What are the Best Baits and Lures for Tarpon Fishing Florida?
The best baits for tarpon are chunks of ladyfish or mullet on the bottom or a live mullet or pin fish during under a popping cork during the first two hours after sunrise. The best lures for tarpon are 5 to 8 inch white paddle tails with 1/2 to one ounce jig heads or DOA Big One Terror Eyz.
Tarpon are probably the best inshore fighting fish that there is to catch in Florida. That is why people fly in from all over the world to get a shot at the tarpon a.k.a. silver king.
If you want to catch one then you better have the correct baits and lures for tarpon fishing in Florida. The tarpon in the photo to the right was caught and a big chunk of cut mullet sitting on the bottom.
It is definitely my favorite sport fish to catch inshore. If you have not had the opportunity to catch a tarpon you should definitely put it on your bucket list.
It is especially fun catching one from a fishing kayak. The good news for you, if that sounds fun, is that I know a guy that can get you on a tarpon from a kayak if you are in the Treasure Coast area of Florida. See our fishing charters page to learn more.
Watch the video below and catch more tarpon.
The best baits for tarpon are chunks of ladyfish or mullet on the bottom or a live mullet or pin fish during under a popping cork during the first two hours after sunrise. The best lures for tarpon are 5 to 8 inch white paddle tails with 1/2 to one ounce jig heads or DOA Big One Terror Eyz.
Tarpon are probably the best inshore fighting fish that there is to catch in Florida. That is why people fly in from all over the world to get a shot at the tarpon a.k.a. silver king.
If you want to catch one then you better have the correct baits and lures for tarpon fishing in Florida. The tarpon in the photo to the right was caught and a big chunk of cut mullet sitting on the bottom.
It is definitely my favorite sport fish to catch inshore. If you have not had the opportunity to catch a tarpon you should definitely put it on your bucket list.
It is especially fun catching one from a fishing kayak. The good news for you, if that sounds fun, is that I know a guy that can get you on a tarpon from a kayak if you are in the Treasure Coast area of Florida. See our fishing charters page to learn more.
Watch the video below and catch more tarpon.
Best baits and lures for tarpon fishing:
If you ask 10 different fishermen what the best baits are for tarpon you will probably get many different answers. Most fishermen have their go to baits that they feel confident fishing with because of years of success. I will give you my opinion as an inshore kayak fishing guide and native Floridian who has fished the South and Central Florida flats for over 40 years.
When I fish for fun it is usually in search of tarpon. They are usually good for 3 or 4 jumps and will fight to the death. They usually need to be revived for a few minutes before being released because they give it their all once hooked. The great thing about tarpon is they breathe air.
This gives them an advantage in the hot, low oxygen waters in mangrove tidal creeks and ponds. This gives us tarpon fishermen an advantage because we can see them come up to gulp air so we can find them more easily than other species of fish.
The bigger tarpon love to scavenge for their food. Dead bait on the bottom of a deep cut or a river mouth is a great way to hook into a monster tarpon. My favorite dead baits are lady fish heads followed by mullet heads. Lady fish are cousins to tarpon but are a favorite food for them.
They will also eat a chunk of bluefish and catfish with the fins removed. In the survival of the fittest world that a tarpon lives in, a free and easy meal will almost always be accepted by a hungry tarpon. That's why dead baits work so well.
Read this article that I wrote and learn in more detail the tips and techniques about how to catch a tarpon.
The key to bottom fishing for big tarpon is using big baits. Use a bait that is too big for the flat head and sail catfish to swallow. They are everywhere inshore and will often find your baits before the tarpon can. A six inch chunk of bait with a 6/0 circle hook is usually going to be too big for a catfish to choke down.
Send a lady fish head out with as small of a weight as you will need to secure it to the bottom. If you can get away with no weight that is even better. You will need a leader anywhere from 50 to 100 pounds depending upon the size of the tarpon you are targeting. I fish for tarpon a lot. When I am targeting fish 3 feet and under I will use a 20 or 30 pound leader. If the tarpon are 3 to 5 feet long, I will step up to 60 to 80 pound leaders.
The best live baits for tarpon are lady fish, finger mullet, pin fish, white baits and shrimp. When I take clients on my tarpon kayak charters we are usually targeting a more manageable sized tarpon from 2 to 3 feet in length. These smaller tarpon prefer smaller finger mullet, white baits, shrimp and small pin fish.
The best presentation for the smaller ones is under a popping cork with 3 to 4 feet of 20 to 30 pound leader. Sometimes the popping cork will spook the fish away if it is too close to the bait.
