Fly fishing for tarpon is unpredictable, often frustrating, usually super challenging, and always mucho expensive. It’s also addictive.
In my mind, it is the perfect combination of all things that make fly fishing magical—sight-fishing to huge animals in shallow water; when in the mood tarpon eat flies with abandon; this fish is scary-strong, hard to keep on the hook, and when hooked they put on breathtaking arial displays. Summary: casting to a 100-plus pound tarpon, getting the bite, setting the hook and experiencing an immediate series of gill rattling jumps and line simply burning off your reel, is the best 90 seconds in fly fishing.
Migratory tarpon first appear in South Florida in December. They hang out in North Biscayne Bay and Government Cut in Miami, and they frequent the mouths of rivers leading in from the Gulf and in Whitewater Bay on Florida’s west coast.