Late Afternoon Tarpon Fishing

Went out to the Canaveral National Seashore to do some late afternoon tarpon fishing in the ditches and Vistas along the road.

I had lost my favorite topwater Chug Bug on a poon the other day so I re-stocked with a couple more bugs and a Mirrodyne lure that Cayden was so successful with while fishing the Vistas the other day.

It was late and the air temperature was in the low 90s with very little wind blowing to cool me off.

I stopped along several spots to check for rolling fish and finally found a pod that was chasing finger mullet close to one of the Vistas.

I started fishing with my new Mirrolure and promptly caught and released a  ladyfish on the third cast.

I kept casting ahead of a couple of rolling tarpon but they had lockjaw and wouldn't hit my bait.  

The ladyfish were more than accommodating though and I caught and released at least 8 or 9 fish before a tarpon finally hit my bait and broke it off.

I switched over to a small size Chug Bug that I brought along and promptly hooked another tarpon that jumped about 5 feet into the air and shook the bait off.

I had three more tarpon that took the Chug Bug but I couldn't get a hookup to save my butt.

Finally the fish moved off and I moved to another spot to fish.

I switched to my other rod with an XPS Slim Dog and caught another ladyfish that was almost as big as the lure.  I released the fish after taking this pic and changed back to my Chug Bug.

It was getting late and I stopped to fish a ditch near a Vista that I never expected anything to be in, but to my surprise I briefly hooked into a small juvenile tarpon on my Chug Bug that promptly tossed the lure back at me.

I spent the rest of my short trip tossing lures at tarpon in the dirty water ditch without landing a single fish.

I guess I just wasn't holding my mouth right because I was getting boils and good hits, but I just couldn't hook into a tarpon long enough to land one.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Till then, 

Tight Lines and a happy 4th.