Best Baits, Lures and Tactics for Panhandle Tarpon

Florida has a lot of famed tarpon spots, including the Florida Keys, Boca Grande Pass at Charlotte Harbor, Egmont Pass at Tampa Bay and the Homosassa flats, among others.

Less famous but equally productive these days are the beaches of the Panhandle, where more and more anglers are learning the tactics to hook up with a silver king in the clear water along the endless white sand beaches stretching from Alligator Point all the way to the Flor/Ala line. The season is shorter here than farther south, with the best action usually over by the end of summer.

Spotting Panhandle Tarpon

Most panhandle tarpon are caught running along outside the second bar off the beach—the “Green Reef” that’s also a favorite for cobia anglers. Because the fish often roll as they travel, they’re not hard to see most of the time, but a tower definitely helps, especially when the fish stop and mill around as they occasionally do.

The most successful tactic is usually to anchor and let the fish swim into range. Trying to motor up to moving fish often spooks them, not only for you but for other tarpon anglers waiting further down the beach. Looking for diving birds and breaking baitfish can also be a tipoff—this will often be mackerel or jacks in summer, but sometimes tarpon will be in on the feed as well.

Tarpon hang around the passes and inlets in the Panhandle, just as they do elsewhere. There’s a strong fishery in Indian Pass separating St. Vincent Island and Cape San Blas, in particular, on strong outgoing tides. St. Joseph Point, at the north tip of St. Joseph Bay, is a good spot to soak live bait. The fish frequently feed around the jetties guarding all the major Panhandle passes, and also often pass within easy reach of the numerous long fishing piers here. It’s totally a matter of luck to land a large tarpon off one of the piers—they nearly always break off on the pilings—but it happens often enough that anglers keep trying. (You walk them back to the beach if you get lucky.)

There’s a limited sight fishery with tarpon that occasionally cruise into lower Apalachicola Bay and Crooked Island Sound east of Panama City Beach, but in general the classic poling in a flats skiff is not common in Panhandle waters.

Best Baits and Lures for Panhandle Tarpon

As usual, live finger mullet, scaled sardines, pinfish and small crabs are all good live baits. One of the best ways to present the baitfish along the beaches is to keep an eye out for approaching fish and then slow troll the baits ahead of the fish, going just fast enough to keep the baits 10 feet or so in front of them on electric trolling motor power, a tactic developed on the west-central Florida coast by Captain Justin Moore about a decade ago. Circle hooks, 8/0 to 10/0 are preferred—they’re less likely to be swallowed by the fish and they usually hook the fish solidly in the corner of the jaw.

It’s also effective to set up on the travel line of the fish, usually just outside the second bar along the beach, and be ready to toss a live bait in front of them as they approach. The fish swim up and down the bar looking for food.

Among artificials, Hogy soft plastics have an almost cult following in the Panhandle, with good reason. Heave one of their original 10-inch original eel designs in white or pink in front of a school of tarpon and start cranking and the fish often race each other to inhale it. The baits are fished either unweighted or on lightly weighted Ultra Barbarian jigs with huge 10/0 4x strong hooks, and when you get bit, it’s one of the most powerful strikes you’ll ever feel.

The 13 Fishing Ladyfish soft plastic is also good, as is the Z-Man MulletronZ.

Tackle for Beach Tarpon

This is no place for wimpy gear—heavy-action 8-foot spinning rods are the norm, with 5000- to 7000-size reels with very good drags loaded with 60-pound-test braid. Leader is typically 80-pound test Mason’s hard mono or fluorocarbon, both resistant to the rough jaws of the fish. You’ll want to set the drag light to start the battle, about 25 percent of the break strength of the line. There’s no stopping that first run, and if the drag is even a little too tight, a break-off is likely.

It’s possible (but rare) to catch Panhandle beach tarpon on fly tackle. This is a specialized sport for experts who can lay out 90 feet of line with a 12-weight rod, but for those with the skills, it’s among the ultimate challenges in angling. There are a few skiff guides here who specialize in fly rodding, but they’re rare compared to further south.

Fighting Big Tarpon

You can’t just reel in a tarpon like you can most other inshore fish. Anything over about 40 pounds is going to get your attention, to say the least. The battle usually starts with the fish taking off on a smoking run that may rip 100 yards of line off your reel in seconds, punctuated by a jump that may take the fish 10 feet into the air—you’ll literally be looking up at the fish! More runs, more jumps and then the fish finally settles down to a slug fest and you can go to work.

Your job is to put steady pressure on the fish, and when you can, to pull opposite of the direction the fish is trying to swim. Keep the rod tip low to the water as you pump—this gets much better leverage than heaving upward. When you finally can stop the fish from making a run, put on maximum pressure and pump it close to the boat for your partner to lip.

This is a fairly demanding task—you need thick gloves and some pretty good arm strength, and you also have to watch your balance—more than one charter captain has been jerked overboard by an angry tarpon. (No gaffs—sticking the fish is a no-no now that tarpon are all catch-and-release.)

You can’t legally bring the fish in the boat—fish over 40 inches long are not to be boated because biologists discovered that putting them on the deck greatly reduced survival after release. Virtually all tarpon are released, though you can buy a $100 tag if you are out to set an IGFA record and need to have the fish officially weighed ashore.

After a quick photo, bring the fish parallel to the boat while your partner motors the boat ahead very slowly to push water through the gills. When the fish starts to swim on its own, push it out and down and hopefully it will swim off to thrill another angler another day.

One final caution—tarpon are a favorite target of bull sharks and the big eaters sometimes appear out of nowhere just as you are about to handle a fish at boatside. Keep a sharp eye out to make sure you’re not part of the drama if a shark hits your tarpon.

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