Some tarpon statistics for the year so far

kmagnuss

I thought some of you might find this interesting.

On the year I've gone 92 for 372 on the tarpon. 24.7%
On ADULT tarpon (80 lbs or more) I've gone 20-60. 33.3%
Juvis are then 72/312. 23.1%
Juvis on fly 6/17. 35.3%

In this small sample you can see from my data that juvis are pretty darn hard to land... and the adults are landed at almost 50% more frequently than the juvis. The fly rod dominates on the juvis it seems... and honestly I'm terrible with the fly rod. I should have realistically landed over half those fish... My clients landed about 70% when they were fly fishing (but again a small sample size).

Anyway... thought a few of you might find those #'s interesting.

Oh... and nearly all the juvis were caught on artificials. The adults are about 50% artificials roughly.

-Mag

mlange

how about daylight vs night? incoming vs outgoing?
Kidding! those are some awesome numbers!

snipes27

mlange wrote: »

how about daylight vs night? incoming vs outgoing?
Kidding! those are some awesome numbers!

and let's not forget the GPS numbers too!!! :rotflmao

That's incredible though Keith... Keep up the great work.

stpetebaitman

That's great, its obvious you should be targeting the big ones more

kmagnuss

Haha true. Man I have so much fun with the 30 pounders on light tackle though.

Finfinder

kmagnuss wrote: »

Haha true. Man I have so much fun with the 30 pounders on light tackle though.

I know many that prefer the small verses the big nasty's.

CapnAhab

How awesome! I've enjoyed reading about your journey the last couple years chasing tarpon. Great job man!

Tarponator

Very interesting stats. I know you mostly throw lures/flies, but have you kept statistics between live bait, lures, and flies? I think you'll find a wide variance in landing percentages if you're anything like me.

kmagnuss

Tarponator wrote: »

Very interesting stats. I know you mostly throw lures/flies, but have you kept statistics between live bait, lures, and flies? I think you'll find a wide variance in landing percentages if you're anything like me.

My stats on artificials vs live is very limited... I haven't been as good about keeping track of it. But I can definitely say that with live bait, especially free lined live bait... the landing ratio goes way up (so does the size of the fish).

kellercl

Do they just eventually toss the hook or wear through the leader? I don't tarpon fish, probably won't change that, but I am curious.

kmagnuss

Typically they toss the hook. I used to have the juvis wear through the leader a lot when I was using 30#, but since then I've upped to 40# on juvis and it rarely if ever happens. On the bigger fish using 80# they wear through it every once in awhile on a long fight, but usually if we lose a fish it's from getting the hook thrown.

Serotonin

Thanks for the stats. Glad to be part of them too

kellercl

kmagnuss wrote: »

Typically they toss the hook. I used to have the juvis wear through the leader a lot when I was using 30#, but since then I've upped to 40# on juvis and it rarely if ever happens. On the bigger fish using 80# they wear through it every once in awhile on a long fight, but usually if we lose a fish it's from getting the hook thrown.

Cool, thanks for the info. I assume it is like lady fish, albeit much larger. Mouths that are hard along with a bunch of head shaking.

kmagnuss

Yeah pretty much exactly like ladyfish except they jump straight out of the water... sometimes over 6' out of the water. It's pretty incredible.

kmagnuss

The intro of this video is a pretty good up close shot of how they jump. This was a mid sized tarpon... it's been a few months but if I remember right it was between 60-80 lbs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKRhUH5yMcs

WadeFisherman

kmagnuss wrote: »

The intro of this video is a pretty good up close shot of how they jump. This was a mid sized tarpon... it's been a few months but if I remember right it was between 60-80 lbs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKRhUH5yMcs

Did you film that? If so, nice work.

kellercl

kmagnuss wrote: »

Yeah pretty much exactly like ladyfish except they jump straight out of the water... sometimes over 6' out of the water. It's pretty incredible.

I might have to try it some day. I was fishing cayo pass a few weeks ago and a tarpon was surface feeding, it had to be 150 lbs. It was pretty slick to watch.

kmagnuss

WadeFisherman wrote: »

Did you film that? If so, nice work.

Captain Ross.

WadeFisherman

kmagnuss wrote: »

Captain Ross.

Viewers knew it wasn't me because there was no thumb in the way.

Montana1

With the Juvies caught on fly how many were hooked in the jaw vs in the tongue? I have caught a surprising number of juvies when they get my fly in their tongue. I still don't know how they don't pull the hook like that.

kmagnuss

Funny you mention that... I did hook one in the tongue that I can remember. Didn't really think anything of it except that it's never happened to me before.

Tarponator

In my experience, tongue hooks only occur rarely (maybe 1 out of 25 or so). When they do, however, the hook really sticks (i.e. the hook is rarely thrown), but the issue is generally wearing through the leader (particularly with large fish, see comments below).

I have also noticed it happens more with smaller fish (maybe 1 of 10), but I suspect tongue hooked fish are not any more prevalent with the little guys than it is with larger fish, but because the smaller fish are less likely to wear through a leader, you land (and thus see) more of them.

It also happens more with flies, but also happens with baitbusters and used to happen occasionally when I used to fish heavily with J hooks. I've never tongue hooked a fish with a circle hook.