Tarpon Fishing in Cocoa Beach Florida

With Capt. Doug Blanton

Tarpon in the rivers.

In the rivers we start seeing tarpon show up around the same time as the move in offshore, maybe even a few weeks earlier. They also hang around about the same amount of time as their larger cousins do on the beaches. The largest difference is their size. The inshore tarpon usually run between 10 and 40 lbs.

The largest exception between the tarpon on the beach and the ones in the river is the times they feed hardest. In late October and early November there is a run like no other tarpon run in this area. On good days we have jumped over 60 of these fish and boated close to 30. If that doesn't sound good enough, we catch most of them on Top Water! The bad news is this only takes place for about 2 to 3 weeks. After that it's back to normal.

When it comes to fishing inshore tarpon most of the fishing I do for them is with ether a light spinning with 8 lb mono or an 8# fly rod.

As for tactics, with spinning I still try to throw top water plugs if they are feeding hard. And the same as with on the beach when we have days they are a little slower to eat I use suspending lures or grubs. The biggest difference now is that I have live bait. I can't remember the last time I had to use bait for tarpon around Cocoa Beach.

When it comes to throwing fly once again I use a lot of the same tactics I use with spinning with one exception. The inshore tarpon don't seam as receptive to top water flies except during that window in late October.

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