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Posted: 5/12/2017 1:14:14 PM EDT
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the 130 pounder I caught on a fly rod.
Note: These weren't taken in Florida so Florida fish and game laws do not apply (constant comments on our Facebook page from Floridians trying to apply Florida fish and game laws & regulations to Costa Rica). In three years, 100% successful live releases (except for one of the two that jumped into boats this year - yes, that's exciting). I can post more (I take hundreds). 
 
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Posted: 5/12/2017 1:18:48 PM EDT
[#1]
One of our guests with his.
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Posted: 5/12/2017 1:23:47 PM EDT
[#2]
Wow "Fly rod".
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Posted: 5/12/2017 1:56:55 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Wow "Fly rod". |
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Posted: 5/12/2017 2:00:08 PM EDT
[#4]
How do they taste? Comparisons?
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Posted: 5/12/2017 2:08:24 PM EDT
[#5]
We have them here in NC. I am going to try to get one this year.
Any pointers on gear/bait? We have to use circle hooks. |
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Posted: 5/12/2017 2:12:31 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
How do they taste? Comparisons? Quote HistoryQuoted:
How do they taste? Comparisons? In three years, 100% successful live releases (except for one of the two that jumped into boats this year - yes, that's exciting). We've got plenty of local eating fish. Snook, cubera snapper, triple tail, etc. And Caribbean lobster. And tiny little shrimp. Sometimes langostino. |
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Posted: 5/12/2017 2:32:01 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
We have them here in NC. I am going to try to get one this year. Any pointers on gear/bait? We have to use circle hooks. With live bait and circle hooks we use Ugly Stik Bigwater 5'6" 'medium heavy' casting rods (indestructible) with Shimano TLD-20s or 25s. But our tarpon are big (average is 90-120 lbs - which would be a monster in NC or FL or the Gulf - over 200 lbs* is not uncommon for us). We need bombproof tackle and it isn't a Gucci gear contest. I have guests who come down from NC and bring their own tackle and it's very high end and lighter. They break a lot of rods. *A fellow caught a 193 lb tarpon at North Topsail Beach back around 2009 or so. It's unofficially the state record I think (he killed the fish and they used the formula but had no IGFA scale and his tackle wasn't to IGFA rules as he was fishing for mackerel). We had at least 10 200 lb tarpon so far this year. |
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Posted: 5/12/2017 2:38:28 PM EDT
[#8]
WTH? You can't pull them out of the water. Better delete this thread before FWC sees it.
Nice work. What are you catching them on down there? Fishing inlets, offshore, along the beach? Need a deckhand? |
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Posted: 5/12/2017 2:50:36 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
One of our guests with his. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/3547/P1014125--Small--206929.jpg Red |
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Posted: 5/12/2017 3:02:19 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
WTH? You can't pull them out of the water. Better delete this thread before FWC sees it. Quote HistoryQuoted:
WTH? You can't pull them out of the water. Better delete this thread before FWC sees it.  The best FL comment was about a snook. "Illegal catch! Outside the slot! Out of season!" Yeeeeah.... about that...
Quoted:
Nice work. What are you catching them on down there? Fishing inlets, offshore, along the beach? Need a deckhand? Had a couple of Brits recently - who've been coming for years - who used surface poppers on a jigging rod to some success. We fish the ocean and the river (for tarpon but with a lot of bycatch like jack crevalle, mackerel, barracuda, cubera snapper, etc.). Ocean - it's pretty much close in but we do we go out several miles to where it drops to 80 feet or so - the 'blue water' line. Sometimes even farther out. Wish I had a picture of one of the massive schools rolling in the ocean, but I never have my wide-angle lens with me when we're in one - hundreds if not thousands of tarpon over a couple of acres. I think I'd need a Cinemascope camera! River mouth when we can't get over the bar or it's just too rough. The river when the level is down and the tarpon are channelized. |
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Posted: 5/12/2017 3:09:28 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
What kind of boat? Mako or Dusky? Red |
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Posted: 5/12/2017 5:14:16 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
The best FL comment was about a snook. "Illegal catch! Outside the slot! Out of season!" Yeeeeah.... about that...