The big tarpon want bigger lady fish, bigger mullet and bigger pin fish. The best presentation for the big boys seems to be a free lined lady fish and larger mullet. The pin fish presentation requires a popping cork because they will head straight to the bottom is you don't use one.
The really big tarpon tend to hang out around inlet mouths and will cruise the beaches. Big free lined baits seem to work best for these 100 plus pound tarpon. A big lady fish is my first choice for big inlet tarpon but a big silver mullet will work just fine too.
The video below talks in detail about the best lures to catch a tarpon in Florida.
WANT TO CATCH A TARPON? BOOK YOUR FISHING CHARTER TODAY!
The best lures for tarpon fishing the upper part of the water column are mullet imitations. I like to use a walk-the-dog type of lure first thing in the morning or around sunset for top water tarpon. Zara Super Spooks and the MirroLure Top Dog are my go to top water tarpon lures.
They have a lot a different styles and colors to choose from. I like the white and natural colors the most. This doesn't mean that other colors wont work but these are the ones that I have a lot of confidence in.
When fishing the upper to middle part of the water column, I like to use white soft plastic shad bodies with a paddle tail and a red jig head. This is the color combination that seems to work the best around the Treasure Coast. A suspending type of hard bait lure will also work very well for jumping a few tarpon too. Learn more about getting the right tackle to maximize your silver king fishing fun.
Tarpon will also hit gold and silver spoons. Use bigger spoons for bigger tarpon. I use a slower presentation than most fishermen but you can see what works best for you. Sometimes you will have to vary your presentation speeds just to see what is getting the most bites.
The big tarpon tournament fishermen around Boca Grande, Florida often use large soft plastic shad bodies with heavy jig heads the great success in the deep inlet over there. That inlet is pretty deep and a vertical jigging technique seems to yield good results.
I have personally never done any deep water, vertical jigging, with soft plastics for tarpon but I know it works. Those tournament winners can earn $100,000. That is not bad for a day's fishing.
A technique that I have recently adopted is trolling DOA Big One Terror Eyz when I can't find any finger mullet to troll behind my kayak. Yes, I troll with my fishing kayak.
The white and the chartreuse DOA Big Eyz work great for catching tarpon. The smaller DOA Terror Eyz are a great lure too but the hooks tend to straighten out when you hook a big snook or a big tarpon. This got me to try a Big Eyz lure.
I will tie the Big Eyz to a popping cork or a rattle cork with about 4 feet or more of leader. Less than 4 feet doesn't seem to work as well. I will cast it behind my kayak and give it about 20 yards of distance behind the kayak.
I will slow troll about as fast as a slow walk parallel to the mangrove trees or in a tidal creek mouth where there are tarpon. You will need the drag to be tight enough for the fish to hook themselves before they can shake it out. By the time you turn around to grab the rod the tarpon is either hooked up or has thrown the lure.
The video below will show you some dead bait tarpon fishing action.
Best gear for tarpon fishing:
If you are going to be fishing for tarpon all day you will definitely need to protect your eyes and skin from the sun's harmful rays. Polarized sunglasses are a must for tarpon fishing. A high end pair of sunglasses will run about $250 and a lower end pair will run you about $25 with glass lenses. You can find them with plastic lenses for about $5 at Walmart.
Whatever price range you decide to go with you must wear polarized sunglasses or you can not sight fish for tarpon on the flats or in some mangrove tidal creek. The polarized lenses eliminate the glare on the surface of the water so that you can see under the surface.
Sight fishing a monster tarpon on the grass flats or under a mangrove branch at high tide is amazing. It should definitely be on every tarpon fisherman's bucket list.
The best color lenses for inshore and dirtier water scenarios are amber, rose and copper. If you are fishing super clean and clear water or you are fishing offshore a blue or a gray lens is best.
You will also want to stock up on UV performance fishing shirts to protect your skin from the sun's harmful rays. These shirts have built in sunscreen and are moisture wicking which means they evaporate your perspiration more efficiently keeping you cool on those hot days on the water.
Watch the video below and catch more tarpon using smell.
Best ways to use smell to catch more tarpon.
In my opinion, the tarpon's sense of smell is overlooked too often by fishermen. Just think about the environments that a tarpon lives in. They are often in dark and murky water. They have to find something to eat in spite of not being able to see because the water is nearly opaque.
So if the prey item can't be seen and it is staying very still and the tarpon can't feel/hear its vibrations with its lateral line, then that fish is imperceptible to the tarpon. BUT NO they will find that fish because they can smell it too.
