Tarpon Fishing Along The Vistas

Went to East Gator Creek road to do some topwater sea trout fishing and wound up Tarpon fishing along the Vistas in the Canaveral National Seashore.

It was around 2:00 pm this afternoon when I decided to hit the wildlife refuge and wet a line.

It was raining when I left the house but clear when I drove into East Gator Creek road to fish the first set of culverts.

I hooked into a couple of medium size ladyfish on a Chug Bug and landed one before moving to another spot where losing my lure wasn't as easy an option.

I was targeting sea trout today but I have to report that the only fish that was remotely interested in any of my lures in that area was an under size "dink" trout that I shook off at the bank.

I decided to drive down to see if the shallow flats off of Bio Lab road were fishable.

There was a moderate wind over the lagoon and the waves made topwater bait fishing not an option.

As I drove into Bio Lab, I spotted some juvenile tarpon at the first set of culverts, so I pulled over and started casting a Chug Bug around the area.

Almost immediately, I had a boil on my bait but after many casts I only had one small tarpon hit the plug without getting a hookup.

I switched over to a Johnson Silver Minnow with the same result.  One dumb fish bumped the spoon but I couldn't get  a hookup.

As I was fishing (and not catching) a couple of guys drove up and asked if I would be bothered I they fished the area.

I had no objections and watched them as they fished the other side of the road picking up a couple of ladyfish and missing a couple of juvenile tarpon on a small Mirrolure bait.

There was a large gator in the spot they were fishing that was becoming a problem and was waiting for a handout.

I introduced myself and learned that they had been catching juvenile tarpon all morning on a variety of artificial baits.

Bryce Jones (left) and his friend Caden Laney were kind enough to provide pics of their catch.

They fish the area almost every weekend and apparently have a good handle on tarpon fishing in the area.

Bryce gave me a couple of 2" Tsunami paddletail swimbaits that he said they had been catching tarpon on earlier, but my tackle was too heavy to present the baits properly,.

Anyway, I gave up fishing the area and headed down Bio Lab road to scout out some other areas.

I stopped at a couple of spots and had a ladyfish hit my gold spoon but nothing else seemed to be working for me today.

Finally, I got to Playalinda Beach road and stopped at the first Vista to see if any tarpon were in the area.  As I pulled in I was immediately confronted by flashing blue lights to pull over.

After I presented my lifetime Pass to the officer, we swapped a couple of stories and learned that the whiting bite on the beach was on fire and even some Pompano were being caught on small shrimp and fishbites.

I was taking some pics of the launch site when Bryce and Caden drove up to talk.

I followed them to where they had caught several nice size juvenile tarpon earlier this morning.

We pulled over to the area and sure enough, there were some fish in the area.

I started off casting a Chug Bug, then switched to several other baits (and losing a couple) while Bryce picked up another tarpon on his Mirrolure.   (Click on pic below)

Caden walked up a ditch and missed a couple of fish with his bait.  Finally, as Bryce and Caden left the area, I switched rods and pulled out an XPS topwater bait with a black back and silver sides.

It took three casts before a tarpon swirled on the lure.  This happened three more times but the fish never got hooked.  I'm not sure if the bait was too large but at least I was finally getting some action.

I fished the spot for another 15 minutes or so before giving it up for the day.

Oh, by the way, Bryce shot me this pic of one of Cayden's fish that he caught this morning.

  

Nice Poon..

I'll be going out of town again next week but I hope to hit the area tomorrow a little earlier with some smaller baits.

Regardless, I had a good time today losing lures and meeting some new fishing buddies.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.