I learned an expensive lesson from this “Tarpon” fishing trip.  Southern Charm Charters charged the going rate for a half day trip for tarpon ($500). Nonetheless, it was an expensive lesson to learn.  I only got within casting distance once and the rigging was poorly prepared so the leader knot caught up on the fishing rod eye. 

I spent all morning listening to how tarpon fishing is like trophy buck hunting.  You might only see one or two all day long and then you might miss your shot or they may not strike your bait even if it was a perfect cast.

That may be true.  We spent 5 hours cruising around the harbor looking for Tarpon. We saw a few make some large swells and jump out of the water, but they were hundreds of yards away and nowhere close to casting distance.

There were TWO instances where we saw tarpon within 50 feet of the boat (casting distance).  One of them was behind the boat and I was at the front, so I wasn’t able to cast.  The other opportunity I went to cast with the open face reel provided and the leader knot was poorly tied (large knot, long leader) so it hung up on the eye of the rod.  By the time I recovered the tarpon vanished.

I assure you I know how to cast.  I’ve been fishing with open face reels for 30 years so it was not user error.

After cruising around the harbor for 4 hours Captain Steve made an effort to get me in a spot to at least catch something.  However, it was a poor effort.  He saw some drum on the fish finder at 6am in an adjacent harbor so he cruised over to see if they were still there.  At 1130am, they were not.  He then said, “Cast your line behind the boat and we’ll troll under the bridge as we leave the harbor.  Maybe we’ll get a bite. 

A good Captain always has a plan B, and ALWAYS brings a variety of options for bait.  Captain Steve brought four open face rods.  Two of them he threw behind the boat for trolling.  The other two had “tarpon” jigs on them.  One for me and one for the first mate. 

I explained to Captain Steve that I would like to try for Tarpon in the early morning hours and then switch to trying for ANYTHING after that.  Captain Steve didn’t bring live bait.  He didn’t even bring a tackle box.  There were only a few jigs sitting on the dash of his boat.  At about 9am, Captain Steve wanted to go catch ladyfingers in the mangroves so we could switch to bull shark fishing.  Then his first mate reminded him that he didn’t have the rigging for shark fishing, so if we hooked one we would never see it because the line would break.

To be fair, the tarpon is very elusive and hard to find and even harder to hook and catch.  We saw 14 boats out on the water.  Of the 14, I only saw two boats hook a tarpon.

The good thing that came from the trip was that I got to cruise around the harbor.  I saw a couple of tarpon jump out of the water, which was cool.  However, it wasn’t worth the $500 fee. 

I wouldn’t recommend Southern Charm for tarpon fishing.  I would take a hard pass on this guide.  He may be okay for other types of fishing though.  I learned that a guide really needs to know their stuff to get you within casting distance for catching the tarpon.