Death Sentence for Boca Grande Tarpon

by Diana Rudolph • February 1, 2012 • 15 comments

You might want to finish your meal before watching this video. These tournaments are very real and very destructive.

In Blogs, Breaking The Surface • Tagged ,

15 Responses

  1. Abocatarpon

    I am a second generation captain from Boca Grande. I have fished the pass for my entire life. Something needs to be done about this type of fishing. It is killing our great fishery.

    ALL TARPON TOURNAMENTS IN BOCA GRANDE PASS ARE CATCH AND RELEASE EXCEPT THE PTTS! Everyone of the fish that people are holding in this video DIED! (and are weighed in PTTS Tournaments will die, this is why all other tournaments are catch and release) They are dead from over exertion. We would see more dead fish on our beaches but the sharks take out the trash.

    These jigs (as their called) are never jigged. Just drop it to the bottom and then real it up one crank. Then sit there until you feel the lightest bump, then start reeling as fast as you can, and if your lucky that giant circle hook will snag whatever ran into your line several feet above your hook. Which is why jigs are only effective during slack tide when the fish stack up in large schools. (often 30ft thick and 100's strong). They do not catch fish on hard tides when the fish spread out along the bottom. The tarpon bite live bait best when they spread out, so why wont they eat a jig then too? (assuming this jig is imitating a natural food source)

    I avoid fishing slack tide (as do all local traditional captains) and the jig fisherman/ ptts plan their trips/tournaments around it! These local captains I speak of have been fishing Boca Grande for 4 or 5 generations. We all avoid fishing in the daylight because of this zoo.

    Something needs to be done! I want my kids kids to catch a tarpon!

    On February 6, 2012 at 12:39 pm • Reply
    • Guest

      It is impossible to snag a tarpon, or anything, with a circle hook. Circle hooks are a safe and ethical way to catch tarpon because they PREVENT snagging. The bulk of snags are actually caused by the "native" island guides that use live bait on J-hooks which snag fish. The J-hooks will hook fish anywhere, where as a circle hook will catch on the corner of the mouth. The native guides don't want us to fish "their water" because when the off island fisherman go there we outfish them and this is their excuse to make us leave.

      On February 8, 2012 at 1:59 pm • Reply
      • guest

        Try attaching a short line to a circle hook, then slowly drag it across your forearm. Whats your result?

        On February 9, 2012 at 1:47 pm • Reply
      • guest

        hahahahaha…..I'm glad you think you outfish us!

        On February 9, 2012 at 1:49 pm • Reply
        • Kayakc

          But in boca we arent using a short line, we are using 40-60 feet of line. So lets drop that circle hook straight down with more line and pull it up, WOW it slides right off!!!

          On February 9, 2012 at 6:12 pm • Reply
          • guest

            I wish I could draw you a picture……. Your line is bending over the fish. Your boat is moving down tide but the fish is stationary relative to the bottom. So when you feel that light bump and start reeling…….the hook slides up the side of the fish just like your forearm in my example. Yes you are using 40 plus feet of line, but is the fish 5 feet under your boat?

            As Abocatarpon said:

            Here is some SCIENCE for you: (2002-03 FWC Study) http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/tarpon/catch-….

            On February 10, 2012 at 2:12 pm •
  2. SafeFisherman

    ALL TARPON TOURNAMENTS IN BOCA GRANDE PASS ARE CATCH AND RELEASE EXCEPT THE PTTS! Everyone of the fish that people are holding in this video DIED! (and are weighed in PTTS Tournaments will die, this is why all other tournaments are catch and release) They are dead from over exertion. We would see more dead fish on our beaches but the sharks take out the trash.

    You are most incorrect. Of 65 fish caught in a tournament 65 were released alive and swam away under FWC supervision. The FWC works hand in hand with this tournament to tag THOUSANDS of tarpon for research. The amount of money generated from the tags captains need has produced over 1 million dollars for the FWC and aided them in their quest to improve the fishery for years to come. Live baiters who were fishing the area before the tournament came to town have a bad taste in their mouth because they're threatened by a better and safer way to fish for tarpon that spooling out hundreds of yards of mono that eventually get tangled, cut, and left in the pass. These old fogeys are a dying breed and are the main cause of tarpon destruction in the pass. Their selfish and thoughtless fishing habits are often overlooked and thought by many as "a safer way to fish" but for anyone who has seen the cleanup process of the pass every year would know, the huge balls of line found at the bottom, usually do not have a jig or circle hook on them, both of which are required by the tournament.

    Only a misinformed, utterly ignorant captain would ever come to the conclusion that the cleanest, safest, most REGULATED tarpon fishing tournament that generates hundreds of thousands of dollars for the local community and FWC would ever be anything but a blessing for the Tarpon fishing community.

