How a local charter captain targets tarpon near Anna Maria Island
One of the world’s oldest and most sought-after species of fish made their presence felt across Tampa Bay and Gulf beaches this past week.
Since prehistoric times, the silver king has roamed Earth’s waters reaching sizes up to 8 feet and 280 pounds. Every year in the late spring and early summer, Florida’s West Coast captains and anglers eagerly anticipate their migration, and now tarpon are here.
“There are a lot of fish on the bridges. The Skyway, Cortez bridge, Longboat bridge. Mostly 50- to 80-pound fish, some up to 125 pounds. The beach has been hit or miss, but with more fish showing up, that will be good any day now,” said captain Nathan Costello, who runs AMI Excursions fishing charters.
“For the last week, I’ve been going almost every day for tarpon. Usually in the morning, I’ll pick my clients up on the way to get bait at the Skyway. We’ll catch bait, then tarpon fish for a bit. Thursday, we hooked six and caught one. Friday, hooked one and caught it. Tuesday, hooked three and caught two,” Costello said. “Most days, we’ll hook one to four fish, then head in and do some more traditional, consistent fishing with snook and redfish being good right now.”
When fishing at the Skyway, Costello picks a place where he sees tarpon either on the surface or by using his side scan electronics. He’ll get up-tide and chum threadfin herring, then freeline a bait back on 50-pound fluorocarbon leader and 50-pound braided line with a 7/0 Mustad hook.
While it isn’t his preferred method to tarpon fish, it has proven effective.
“It’s pretty steady right now inshore, there are a lot of fish in the bay,” Costello said. “But my favorite way to tarpon fish is getting out on the beach to live bait them with crabs or threadfin. I haven’t been able to do a ton of that yet, but it looks like that will be good later this month until the middle or end of June with as many fish that have already showed up.”
Around that same time, Costello will start to spend his full days stalking the giant tarpon off Anna Maria Island’s clean waters, not bringing the light tackle for smaller species.
“The week of May 22nd looks like great tides. There haven’t been many crabs yet, but that will come soon. The early June full moon will probably be a good crab flush and those big outgoing tides in the evening will be great,” Costello explained.
He, and many other guides who tarpon fish, will use the next few months to focus on catching a lifetime memory for their anglers. Many come in from around the world for a chance at a once-in-a-lifetime catch of the massive tarpon.
It provides tens of millions of dollars to local economies between lodging, entertainment and the cost of charters. As such, it is a catch-and-release fishery, knowing a live-released tarpon is better for everyone. But as many anglers have experienced, sharks continue to be a growing issue in the fishery, not allowing tarpon to live another day.
“We got sharked once this week,” said Costello. “It came out of nowhere. We were about to land a fish after a 20-minute fight, then a big bull shark came in and crushed it.”
Captain Nathan Costello can be reached through his website www.AMIExcursions.com.
