Atlantic tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) are actually giant minnows, more closely related to sardines, herring, pilchards, and menhaden than they are to any other gamefish. Ironically, sardines and pilchards make up a significant portion of the tarpon's diet, along with mullet, anchovies, pinfish and other minnows, as well as crabs, shrimp, squid, and worms. Tarpon are at times selective, but often they ravenously engulf whatever they can fit in their mouths.
Range and Habitat
These fish live throughout the Caribbean, but venture north to the Atlantic coast of the United States. The southern extent of their range is southern Brazil. They are also found in the eastern Atlantic, along the west coast of central and northern Africa. A smaller fish, the Indo-Pacific Tarpon, is found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but it is not fished for as much.
Tarpon often live along mangrove shores and they move up into rivers lined with these trees, even to where the water becomes fresh. Such habitats make for the best places to fly fish for tarpon. They do venture offshore, and at times may be found cruising along reefs or sandbars, but sight fishing for these fish is easiest in inshore waters.
Southern and Western Florida
Florida offers prime tarpon habitats to fly anglers. Larger fish, some over 200 pounds (like the record fish, landed by Jim Holland in Homosassa Bay) may be found in the deeper waters of the Florida Gulf coast, but the Keys offer some great fishing in and around mangrove islands for smaller tarpon. Florida does not have the large rivers that the are common along the cost of Central America, but the deeper bays attract larger fish just out from mangrove cays and islands.
Tarpon Fishing in the Mexican Yucatan
The Mexican Yucatan, from Campeche south to the Belizean border has lagoons and bays that hold many tarpon. These fish are here year round, but in spring, when the mullet are moving in drones through the area, tarpon abound. Although the coast of the northern Yucatan, peppered with mangrove islands and cayes is great for small tarpon, larger fish may be found in the peninsula's three bays. Ascension Bay is most easily accessible to fishers, though Espiritu Santo Bay, just south also holds many fish. Chetumal bay, the one furthest south, on the Belizean border is remote and largely unfished, but anglers who have had the chance to fish this piece of water know that it holds plenty of tarpon.
Belizean Tarpon
Belize also has plenty of tarpon, and in the southern part of the country, near Punta Gorda, tarpon may be easier to catch on the fly than anywhere else in the world. Rivers empty into the sea all around Punta Gorda, and they are always loaded with tarpon of all sizes. Some fish may be less than ten pounds in these rivers, while others swimming alongside such runts may be between two and three hundred pounds. During rainy days, which occur throughout much of winter, the rivers are stained brown, but the fish still roll and jump everywhere, and they readily inhale white or yellow flies, which are bright enough to contrast the muddy water. But during times of minimal rainfall, the water in these same rivers is crystal clear, and the fish may be more selective.
Flies to use for these fish vary from place to place, and time to time, but generally large baitfish patterns that stand out in the water work best. Traditional tarpon flies such as the cockroach and black death work in clear waters for selective fish, but when tarpon are rolling and surfacing while feeding in the mouths of rivers, try using big, bulky, yellow, chartreuse, white, or orange flies that resemble mullet. Tarpon are somewhat migratory, so it is best to look into what seasons are best in certain areas, but for the most part, the Florida Keys, the Mexican Yucatan, and southern Belize are are some of the best places to consistently find these fish.
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