Hoofing It

THE SPANISH MACKEREL were tearing bait in the surf near the Padre Island Jetties that gorgeous October morning. I was trying to forget the Longhorns’ trouncing at the hands of dastardly Oklahoma the day before, and I was having a fine time.

Every cast of the chrome spoon I was throwing into the thrashing schools of blue and yellow-spotted rapiers was getting slammed, and I had four in the ice chest in four casts.

I made my fifth cast and started swimming the ½-ounce chrome Kastmaster back to the rocks just under the surface. Halfway back, another Spanny struck and took off in a streak. I worked the fish back to the edge of the rocks and was getting ready to flip on top of them when a six-foot long tarpon came up under the hapless pelagic and sucked him down with an audible slurp.

I don’t know whether the little treble hook actually found purchase in the fish’s bony mouth, or the mackerel got lodged in his throat, but whatever the reason, I was latched into a large and angry fish.

Ninety minutes later, the big ‘poon finally broke the 20-pound line, and left me a sunburned, bloody (my knees showed the wages of repeatedly tripping while chasing the fish up and down the rocks) wreck.

Such is the punishment for challenging the silver king from shore. He can do a number on you. Still, if you have a desire to go knuckle and skull with one of the premier gamefish in the world while keeping your feet on terra firma, then chasing tarpon from the beach or jetties is your game.

There’s no telling the sort of fish you’ll latch onto, either. Jeremy Ebert of Deer Park, Texas broke the state tarpon record on 4 October 2006 with a 210 pound, 11-ounce behemoth. He hooked and landed the huge tarpon while soaking menhaden in the surf off the Galveston fishing pier for redfish.

You don’t need a $25,000 boat equipped with a trolling motor and top-of-the-line electronics to reach out and latch on to one of the most sought-after gamefish anywhere. Solid tackle, a smart assortment of bait or lures, and a stout heart are the tools you’ll need.

Before you blanch and decide that it may not be a good idea to go after tarpon from shore—rest easy. For every big tarpon out there ready to give a fisherman the business, there are plenty of 40- to 60-pound tarpon who are more than a bit accommodating when it comes to taking bait or lures and giving you a fine time without too much pain and angst.

During October, vast schools of large mullet begin migrating along the Texas Coast preparing for their spawn. Tarpon join the legions of sport fish that follow these giant schools and rip into them with abandon. The day I latched onto my big tarpon, I had witnessed such a school of mullet pass through the Brazos Santiago surf.

These fish can be intercepted and hooked by the angler who casts large, noisy lures such as the Magnum Rat-L Trap or the Magnum Super Spook. Two novel options that I’ve experimented with have been large swimbaits such as the Castaic Ayu (which does an excellent job of imitating a wounded mullet), and the South Padre Island Lures seven-inch tandem, which is a pair of large jerkbaits fished on a unique tandem rig.

Appropriate tackle includes a surf rod 8 to 12 feet long to reach out to where the lunkers lurk. You’ll also need a high capacity reel such as the Penn 8500 SS or Okuma Coronado (or an Ambassadeur 7000-C4 or Shimano Calcutta 400TE or 600 TE, if you prefer casting reels). Fill it with at least 20-pound test line such as Stren High Impact or Trilene Big Game. Flourocarbon is another excellent option because of the excellent abrasion resistance this line formulation provides.

I prefer braided line in this and other surf/jetty applications because of the increased reel capacity it provides me. If a big fish gets down in the outgoing currents that run parallel to the rocks and takes off for Campeche I am prepared. It’s reassuring to know that I have a top-shot of 300 yards of braid on top of 250 yards of 20-pound line when using my Okuma.

In a best-case scenario, I have a large line cushion to try to pressure the fish into turning. Worst case, I have added time to suffer while I hope for a miracle to stop the fish.

The longer rods also give you an added advantage when you hook a fish from the jetties. You can put greater pressure onto a sounding fish or one running from you because of the higher angle the long rods afford you. Believe me, when you latch into a big tarpon that starts rampaging around the jetties you’re stuck on, a twelve-foot rod becomes your best friend.

The great thing about these fish is that they are perfect opponents for the typically equipped surf fisherman who is chasing trout and redfish. A 40-pound tarpon is great fun on a seven to seven-and-a-half-foot trout rod with a reel loaded with 12- to 15-pound line. You can fight him from the shore, and if the fish starts a greyhound run parallel to the beach, you can hoof it keep up with him.

Beach-combing tarpon will strike the same lures and flies that trout and redfish strike. If you target them specifically, patterns that include white or red seem to work best, and noisy plugs are very effective. Don’t be surprised if one of these junior thugs sucks down a shrimp under a popping cork, either.

These fish aren’t very discriminating. Jeremy Ebert’s fish showed that fact.

Email Cal Gonzales at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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