Tarpon Season

Sorry, It's been a while since my last report. I have very busy for the past month trying to catch the elusive Silver King. I'm up at 4:30AM and don't get home until after 9:00 PM on most days. The morning tarpon fishing trips have been out producing the afternoons so far this year. I thinnk that it has alot to with the water being somewhat colder than it has been in the past and the tarpon are running a little later than normal. We are still catching alot of tarpon in the bays. Last year i started catching a lot of tarpon in Boca Grande Pass by the middle of April. This year is much later. We didn't see lrage fishable schools of tarpon in Boca Grande pass until early last week. They have biting well on jigs in the morning and I have been able to sight fish some on the outer edges of the pass with live thread herring. The crabs aren't runing very good yet this year. I expect them to start to flow better on the new moon phase in a couple of weeks. The bay fishing for tarpon has been excellent in the mornings. Charlotte Harbor has a number of schools working the usual holes and all the bars on both sides of the harbor are holding fish. Pine Island Sound is also good the the morning. Cut bait is doing well there. The afternoon bite has been tougher because of the wind. On the days when I can locate a nice group of tarpon before the winds kick up I've done well with a combination of cut bait and live thread herring. I've averging 1-3 tarpon on my afternoon trips comapared with a 4-6 hook-up average for the morning trips. That could chance on the next moon phase as more tarpon will flood into the area as they prepare for the spawn that usually occurs from Mid May until early July.