Sometimes live bait on a circle hook is the ticket - ribbon fish or what the locals call 'sardina'. Other times jigs (relatively heavy and big - my guys make them). When the ocean is too rough to clear the bar (AKA 'the chocolate wall of death) and we're in the river mouth we use Rapala SSR-14s, either the shad or the red and white (usually the red and white). Rapala freely admits the SSR-14 isn't strong enough (hooks bend out) and we've been experimenting with No. 7 and No. 9 'J' hooks replacing the OEM treble hooks but the jury is still out. We also use Rapalas on tarpon actually in the river (tarpon, porpoises and bull sharks go upriver to Lake Nicaragua - why? who knows). Had a couple of Brits recently - who've been coming for years - who used surface poppers on a jigging rod to some success. We fish the ocean and the river (for tarpon but with a lot of bycatch like jack crevalle, mackerel, barracuda, cubera snapper, etc.). Ocean - it's pretty much close in but we do we go out several miles to where it drops to 80 feet or so - the 'blue water' line. Sometimes even farther out. Wish I had a picture of one of the massive schools rolling in the ocean, but I never have my wide-angle lens with me when we're in one - hundreds if not thousands of tarpon over a couple of acres. I think I'd need a Cinemascope camera! River mouth when we can't get over the bar or it's just too rough. The river when the level is down and the tarpon are channelized. You're up in the northern part of Limon province, right? I've spent a good bit of time on the pacific coast, but I'd like to see the Caribbean side. |
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Posted: 5/12/2017 5:49:43 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Thanks. You're up in the northern part of Limon province, right? I've spent a good bit of time on the pacific coast, but I'd like to see the Caribbean side.
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Posted: 5/14/2017 7:38:26 PM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Tarpon in NC? Our fellow Tarheel guests tell me they haven't been seen in the last few years. One 'Little Washington' fellow stored all his tarpon-specific rods with us last year because he didn't use them anymore in NC. I'd check with George Beckwith at Down East Guide Services about the probability (he told me 'they're gone' last year). With live bait and circle hooks we use Ugly Stik Bigwater 5'6" 'medium heavy' casting rods (indestructible) with Shimano TLD-20s or 25s. But our tarpon are big (average is 90-120 lbs - which would be a monster in NC or FL or the Gulf - over 200 lbs* is not uncommon for us). We need bombproof tackle and it isn't a Gucci gear contest. I have guests who come down from NC and bring their own tackle and it's very high end and lighter. They break a lot of rods. *A fellow caught a 193 lb tarpon at North Topsail Beach back around 2009 or so. It's unofficially the state record I think (he killed the fish and they used the formula but had no IGFA scale and his tackle wasn't to IGFA rules as he was fishing for mackerel). We had at least 10 200 lb tarpon so far this year. Do you use a Lupton rig with cit bait, or a lure? |
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Posted: 5/15/2017 12:37:09 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Seeing local info they still come into the Pamlico and Pungo. Do you use a Lupton rig with cit bait, or a lure? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Seeing local info they still come into the Pamlico and Pungo. Do you use a Lupton rig with cit bait, or a lure? We use live bait, jigs and (in the river mouth and river) Rapala SSR-14s. Call George Beckwith at Down East Gude Services (website) reference NC tarpon. He'll give you the straight skinny. His wife used to be on the NC Marine Fisheries Commission and is still on the federal South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. From his last newsletter:: Pamlico Sound tarpon fishing history is history
I have no idea why the tarpon are no longer coming into the Pamlico Sound and the Neuse River. It is definitely NOT because of commercial fishing in North Carolina. Maybe someone is killing them somewhere else. Hopefully they are just passing us by. I continue to hear good reports from the Cape Fear area of NC and the eastern shore of Virginia. I was looking at some old log books and see that in the summer of 1999 I hooked over 60 tarpon, landing more than 40. This year I hooked one fish and only saw a few fish all season. Perhaps because we now have more menhaden in the ocean, they are not entering the sound. We will not be offering advance bookings for tarpon trips in North Carolina next year, it has become too much like chasing unicorns. That being said, I will knock the mothballs off the tarpon rods in case a herd of unicorns shows up and if you want tarpon action, there is no better place in the world than our trip to Costa Rica. Water Quality Although we caught a lot more tarpon in the 90's, there were a lot more signs of a sick river and people getting sick from the river. I personally battled several marine bacteria that not only had sores on the fish, but also the hands of others and my own. Excellent physicians, antibiotics and prayer came together resolving my problems and I haven't seen sores on people or fish since Hurricane Floyd flushed the system. Prior to Floyd, swamps and backwaters of the coastal plain were full and overflowing with, muck, run off and nutrients from a variety of sources. You could step off the edge of the creek or swamp and go up to your neck in black mud. Floyd flushed the swamps and scoured bottoms of streams leaving behind gravel bottoms, essentially emptying these nutrient sponges filled with 50 years of fertilizers that came from a wide variety of sources. Fish kills and algae blooms awakened a public outcry that resulted in new regulations that slowed the flow of the pollutants to the river. Flushing the swamps and wetlands by Floyd, coupled with less pollutants making it to the river as a result of tighter regulations has resulted in a noticeably healthier river now than we had 20 years ago. This is no time to repeal buffers and loosen regulations that are working to keep our river healthy. |
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Posted: 5/15/2017 8:20:30 PM EDT
[#16]
For big drum fishing, NC law requires lupton style rigs.
Thanks for the info. In case I don't find tarpon here, what's your website? |
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Posted: 5/15/2017 9:41:11 PM EDT
[#17]
Check your IMs.
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