My largest tarpon are almost always caught on fresh dead bait on the bottom of some dark and murky tidal creek or river mouth. I know that they can't see it or feel it so smell is the sense leading them to the bait.
My point is: Add smell to your lures to catch more tarpon. Pro Cure has a product that is very sticky and can be added to any lure. They have shrimp and mullet smells that you can add to a lure. There are other smells but those are the most appropriate for tarpon in my region.
I wrote another article on this website all about the various scents that attract and repel fish. You can read that article by clicking right here.
Best water temperatures for tarpon fishing:
What is the optimal water temperature for tarpon? You need to know these kinds of things to get really good at catching tarpon. When the water is cold you will have to wait until the temperatures climb to catch tarpon. If the water is too hot then you should fish the shallows early before the tarpon have to leave to deeper water.
Tarpon are cold blooded just like a snake or an alligator. This means that they can't regulate their body temperatures like a mammal can. They have to find the right water temperatures to let their body temperatures go up or down.
If a tarpon is too hot or too cold they have to find the right water temperature or they will die.
The problem with the thermometers on boats and kayaks is that they only tell you what the water temperature is at the surface. What is the temperature 12 feet down? What is the temperature on that mud flat?
GO BUY A THERMOMETER AND TIE IT TO A STRING.
The video below will teach you all about the optimal water temperatures for tarpon fishing.
Best tackle for tarpon fishing:
The best tackle for tarpon fishing depends upon where you are catching the tarpon and how big they are. Let's go over a few different scenarios and the different tackle needs that you will have to catch a tarpon.
Let's say that you are going for 100 pound tarpon off of the beach. In this scenario you will need at least a 5500 series reel but probably a 6500 series reel filled with 80 to 100 pound braided line. You will also need a 7 to 8 food medium/heavy rod or even a 10 to 15 foot surf rod if you are casting lures to the sand bar for them.
If you are catching tarpon that are 4 feet or less in length, then you can get away with a 4500 series reel filled with 20 or 30 pound braided line. You will want to couple this reel with a 7 to 8 foot medium/heavy rod.
When you are going for the baby tarpon that are 18 inches or less than you can get away with a 2500 series reel loaded up with 8 to 10 pound braided line. You will want to couple this reel with a 7 to 8 foot medium/light or medium action rod.
BEST ALL AROUND ROD AND REEL COMBO FOR TARPON
In my opinion, the perfect all around rod and reel combo for tarpon is a 4500 series reel and a 7 foot medium or medium/heavy strength, fast action rod. Fill the spool with 15 pound braided line and use a 20 pound leader.
I have used many different rods and reels over the last 40 years of fishing like Diawa, Shimano and Penn.
My favorite line of reels that are out now is the Penn Spinfisher series reels. They are smooth, tough; have great drag systems; and best of all a sealed body so sand and water don't get inside the reels.
They are perfect for surf fishing, wade fishing and kayak fishing. (Any fishing technique that makes it likely for water or sand to get in them)
You can expect to pay $150 plus for these reels. BUT they are worth it.
My second favorite non-sealed reels are the Diawa BG reels.
They are the reels that I use on my flats boat because I know that they are unlikely to get dunked in the water or to get beach sand in them.
You can expect to pay $100 plus for these reels. They are a great bargain in my opinion.
Watch the video below to learn more about the best tackle for tarpon fishing.
Watch the video below and catch even more tarpon.
Conclusion:
I hope that this article covering the best baits and lures for tarpon taught you all about my favorite fish to catch. They are amazing and I can't wait for them to come back every year when the water temperatures get high enough for them in the spring.
Tarpon are probably the most exciting fish to catch off the beaches and grass flats around Florida. They are very abundant until the water gets too cold for them so they head to the Florida Keys and beyond. They are a bucket list fish for many fishermen all over the world.
They are certainly my favorite fish to catch when they are in town. They are around the Treasure Coast in numbers from April to November most years.
If you are in the Treasure Coast of Florida book a flats boat tarpon charter with me. We focus on tarpon early in the morning and then branch out to catch snook, redfish and sea trout later in the day. Catching a tarpon from a kayak is a blast.
I hope that this article helps you catch more tarpon or at the very least helps you have more fun fishing for them. Let's get some lines wet Florida.
About the author: The author of this article insists that everyone refer to him as the Tarpon Terrorizor of the World. BUT we all just ignore him and call him Mike, the co-owner of FYAO Saltwater Media Group, Inc.
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