    -3rd generation boca grand captain

    On February 9, 2012 at 11:13 am • Reply
  3. Abocatarpon

    Here is some SCIENCE for you: (2002-03 FWC Study)
    http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/tarpon/catch-…

    I'll review for you:
    Of 26 fish caught jig fishing: (6 out of 26= 23% caught in the mouth inside out, So 77% FOUL HOOK)
    6 were caught inside/out the mouth,
    3 ouside/in the mouth,
    7 in the clipper,
    2 in the head,
    1 in gills,
    1 in mouth
    and 6 unknown. (how you can land a fish and not know were its hooked is beyond me)

    Of the 32 fish caught live baiting: (28 out of 32 = 87.5% caught in the mouth inside out, 12.5% Foul Hook)
    28 were caught inside out the mouth
    3 in the mouth
    and 1 unknown.

    77% Foul hooking for jigging, 12.5% foul hooking for live bait…..ITS FUNNY HOW THE FWC FOUND THIS DATA INCLUSIVE! Your right the FWC does make alot of money from the PTTS.

    Here is a little more science from the FWC:
    http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/tarpon/catch-…

    On February 9, 2012 at 1:22 pm • Reply
  4. bob

    Swam away and lived are a BIG difference! EVERY FISH WIEGHED HAS TO HAVE A $50 KILL TAG IN IT AFTER IT HAS BEEN GAFFED. (yellow tag in fishes mouth during video) These are issued by the state and are required if you are going to kill a tarpon. Why do you tag these fish if they are alive and well?

    Whoever said that Live baiters use Mono is crazy. You can't find a Traditional Local Captain on Boca that uses mono for tarpon in the pass. We all used dacron until the new braids came out years ago. See we mark our lines with yarn so we know exactly how deep we are fishing. This prevents us from catching bottom, angler errors, etc….. Its very hard to thread yarn thru mono.

    On February 9, 2012 at 1:40 pm • Reply
  5. abocatarpon

    *****Only a misinformed, utterly ignorant captain would ever come to the conclusion that the cleanest, safest, most REGULATED tarpon fishing tournament that generates hundreds of thousands of dollars for the local community and FWC would ever be anything but a blessing for the Tarpon fishing community.*****

    …….Cleanest and most safely regulated? What other tournaments are you comparing it to, because their are none like it in this world. This is a one of a kind thing so your statement is correct……….

    …….Utterly ignorant?……
    Do you live in the area? If you lived in this area you would know that your PTTS Tournaments generate very little economy on Boca. Do you pay dockage on Boca? Do you eat lunch/dinner on Boca? Do you buy gas, tackle, boat repairs, bait, on Boca? Some of your clients do stay here yes. This misinformed utterly ignorant island thanks you for that.

    On February 9, 2012 at 1:40 pm • Reply
  6. Kayakc

    When a tarpon is weighed, it is in "posession" of the fisherman, so it requires a tag until either it is kept or released. Now there is a big difference between snagging and killing a tarpon. A tarpon can easily swim away if it is snagged. What is killing the tarpon is the native boca guides that are using j-hooks that gut hook and kill tarpon. And i fish boca grande regularly when tarpon season is in and when PTTS is fishing there. I see tons of people on the beach for this event. So it is the on island guides that are hurting the tarpon. Also, the "native" boca grande guides fish the PTTS events, so it isnt all off island folks.

    On February 9, 2012 at 6:01 pm • Reply
    • guest

      ****When a tarpon is weighed, it is in "posession" of the fisherman***** almost correct, When you GAFF the fish it becomes the fisherman's possession!

      On February 10, 2012 at 2:03 pm • Reply
  7. Kayakc

    It's known that to weigh the fish you need to gaff it to bring it to the scale. Also, this video is wrong on many points, and wrongfully aims inaccurate information at the PTTS. The professional tarpon tournament series is 6 tournaments, which Boca Grande is fished for tarpon mainly 3-4 months out of the year. The PTTS does not change tarpon movement patterns or changed their behavior. The PTTS is not a high impact series, and does not cause negative impacts to the fishery. There is no evidence of this being caused, as PTTS is just a small part of the tarpon fishing that occurs at Boca Grande.

    There are not that many tarpon that are killed because of the PTTS. The tarpon that are killed are just recycled back into the environment and are eaten by predators, which either would eat the dead tarpon or just eat one that is alive, so either way a tarpon dies. Many of these tarpon deaths are blamed on the anglers that use jigs.

    The majority of recreational fishing tarpon deaths a caused by the J hooks. These hooks are swallowed by the tarpon which either damages the gills or damages their guts. Circle hooks will not gut hook a fish nearly as much as a J hook. Yes, it is proven that circle hooks will snag a fish, but a snagged fish will swim away fine, it equals getting a scratch on your skin that heals. Guys, we are out there to fish, not complain and bicker about who's using what hook and such, it's everyones water that wants to use and it's time we are out there to catch fish and not act like children towards each other.

    Tight lines,
    CP

    On February 10, 2012 at 8:36 pm • Reply
  8. guest

    You are most correct! We all need to work together to figure out a solution to our declining Fishery. If you don't believe its in decline then you haven't fished here long enough.

    On February 13, 2012 at 12:13 pm • Reply
  9. Fish123

    Its funny how they say you can't snag a fish with a circle hook every person who jigs know they snag almost all of these fish if not all. The way they snag them is they offset the circle hook. Why would you offset the hook if you weren't trying to snag the fish?

    On May 21, 2012 at 10:06 am • Reply