Landing Tarpon

[agnesstyle]

Hi all,
I found a dam near home that seems to be packed with reasonably large Tarpon. We had hit after hit, and hooked up to a few reasonable fish, but as soon as they hit the air, sometimes clearing the water by 6 feet, i would drop the fish. I was using a small rapala popper & 10lb braid, probably fishing with 3lb drag. My guess is that i should have backed the drag off considerably and let them jump and run a little more freely, but i am looking for advice on playing these little speedsters, and lure selection. Hope there is a Tarpon pro out there with some advice.
Thanks
AgnesStyle

[rivermanau]

Mate, it took me 10 fish before I even got one to hand. A couple of tips- use a heavy mono leader to avoid them rubbing off,,
when they hook up, strike hard a couple of times, much more than normal.
Fight them "low down and dirty" with the rod horizontal at waist height and switch directions with the rod tip to put them off a bit. I dont bother landing them now (at least that's my excuse) as they go hyper in the boat and hurt themselves, I count them as caught if i have the leader in my hand. Or raise the rod tip and jump them off near the boat.
I troll for them sometimes with a fly rod popper which gives them a good shot at hooking up.
Other good lures are slider grubs and small white and silver flies
They are good fun
Robert

[jimbolikes_barra]

rod tip low to the water to stop them from jumpin as much use as small poppers as u can so u get a good hook up rate but use a good quality leader material like jinkai etc. aroun the sixty pound mark.

keep lots of pressure when jumping and make sure u have razor sharp hooks owners seem to work for me.

[Jack_Lives_Here]

like jinkai etc. aroun the sixty pound mark.

60lb - DAMN how big are these tarpys??
They are a regular night target up in the north - very rarely had to go bigger than 20lb fluro. Best session was something like 18 on fly, all around about the 2kg mark - got sick of catching them.
They have a very hard boney mouth. You need extra sharp hooks/trebles and pin 'em good when they hit. Low rod like the others mentioned.

[agnesstyle]

Thanks gents,
I was using 30lb fluro and was thinking of going lighter as it seems like soft ground. I'll go a little harder on them and see if i can make my hooks stick.
Hope to post a photo of one soon.
Agnesstyle

[PG]

I've caught a lot of Tarpon in lagoons around Rocky and in my experience, sharp trebbles (chem sharp are great) is the way to go, also set your drag fairly hard to set the hook as they hit.
I used Rapala Skitter-pops with a lot of success and also small minnows like Nilsmaster 7.5cm Invincibles. Mate used to use small flasher metal slugs cast out wide and retrieved fairly fast.
I usually use a light mono leader (about 20 lb).
They really are great fun especially on light lines.

[Fitzy]

Hey Folks,
Rod Harrison taught me a great trick years ago to stay connected to jumping fish.
When they come out of the water, put your rod tip into the water. It does help.

Something else I've found really effective is: when the fish jumps, throw slack line at them until they're back in the water. When they leap they open up their mouths, gills etc in a bid to throw the hooks, if you're pulling on the line at this time, you're only helping them to escape.

Its one of the hardest things to learn in fishing, to freely give a fish some slack line.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Fitzy..