Tarpon In The Vistas

This afternoon I decided to get out to Playalinda Beach to catch a few whiting for dinner and see if there were any tarpon in the Vistas on the way to the beach. 

I loaded up a couple of surf rods and one river rod with a Bass Pro topwater popper, just in case and headed to the beach. 

On the way to Playalinda, I stopped at the bait shop and picked up some frozen shrimp and a pack of finger mullet for bait. The girl at the shop said that the tide was on the way out and most of the surf fishermen were catching whiting and a few keeper pompano on sand fleas and shrimp. I figured that since I was already loaded up, I might as well head out to the Lots even though the tide was heading in the wrong direction.

 When I showed my lifetime pass to the girl at the kiosk, I asked her why she was wearing a mask when she was all alone in the booth.  She said it was required, so I left it alone. I'm convinced we have all gone mad! 

 Anyway, as I drove past the first Vista I was going to stop but decided to hit the beach first.  

The first lots had several cars so I headed up to #9 and checked out the area. The water was dirty and the tide was going out. There was a good current moving which would require a heavy lead to hold bottom, so I moved up to lots #10 and #11 to see if conditions would be more conducive to fishing.

These lots were also about the same; dirty, roily water and a heavy current.   I planned to fish around lot #10 but after talking with a surf fisherman who was there most of the morning without any fish, I decided to wait for a high tide tomorrow morning to fish the surf. 

I planned to head back to fish East Gator Creek but decided to stop at Vista 7 to give it a shot.   

On the third cast with my popper, I hooked into a juvenile tarpon around 3 feet long.   The fish jumped twice before sending the lure back to me.   

I loosened up the drag on my reel and continued tossing the small topwater popper around the area.   After several casts, another tarpon slightly smaller hit the plug and got off after the first jump. 

I always bow to the tarpon when they get hooked but today for some reason the lures kept getting thrown back to me.  

After several more casts around the area, the bite died down so I moved up to the next Vista and continued casting the small popper. 

This Vista produced hookups with two more tarpon about the same size as the last site and one smaller tarpon about two feet long.    All the fish were hookups that got off after a couple or three jumps.

Frustrated, I gave up and headed back home to tell Karen about my trip.

Karen wanted to pick up a prescription and take the "boys" for a ride, so I packed up the river rod and we headed out to Walgreens.  They filled her scrip and we headed over to Bio Lab road to scout for snook spots and see if there were any tarpon in the area.,

We didn't see any tarpon, but I found a few nice spots for snook along the road.   When we came to Playalinda Beach road, I decided to try the Vista where I hooked into the larger tarpon earlier, and Karen agreed.

When we drove down to the Vista,  I got out of the truck and on the first cast hooked into a tarpon that was over three feet long.    The fish took a lot of drag, jumped four times, and on the last jump broke off my favorite topwater popper.

It was the only one I brought with me so I tied on a large Zara Spook that I tossed around for several minutes without even a follow up.    The tarpon apparently were only interested in smaller baits today so I packed up my rod and we all headed back to the house.

I broke my diet and ate four slices of pizza from Lil Ceasers before doing my afternoon walk.

Till next time,

Tight Lines..