Every summer I pick a goal. Last year was make a good brisket. This summer is to catch a tarpon off my small 16’ boat. Seems like fishing the b4idges would be the easiest way to get that first poon. Does anyone have any tips (on catching them by the bridges or wherever, I just want to catch one and not picky where/how big/etc.).

A lot of guys go out to egemont.

Thanks for the input... i will check into it.

Sorry for the late response. Very helpful info. Thank you! I'm in sarasota so will be hitting the Tampa area again, very soon. Tried a spot in Sarasota a few days ago but not much luck.

Not west coast, but how we did it.
Out going tide at night.
Anchor or troll on the non outgoing side.
Maybe 30ft from the shadow line.

Gear..we used everything from fly rods to ultra light set ups with 2lb test

My go to was a 7ft med hvy rod,penn 6500 spinfisher. 12lb test. To a 60 lb mono /florocarbon leader.
Lures only.
Mirror lures actually.
52ms iirc etc  Intermediate white/red.
We would remove the front treble,  pinch all barbs.

Cast behind the shadow line by several feet..start retrieving like your walking a top water lure.
95% of our hits came at the shadow line.
Fish ranged from 3-5ft.
Schools of large lady fish( 36 to 48 inch plus) kept us from being bored..( hence the ultra light set up).

Again this is east coast .

I did this exact same thing on fly rod in the Keys. Just stripped/swung fly right on shadow line of bridge. One to the boat and jumped 3 more

Guys I just saw your posts. Thanks much for the great advice. Sad to say I didn't wind up getting a Tarpon last year. Fishing was so limited due to red tide. I'm planning on getting back out there now though. I was out two weekends ago and the Tarpon were out there. We got skunked though.... We were using bait. Got one to bite but it didn't take the hook.

Osprey, is the ramp you mentioned a public ramp? I launched out of Kingfisher ramp a couple weeks ago. It wasn't too bad but it was also 630am when we got there.