TARPON

The tarpon is one of the world’s great sport fish most commonly renowned for being caught in salt and brackish water environments.  They have a distinct look with amazing bright, silvery scales that cover most of the body except the head and a prominent lower jaw that stands proud from the rest of the face.  They are obligate air breathers and can withstand low oxygen environments – their air breathing leads to them being seen topping out in the lake.

As one of the top game fish, Tarpon also enjoy the reputation of being notoriously difficult to catch; a combination of their hard, abrasive, bony mouths, sharp gill covers and amazing acrobatics allows them to shed hooks and break line with ease and even an experienced angler will have lost far more tarpon than they will have caught.  At the time of writing, we have not had any customers land a tarpon – several have been hooked up but they have all managed to escape.

To fish for our tarpon here at Hookers, we recommend using a good fluoro leader (50lb+) with a small livebait under a pike float set at about 1-1.5m depth cast out towards the oxygen diffusers.  Be prepared for an incredible fight – the angler must always keep tight to the fish and be ready to get the rod tip down in expectation of the fish jumping.  Tarpon will fight to the death and simply not give up.