Broadwater and Seaway Trip Report 30th June 2010 Target Tarpon

Conditions

• Wind: W 5-10knots
• Swell: 0.5m E Swell
• Water Clarity 7m
• Tide : Low tide at 04.49am, High Tide at 10.31am  (0.26 -1.07)
• Time Fished: 02.30am to 08.00am
• Moon Phase: 4 days after full moon.
• Occasional showers, Temps 8-15 Degrees C

Notes

Negligible run in the tide, no swell and clear water.  No fish around the north wall after first light.

Report

Just for a change today I thought I'd do something a little bit different.  My target today was tarpon in the seaway, I've caught a few in there before but I've been doing some thinking and thought I could do it a bit better if I targeted them properly, so I picked a tide, a time and a place and went forth.

It didn't take long to find them and they were very hungry, over the next 2 hours I landed 4 from 55-63cm, lost 2 at the boat, 2 wore through the trace and had about 10 jump off.  Hooking them is easy keeping them connected is not, especially when they get airborne!  They loved the vibs, but keeping them connected once you hooked up was an exercise in frustration, plastics got less hits but stayed connected better.  There were two types of tarpon, runners and jumpers.  The runners put up a much better fight, very similar to a decent size GT, the jumpers pretty much came straight to the surface and did metre high jumps til they threw the hook, very entertaining.

The Zipbaits vibs in the 58-13g size were the best lure, but the small hooks had trouble holding.  Next best was the ZipbaitsVib 80-25 then the Ecogear Grass minnows M in midnight glow.

I also managed a squire on a 1/4 oz gulp smelt and got about 10 small tailor on twisties on the way back to the ramp.

Even though I didn't land that many, it was a great mornings fishing.