Tarpon season in the Florida Keys

Every year around the end of February, the water along the Atlantic side of the Keys hits a temperature that flips a switch. The first big Megalops atlanticus — the Atlantic tarpon, the Silver King — show up at the bridges and basins. By April they're everywhere. By June they're harder to find but bigger on average. By October they're mostly gone, except for the resident fish that never really leave.

This is a month-by-month read on where they show up, written by people who fish them — not a guide service trying to book your day. The places named here are public water. The fish belong to whoever is paying attention.

Late February to March — pre-spawn fish, big bridges

Water hits roughly 72°F on the Atlantic side. Pre-spawn fish start staging at the deep cuts and bridges south of Marathon — Tom's Harbor, Long Key Viaduct, and especially Channel Five, where Florida Bay flushes out to the ocean on every tide change.

If you've never read the bathymetry around the Seven Mile Bridge area, the field note on reading the reef tract is the prerequisite. The bridges sit on top of structure that funnels bait, and the chart tells you why.

If you're standing on the bridge at Channel Five at slack tide and you see a single roll — count the seconds until the next one. That's the cadence. Three rolls in three minutes is a fish working. Six rolls in three minutes is the school working.

• — Channel Five at slack water, in or out
• — Long Key Viaduct on a moving tide
• — Tom's Harbor cut on a falling tide
• — The Bahia Honda basin under the old bridge

April — the peak begins

April is when it stops being a tarpon-hunting trip and starts being a tarpon-fishing trip. Fish are everywhere on the oceanside flats from Islamorada down to the Marathon bridges. Water temperatures sit in the high 70s. The fish are pre-spawn, fat, and aggressive — they'll eat a fly, a crab, a thread herring, or a swimbait, depending on the day and the school.

The Atlantic side off Islamorada and Long Key is the classic poled-skiff fishery. From a skiff with a good push pole, you can see schools of fifty to a hundred fish moving north-to-south along the edge of the green grass beds in 4 to 7 feet of water. The classic shot is a lead, a long pause, and a single strip the moment the lead fish tracks.

On the bridges, the night bite at Channel Five and the Seven Mile turns on. Live mullet on a circle hook. A 50 lb. leader minimum. The drag set heavy — you have ninety seconds to get a hooked fish out from under the pilings or you've donated your tackle to the structure.

• — Islamorada oceanside flats (sight fishing from a skiff)
• — Channel Five at night (live bait, heavy tackle)
• — The Bay side near Buchanan Bank on a calm morning
• — Florida Bay basins on the early outgoing tide

May and June — the peak, and the palolo hatch

This is the season. Water in the low 80s. The full-moon tides in May and June pull the biggest fish into the bridges. Florida Bay backcountry fishes well on the lee side of any wind. The flats off Bahia Honda and No Name Key hold fish on a falling tide.

One specific call: the palolo worm hatch, late May into early June. When the worms come off the reef-tract patches on the post-full-moon outgoing tide, tarpon stack on the worm line to eat them. If you can find the hatch, you can find the fish. Tan-and-orange flies in size 1/0 are the gear.

June is also when the average size goes up. The 80-pounders thin out a little. The 130-pounders show. Fewer fish, bigger fish, harder fights.

• — Bahia Honda basin on the falling tide
• — The palolo worm line off the reef on a summer outgoing
• — Florida Bay backcountry — Buchanan, Sandy Key, the basins north
• — Channel Five and Seven Mile at night on the new and full moons

July and August — resident fish, real heat

The big migratory bodies of fish have largely pushed through by mid-July. What's left is the resident population — the Keys fish that don't migrate — and they're holding in deeper water during the hot middle of the day. Water temperatures push into the high 80s on the flats, which is past the comfort range. The fish move out and down.

Garrison Bight in Key West is a sleeper move in July. The harbor itself holds resident tarpon year-round. First light, before the boat traffic starts, is the window. You can stand on the seawall with a heavy spinning rod and a live pinfish and intercept fish coming through the basin on a moving tide.

Up the chain, the basins on the Bay side off Marathon and the backcountry north of Big Pine hold resident fish in 8 to 15 feet of water. Slow morning, slow evening, dead middle. Pick your hours.

• — Garrison Bight at first light
• — Bay-side basins (8–15 feet) off Marathon
• — The backcountry north of Big Pine on a calm morning
• — Sand Key area on a slack incoming, for the rare big resident

September and October — the mullet run, the last shot

Then the mullet run. Big bait pours down the Atlantic side of the Keys in September and into October. The tarpon that have spent the summer offshore or deep come up to feed in the beach trough and at the deep cuts. This is your last clean shot at a big fish until next year.

A real number: the beach trough at Bahia Honda holds fish in 8 to 12 feet of water on a falling tide, often within a long cast of dry sand. The bait runs in 2 to 3 feet of water along the edge. The fish are in the deeper water, looking up.

By late October, water temperatures drop back through the low 70s and the season effectively ends. The bridges quiet down. The Bay goes cold. The fish that stay become winter resident fish, holding in the warmest water they can find, fishable on rare warm windows but no longer a target.

Hookup is not landing

A landed-tarpon ratio of 1-in-5 is normal. 1-in-3 is good. 1-in-2 is a guide who's been doing it for twenty years. They jump four feet out of the water with hooks they'd like to throw, they run for structure they know better than you do, and they break leaders, rods, and egos at roughly equal rates.

Don't count the bites. Count the touches at the boat. That's the honest number.

For what the run home looks like when you've made one of those touches — the run from the back of nowhere to the dock with the sun in your face — see end of the road.

“Don't count the bites. Count the touches at the boat. That's the honest number.”

What you wear matters

A 6-hour day in May at the bridges — the UV index will sit at 10 or 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A regular cotton tee lets a lot of that through, and it does worse once it's wet. Math the rest of it. You want a long-sleeve sun shirt, a sun mask, and a brim, and you want the long-sleeve to dry between flats so you're not running home in wet cotton.

For the bridge work and the run, we wear the Reef Tract Long-Sleeve hooded, with a Reef Tract Sun Mask pulled up over the nose. For the flats — when you want a lighter fabric and a slimmer cut — the Hawk Channel Long-Sleeve. For the dock bar after, the Tarpon “Silver King” Tee. Megalops atlanticus on the chest. The catchline on the back.

That's the gear. Go find the fish.