor

Fighting a tarpon is both exhausting and enthralling. Those fish just don't know when to give up. Normally when you're fighting a fish and it comes and gasps a mouthful of air you know that you've won, when a tarpon grabs a mouthful of air it is able to extract the oxygen from it and it carries on battling with renewed vigor. One of my fishing pals tells a story of a first-timer who hooked his first tarpon. The fish jumped and the angler exclaimed "wow...how big is that" to which the skipper replied "about 45 minutes" !!. It's not unusual for a tarpon to fight for an hour, and for the fish to be landed several miles from where it was originally hooked. Add to this the possibility of playing your fish under the watchful gaze of hundreds of holidaymakers aboard a cruise ship and you get something of the flavor of Key West Tarpon fishing.

The cruise ships in Key West harbor provide a ready made audience to anglers fighting tarpon in the harbor. If you can make the tarpon jump in front of the ship then you're on for bonus points !

Even the windiest of days won't stop the tarpon fishing, although a cold front that drops the water temperature suddenly might put them off the feed for a day or two. Whatever you do on your trip to Key West, make sure that you reserve a day for hunting the "Silver King" for he's surely the star of Key West.