The recent rains have seemed to really have the Juvi Tarpon on the Eau Gallie River fired up. If this is a fish you want to target and catch get out there while the bite is hot!
Happy Monday SpaceFish Family,
We have probably gotten more rain in the last 2 weeks in the Eau Gallie district of Melbourne than we have in the last 2 months. It seems that way, anyway. My yard isn’t the only thing that has been fired up about it, the Snook and Tarpon populations on the Eau Gallie River were fired up and absolutely chewing this weekend.
I launched out of Ballard Park, it was right after the sun perked up over the horizon and I started fishing top water. I worked that little cove tucked in right behind Ballard. I was blown away by the amount of bait stacked up back there. Snook were blowing up on bait, and Tarpon were rolling but I didn’t get a top-water bite. And before long, dolphin showed up and shut down the party. So I started working south, along the eastern shoreline of Elbow Creek. Snook were hanging out in the shallows and were busting schools of Minnows, and Tarpon were rolling on the deeper end of docks. I’d cruise along, and if I saw signs of life I’d cast to it. I decided to put the top-water away and throw the Tsunami Soft Shad Swimbait. This has been my go-to recently and it produced a dozen snook before 10 am. I’d see a blow up, cast behind it and try and slow-roll the lure past where I thought the Snook was lurking and BANG, BOOM, POW it was like clock work. No monsters were caught, but a few just below the slot range, and one lower slot Snook was netted. I did get broken off once as well.Sad state of affairs, I had the Snook turned, was winning the battle, survived a few jumps and a head shake, and I thought it was subdued enough to take my hand off the reel and grab the net, he made a blistering run to the closest mangrove and pop goes the leader.
Early in the morning, I wasn’t having much luck with Tarpon, but around 10ish, I got the first one to connect. He rolled just off a dock and I cast in front of him. I survived about 4 jumps before a bent hook came out on his 5th jump. I re-tied another 2 inch swimbait and the next Tarpon target was scooped into the net and cooperated for a nice picture before swimming away happily to go terrorize more minnow schools. I worked back into a little canal down there close to Boathouse Discount Marine. It’s not hard to miss, there is mangrove overgrowth that almost obscures the view, but to my fellow kayak, and paddle board anglers, go check it out! I had to take the rods down and lay belly down on the kayak and paddle in like a surfer, and I may or may not have had a minor panic attack when a spider landed in my kayak close to my face in such a compromising position but it was worth it when I sat back up and saw several rolling Tarpon in an area that it is likely no one ever fished. I landed my 2nd and 3rd Tarpon of the trip, caught a nice fat Mayan Cichlid under a wooden dock/bridge and decided to get back out into open water to go down the main river.
I got down the main river, and the action was slowing. I had to start beating the bushes with a weedless DOA CAL Shad. At this point the sun was up and baking, I did land 2 medium (fun-sized) Snook while skipping under bushes, and jumped another Tarpon that I didn’t intentionally cast to, but was lurking under a shaded dock. Since I texposed the hook into the plastic, I think that impeded a good enough hook set for the Silver Prince. The temperature started dropping, cloud cover assembled and a light rain fired the Tarpon up. I was able to cast a 2 inch swimbait to a rolling tarpon a few yards off a mangrove point and he took it. We battled, I survived his runs and jumps and got to de-hook and release my 4th Tarpon of the morning. He was the best of the bunch but I didn’t feel like getting my phone out in the rain, so this is not the one in the picture above.
My day was cut a little short when I heard the lightning alarm go off from Eau Gallie High School. By this point, I knew a storm was rolling in, I started to head back to Ballard when I realized that I wasn’t going to make it. I decided pull into the Boat Ramp at the Harbours Apartments, As I was getting off the kayak and storing some things away I heard the sound of heavy rain falling, I looked back to the Railroad Bridge and saw an absolute torrential, and I mean biblical apocalypse style downpour moving rapidly my way. I very urgently grabbed the kayak, pulled it up the ramp as fast as I could. Grabbed all of my valuables I didn’t want to get soaked and stuffed them into my tote bag, and into the dry boxes of the kayak and ran to the picnic table with a cover. I realized I may be there for a while and since I was about a mile or so from my house, I phoned my favorite free taxi service (my wife) and asked her if she could come pick me up, and drive me down to Ballard to get my truck since it would be a while before I was able to kayak anywhere. About 20 minutes later my truck pulled into the Harbours and I loaded my kayak and gear up while getting absolutely soaked to the bone, but I did so with a smile on my face because it was one excellent morning of fishing!
Rainy Days = Fired Up Tarpon
My Approach/What Has Been Working – Outside of top-water at first light, I have 3 rods rigged with 2, 3 and 4 inch soft-plastic swim bait options. I even carry a 5 inch in my bag just in case I feel like I need to go big. But I try and get a gauge on the size of the bait fish that are being chased and eaten to make my presentations fit that profile as much as I can. This past weekend there were TONS of bait fish in the EGR. But they were either really minnows or huge hog-leg Mullet. So the 2 inch and 3 inch profiles were what I caught fish on. The water has gotten dirtier with the recent rains, you can’t go wrong with a darker profile of bait. My personal go-to that I have a lot of confidence in right now is DOA’s Figi Chix color and Tsunami’s Black-Back color. The light, silver belly and the black back with red specks seem to go really well in the muddy water and the chartreuse tail on the DOA Figi Chix color gives this bait a little extra pop.
I hope everyone has a great week, stay safe out on the water. The afternoon thunderstorms have really increased in my neck of the woods lately – so keep a watchful eye on the skies and the radars. Good luck, and catch them up!
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.