It didn't start out as a tarpon trip but it certainly ended up as one last weekend for Capt. Chuck Griffin of Aqua Adventures Sportfishing Charters.
Griffin said he and his clients had caught and released plenty of redfish, so he asked them: "We have some time and bait. You want to go try for something else?"
They were all in so Griffin headed to a spot where he previously had caught tarpon, put out some large live menhaden and during the remainder of the charter time the crew hooked, fought and released two tarpon.
"We got lucky. That's the way it is sometimes," Griffin said.
South Carolina is about to hit the peak for tarpon fishing. Sometimes tarpon begin showing up in June but this year they didn't make their appearance until July.
"We can hear reports of tarpon from Beaufort and haven't seen anything. Then all of a sudden two weeks later they're everywhere here. When the water gets close to 80 degrees here we'll start seeing them," said Griffin, who added late August is typically better for tarpon in the Lowcountry. The fishing sometimes extends until mid-October, depending on water temperatures and the annual southward mullet migration.
Capt. Chuck Griffin prepares to release a large tarpon caught near Charleston. Provided photo
Griffin, who has been a fishing guide for 35 years, said he well remembers his first tarpon and has fond memories of the first Charleston tarpon. He used to spend time fishing the the Florida Keys where he caught his first tarpon.
"My first tarpon here, it was a rough day and I went to the Jetties. I was just trying to get out of the bad waves. I was fishing the South Jetty by Morris Island, which was in the lee of the wind. We'd been catching some redfish there. I fished some live baits on the bottom and the first run that went off was a tarpon, about 100 pounds. I remember how rough it was and we had to chase it down. That was my first one here," he said.
Griffin said over the past 10 years, he's seen a rise in the number of clients interested in tarpon fishing, but it's still a small percentage of his overall charters.
"It will be a good day if you hook one and jump one, that's what I tell them. A lot of time we call it 'sharkon' fishing because you will be busy with sharks waiting on a tarpon bite," he said. "There are plenty of blacktip sharks and a redfish every now and then."
During the summer months when tarpon pay their annual visit to South Carolina waters, they are most often found near any of the ocean inlets. Griffin said he's hooked or caught tarpon in every inlet from McClellanville to the North Edisto.
"You need that clean water more than anything. You don't want dirty, muddy water," he said. "You want to look for channels in the inlets. We have these shallow inlets and there's always a channel. That's their highway in and out. You need to be in that channel or on either side of it, depending on the tide. You can frequently catch them in the deeper parts of the channel at dead tides. I tend to like the moving tide when I'm inside or outside of the bars."
Griffin said he prefers live baits on the bottom rather than floating them on the surface. Birds can be a problem with the surface baits, he said.
"A variety of baits work, but my overall favorite is big, large menhaden. You can also use croakers, spots, whitings. My biggest one ever came on half a Spanish mackerel. I was shark fishing," Griffin said.
"When they're hungry they'll eat just about anything. I even caught a 90-pounder on a mud minnow. I was fishing the boneyard off Bulls Island one time and caught one on a little trout rod. It was about an hour and a half before we caught him. They'll eat anything. You just don't know."
Griffin uses Shimano Saragosa reels in the 10,000 size and 8-foot Shimano Terez rods. He spools the reels with 300 yards of braided line and a 20- to 25-foot top shot of 80-pound test monofilament. Griffin uses a fish-finder rig with a 250-pound test swivel and a sinker no heavier than 3 ounces. More than that the current is running too fast. Below the swivel he uses a 2- to 3-foot length of 80-pound test mono and ties on either an Eagle Claw Circle Sea 6/0 hook or an Owner Mutu 7/0.
Griffin prefers the heavy tackle so he can get them to the boat quickly and not fight them to the point of death.
"I fish the rods in a rod holder," Griffin said. "Usually if someone touches the rod before the tarpon is hooked, you lose the fish. We should have caught three the other day. I had a guy who grabbed the rod just as it started to bend over. The best thing to do is let it bend over, let the fish run and let him make that first jump and then pick the rod up out of the rod holder."
America's Boating Club
America's Boating Club Charleston will hold a boating safety class Sept. 11 at 1376 Orange Grove Road, Charleston. The class begins at 9 a.m. and ends around 4 p.m. Successful participants earn the S.C. Department of Natural Resources Boater Education Card. The cost is $25 for adults and youth 12-18 are free. Call 843-312-2876 or email lynest@tds.net.
It's tarpon time in SC waters: 'They'll eat anything' - Charleston Post Courier
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment