New Tarpon Regulations Approved for Florida Waters!
Tarpon: “Megalops atlanticus”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently voted to approve new regulations classifying tarpon and bonefish as catch-and-release-only in State Waters.
Gear Requirements:
- Legal Gear: hook and line, seine, cast net (NEW: Gear will be hook and line only starting Sept. 1, 2013)
- Snagging, snatch hooking and spearing is prohibited (NEW: The use of a multiple hook in conjunction with live or dead natural bait will be prohibited starting Sept. 1, 2013)
NEW: Effective Sept. 1, 2013, tarpon will be a catch-and-release only fishery. One tarpon tag per person per year may be purchased when in pursuit of an International Game Fish Association (IGFA) record. Vessel, transport and shipment limit will be one fish.
New Management Update:
The FWC Commission approved several changes to how tarpon is managed at the June 2013 meeting in Lakeland. These changes will go into effect Sept. 1, 2013, and include:
- All harvest of tarpon will be eliminated, with the exception of the harvest or possession of a single tarpon when in pursuit of an IGFA record and in conjunction with a tarpon tag.
- Tarpon tags will be limited to one per person, per year (except for charter boat captains).
- Transport or shipment of tarpon becomes limited to one fish per person.
- One fish per vessel limit is created for tarpon.
- Gear used for tarpon will be limited to hook-and-line only.
- People will be allowed to temporarily possess a tarpon for photography, measurement of length and girth and scientific sampling, with the stipulation that tarpon more than 40 inches must remain in the water.
- Tarpon regulations will extend into federal waters.
- Tarpon tag cost will remain $50 per tag but tag validity will change from July through June to January through December. Tags purchased from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2013, will be good through Dec. 31, 2014.
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Prohibit the use of a multiple hook in conjunction with live or dead natural bait to harvest or attempt to harvest tarpon
Personally, I have a hard time understand the need for most of these new regulations for several reasons: The fact that a Tarpon has no food value means there is almost no commercial or recreational harvest of this fishery as it is. This means the average person has no reason to keep a tarpon and would not spend the $50 for a tag to make it legal anyway. Why does a fish that goes virtually unharvested, need to be protected….from harvest? Additionally, what does this mean for species that are being harvested?
I feel that given the naturally, extremely limited harvest by sportsmen, the Tarpon should have no problem maintaining its population without further regulations placed on the fishery. If there are some other factors that are affecting the population then that would be another matter but I am unaware of any problems or reports of declining numbers of Tarpon.
While I truly do enjoy doing battle with a big Tarpon, most of the new regulations do not seem necessary or appear that they would provide any significant benefits that the Tarpon are not already enjoying.
See ya on the water!
Larry S.
Larry Stephens with Tarpon caught off Flagler Beach in 2011.
Fishing Report – Ormond Beach Night Fishing
Sat. May 26, 2013
Weather: 79 deg. at launch, Mostly clear
Wind: moderate southeast winds, 6-8 mph
Water: Water stained from runoff and muddy, light chop.
Target Fish: Trout
Fish caught: (1) Ladyfish, (13) Trout , (1) Mangrove Snapper
I went on a night op with my brother Darin last night to fish some dock lights in Ormond Beach. The night before he caught about 20 trout fishing a live shrimp under a cork.
It was a little windy to suite me but there was one pretty sunset going down.
We stopped at some open water structure to do some plugging. I was throwing one of my favorite search plugs……a ghost minnow. It is a shallow running lip bait and a suspending twitch. I think it’s really a fresh water plug but it has held up well in the saltwater. I have caught a pile of trout on this thing and you can cover water pretty quickly with it.
The first fish of the evening turned out to be a nice ladyfish that struck right at the boat…..so close that when I set the hook I skipped her right into the boat and out the other side.
It was about another 10 minutes before I caught the first trout but the bite turned on like you flipped a switch. I caught about 5 fish back to back, nearly every cast. Darin was fishing a live shrimp and caught a small mangrove snapper but couldn’t find a trout. Finally he tied on a blue/chrome lipped plug and managed to land two trout before the bite petered out.
It was getting dark so we headed off to fish some dock lights.
The bite was pretty slow under the docks we fished. We saw a few trout strike under the light but only managed to catch 5-6 in several hours of fishing. All of those took a like shrimp except one that I caught on the ghost minnow.
We called it off about midnight and headed for the launch.
The river seems to be full of trout right now. They are now large so down size your equipment. We only kept 4-5 of the 13-14 we caught.
Good Luck,
Larry S.
P.S. Here’s a short video of the trip……….
Fishing Report – Mosquito Lagoon 5-25-13
Sat. May 18, 2013
Weather: 74 deg. at launch, 88 at landing Mostly clear to partly cloudy later in the day
Wind: moderate east winds, 8-10mph at launch, 15-18 +/- at noon
Water: Water has turned to a stained tea or brown color. I expect it’s due to the brown tide issues.
Target Fish: Redfish, Trout
Fish caught: (1) Ladyfish, (4) Redfish -mid- slot
After the action he had last weekend at the lagoon, We couldn’t resist going back for more! We had a pretty good crew this morning and I was joined by Rick Edwards and Dr. Theodore DeRoche (TR). That was about all our little hot spot could support fishing.
Unfortunately, the wind was forecasted to be 10 mph at 6 am and building to 16 mph by noon. We decided to go ahead and chance it and hope against hope the the forecast would be wrong.
It wasn’t!
We caught some live bait in a little creek on the paddle in, mostly pin fish, a few mullet and misc. others. We fished a few spots quickly on the way but were anxious to get to the honey hole.
Unlike last weekend, when we arrived at the spot we found the water to be pretty dirty and had to set up differently due to the wind direction. I expect the stained water was from the brown tide that has been an issue for the area.
I had a not so good feeling about reproducing the results of last weekend and that would turn out to be right. As a matter of fact, it got so slow about mid morning that two of our party actually dozed off.
Most of the fish were caught later up in the morning.
We caught a total or (4) mid slot redfish and one small lady fish all morning. The three reds I caught were on live pin fish and mullet and Rick caught his on a Gulp shrimp again. I had (2) others on but only briefly. The finger mullet were a little larger than I prefer, about 5″. One fish I lost probably just hadn’t gotten the whole mullet in his mouth when I set the hook. I think Rick missed one as well. TR on the other hand was having a real off day and did not manage a strike. The conditions were difficult with the chop, making it difficult to see the sandy area. Having fished it last weekend we did have an advantage over TR.
On the plus side, all the redfish were quality mid-slot fish and all gave our line a good stretch.
We fought it all morning and decided at noon that we had best start the dreaded paddle back which would be a mile and a quarter straight into a 15+ mph wind! It was no fun but we made it…just a little wetter than we started out.
Here are some more pics from the Trip:
Len's Black Drum Daytona Beach, Fl.
This book covers everything you need to know about kayak fishing. The best part is....I'M IN IT! Check out page 180-183 on Tarpon fishing.
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