Tarpon Central
The amazing silver king fishery at Boca Grande
By Frank Sargeant
from The Fishing Wire
Boca Grande Lighthouse
There are many places to catch tarpon in Florida and throughout Central America, but there is no place where the silver king is so synonymous with the location as Boca Grande, the massive pass at the southern tip of Gasparilla Island.
For years anglers made wild estimates of how many tarpon swarm into this pass each spring, roughly between April 1 and the end of June, but nobody knew for sure until the state’s Fish & Wildlife Research Institute put counting devices on the bottom a decade or so back and came up with a reasonably accurate number.
The count was 10,000 fish–at one time! And the biologists who did the counting note that tarpon are coming and going throughout the season, so this number does not represent all the fish that visit the pass, only those that were there during the counting period.
It’s no wonder that the pass draws anglers from all over the nation–and from worldwide locations–to sample the action. There simply is no place on Earth where your odds are better, in one four-hour trip, of hooking up with one of these silver giants, which are typically about the length of a tall man and weigh 100 pounds or more. They are not only powerful, but they are given to aerial acrobatics that leave first-timers speechless–leaps near 10 feet into the air are not uncommon.
Mature tarpon
Boca Grande has the added attraction of allowing anglers to see the fish before they catch them on most days–pods of 10, 20, even 50 at a time come rolling to the surface like schools of silvery porpoises, sometimes almost close enough to touch.
The fish apparently swarm here to feed prior to spawning–the pass is loaded with crabs and baitfish at this time of year, giving them a place to bulk up easily before making the journey offshore, as much as a hundred miles, to drop their eggs in the open sea.
Not surprisingly, a resource this amazing draws a crowd–it’s common for 50 boats or more to float through the pass in a loose fleet. When they reach the bottom of a drift, they return to the top and try again. Some anglers fish with jigs, easing close to concentrations they see on sonar screens and dropping into their midst.
Both live bait and artificials are successful, though the latter are less so since a device known as the break-away jig was banned a few years back. Either way, your chances fishing with a guide here are probably better than almost anywhere else–it’s common for a single boat to fight three or four fish in a four-hour charter.
WHERE TO STAY
The grand old lady of the island is the Gasparilla Inn, which has been housing anglers, captains of industry and movie stars for more than 100 years as they come to pay homage at the shrine of tarpon fishing, the blue-green pass that’s just around the corner from the harbor.
The Gasparilla Inn has been welcoming tarpon fisherman to the island and Boca Grande Pass for more than 100 years. (Photo Credit Gasparilla Inn)
The Victorian-style inn maintains the historic character of the early 1900’s, but it has been steadily upgraded and improved over the decades into a world class resort destination. An 18-hole golf course on the bayside, where you can occasionally see snook and reds swimming along the seawalls, welcomes a respite from the tarpon wars. And the inn is one of the few locations in the nation where there are still croquet courts–the Mallet Club–where the greens are as meticulously maintained at those on the golf course. There’s a beach side tennis club, and of course a marina for the anglers, and the whimsical Pink Elephant Restaurant, just across the street from the docks, where anglers gather to share tall tales–and where wild 3-foot-long iguanas occasionally peek out of the hedges. They’re an invasive species, but still very interesting to see at close range.
The town itself is still much like it has always been–tight zoning laws plus the astronomical value of the land here has kept the development that has ravaged much of mainland Florida at bay, and the toll bridge at the north end of the island is also a factor, forming a sort of mote that helps maintain the laid back tenor of the village and the island. It’s a place that welcomes walking and biking tours–there’s an island-length biking/jogging trail, and plenty of bikes for rent. It’s predictably pricey, both for accommodations and food, but for a weekend or a vacation splurge, it’s one place in Florida everyone just has to visit at least once.
For details on the Gasparilla Inn, visit www.the-gasparilla-inn.com.