This week is all about the tarpon! With the summer heat being tough to handle at times on us and the fish, the one species that always seems to thrive and even cooperate mid-day even with high water temps is the silver king. Right now you can find these fish in every lagoon system and throughout any part of the county. Tarpon are best found on the flats early in the morning around docks and mangroves with shallow flats close by. As the sun gets higher, these fish will begin to push into deeper docks and residential canals.

Even though the silver king has a big reputation one thing that seems to work the best for me is very small baits. I prefer a 1/16 oz. jig head with a DOA paddle tail. Darker more natural colors seem to work better for me. First light a small top water cannot be beat, the Rapala skitter walk is always a go to! If you find the fish and can’t buy a bite, try even biting your grubs in half, downsizing the bait size but still having a sturdy hook can be very productive!

The next few months the bite should do nothing but improve. With all species in the lagoon I highly encourage everyone to catch and release! Let’s get the river back to what it used to be! Don’t forget sunscreen and water are very important this time of year — good luck to everyone and check out some photos from this week!