Florida Tarpon

If you’ve fished with me before, you may remember Aaron O’Leary from a few years ago. He was my head guide, and for nearly 8 years we worked together in Washington from Forks to the Methow and Klickitat chasing steelhead. He is an incredible person to spend the day with anywhere on earth, and he boldly made the plunge to travel across the US to Florida for tarpon season of April through July. I’m in full respect of Aaron’s talents and am proud to call him and his wife, Ravae friends and family.

Aaron and Ravea rent a house for the season in Key Largo on a channel with great access to the local and not so local fishing flats. This house is our headquarters for the trip and we commonly depart and return right to his back yard.

My experience with Tarpon is fairly new, and is measured in WEEKS of angling. However, after a few seasons of one or two weeks under my belt, I’ve fallen in love with them as a sportfish. They are the only fish I chase that measure in feet instead of inches, with the range starting around 4 feet and measuring as much as 6. Tarpon can be intimidating to say the least, and their attitude will turn on a dime going from refusal after refusal to chase down and eat.

The deal with these fish, like most that we chase, is they’re on a migration. We visually witness a migration that is in comparison to the Sockeye salmon in Alaska or the Wildebeest of Africa. It is truly an experience to behold and something all anglers should participate in.

Beyond the epic Tarpon migrations, Florida has so much to offer a sport fisherman; Barracuda, Sharks, Jacks, Bonefish, Snook and yes, Permit. Permit are common enough that we can target them daily and have caught several of them. I’ve targeted Permit for 15 years in Mexico and despite that, one of my best Permit experiences was with Aaron in Biscayne Bay, Florida while actually looking for bonefish.