Bryan and Chris in the Secret Lagoon
The mile long lagoon at the back of Steppingstones has given up a couple more of its secrets as a result of a week long series of early morning and dusk sessions.
Let’s start however with the tarpon fishing which is not really a secret at all. The local guides know well that the lagoon holds a good head of small to medium size tarpon, and the lagoon is used as a backup if Monkey River is not producing.
Bryan is a frequent visitor and friend, and he and I spent a few sessions in the lagoon “putting away the boat.”
We tried both first and last light and interestingly found little difference. The tarpon can be seen porpoise-ing at pretty well any time of day. The very small Storm Swim shads (the ones with a single hook only) are best. Lure running depth seems to be crucial. Too deep and the tarpon don’t seem to hit. Top water lures also work. Small poppers and a Luckycraft Sammy lure tried by Bryan worked well.
The trick is to sneak up to within casting range if a porpoise-ing fish can be spotted. However, by noting where fish have been active on previous days, it is possible to hook fish which have not shown themselves Doing this, Bryan managed a personal best fish of 10 ¾ lbs on a very light outfit. The fish fought furiously as tarpon always do, jumping clear of the water five times. Bryan did extremely well to subdue this fish which in addition to trying to fly, also went right under the boat several times and made determined efforts to reach the mangrove edges.
Apart from that we both had plenty of hits and jumped a number of fish, mostly in the 6-8lb class. It was interesting to note that tarpon would roll in the wake of the boat on occasion, so keeping an eye on proceedings behind us, as well as in front was important.
I might digress at this point with a story from a visit Sue and I made to the Zapata Peninsular in Cuba a few years back. Fishing a tributary of the Rio Negro, we came upon a group of porpoise-ing tarpon. Whereupon our guide (himself a skilled angler) opened up his throttle and to our amazement roared straight through the shoal, and ran the boat about ½ mile upstream before abruptly shutting off and shouting for us to immediately cast behind the boat. Rather stunned, we did and a double hook-up resulted. Later he told us this was an established tactic for narrow water tarpon fishing. I subsequently checked this out with several other Cuban guides and they all agreed this was so. The other day, Sue and I tried this in a narrow section of our lagoon. Well, all I can say is our tarpon clearly were taught different behavior from their Cuban cousins… Nada, as the Cubans would say. Still I do wonder if we might be herding tarpon in front of the boat when what we THINK we are doing is following them!
Anyway, back to the lagoon. Everyone knows that hooking and landing tarpon is hard, hence the American habit of counting “jumps”. I would guess we are landing two or three out of ten which is about average. I had a solid hookset on a popper, only to have the hook pull out (of the lure). I have subsequently drilled the popper and inserted a long shank hook right through, so this will not happen again. That’s the problem with using poppers designed for large and small mouth bass, so beware, those poppers are not designed for the pressure a double figure tarpon can exert.
Losing fish in a heavily overgrown environment is a fact of life. I lost another good fish in a heap of sunken logs, although we both had a feeling this might not have been a tarpon.
Well during the week we jumped quite a few fish, lost several, cracked off a couple on the strike, and had plenty of follows, near misses and on two memorable occasions two double hookups in the same place! We did have to follow the fish around quite a bit though (hence my thought above that we might have been herding them). We did wonder if the noise of my outboard even at tickover was spooking them. I tried poling the boat, but we could discern no great difference in catch or hit rates.
So what else happened? Well Bryan managed two tuba which look a bit like overweight perch (see pic). They were small but fight like hell. Bryan extracted one from heavy cover right in the sticks in about a foot of water on his Sammy lure. The fish managed to snag itself on a log but with some acrobatics we managed to free it. I have seen these probably two pounds or so near our mooring, but I suspect they grow bigger. He also caught the first ever Cubera snapper (aka Pargo) I know of from the lagoon. I have long thought these would be present in the lagoon, having lost a couple of heavy fish that were definitely not tarpon but slugged away and in both cases managed to get into the mangrove despite my putting heavy pressure on them. The cubera Bryan had was around 3lb but again I am sure they grow a lot bigger in this unpressured environment.
The lagoon teems with fry virtually year round and is a wonderful nursery for all species of fish. I have caught tarpon fry in my cast net from time to time, and on one memorable occasion had literally thousands of two inch long tarpon thrown up on the beach by a marauding shoal of blue runners. I must have rescued hundreds and put them back in the water, but our cats, dogs, chickens and of course wild birds ate them by the bucket load. It’s nature I suppose.
Bryan went on to land three small jacks, a small mangrove snapper and a baby barracuda. All in all a fun time. Not high pressure, just a few leisurely hours in beautiful surroundings where even if the fish are off duty, the bird watching is wonderful.
Ospreys (nesting now), three species of heron, cormorant (only a couple though!) anhinga, two species of wood peckers, three species of kingfisher, various hawks, odsprey, vultures, egrets, tanager, ibis (loads right now) pelicans, kiskadees, parrots, warblers and LBJs (little brown jobs-ie unidentified by me)
And if that is not enough, we have a resident crocodile which locals have estimated at 14 feet. Having nearly run this beast down in my boat would say 12ft but who’s arguing? Bryan did see a baby croc about a foot long but missed a sight of the big one.
OK here’s the rub. Bryan is writing his own version of this little episode, which Sue insists will be posted unedited, so a comparison will be informative!!
The mile long lagoon at the back of Steppingstones has given up a couple more of its secrets as a result of a week long series of early morning and dusk sessions.
Let’s start however with the tarpon fishing which is not really a secret at all. The local guides know well that the lagoon holds a good head of small to medium size tarpon, and the lagoon is used as a backup if Monkey River is not producing.
Bryan is a frequent visitor and friend, and he and I spent a few sessions in the lagoon “putting away the boat.”
We tried both first and last light and interestingly found little difference. The tarpon can be seen porpoise-ing at pretty well any time of day. The very small Storm Swim shads (the ones with a single hook only) are best. Lure running depth seems to be crucial. Too deep and the tarpon don’t seem to hit. Top water lures also work. Small poppers and a Luckycraft Sammy lure tried by Bryan worked well.
The trick is to sneak up to within casting range if a porpoise-ing fish can be spotted. However, by noting where fish have been active on previous days, it is possible to hook fish which have not shown themselves Doing this, Bryan managed a personal best fish of 10 ¾ lbs on a very light outfit. The fish fought furiously as tarpon always do, jumping clear of the water five times. Bryan did extremely well to subdue this fish which in addition to trying to fly, also went right under the boat several times and made determined efforts to reach the mangrove edges.
Apart from that we both had plenty of hits and jumped a number of fish, mostly in the 6-8lb class. It was interesting to note that tarpon would roll in the wake of the boat on occasion, so keeping an eye on proceedings behind us, as well as in front was important.
I might digress at this point with a story from a visit Sue and I made to the Zapata Peninsular in Cuba a few years back. Fishing a tributary of the Rio Negro, we came upon a group of porpoise-ing tarpon. Whereupon our guide (himself a skilled angler) opened up his throttle and to our amazement roared straight through the shoal, and ran the boat about ½ mile upstream before abruptly shutting off and shouting for us to immediately cast behind the boat. Rather stunned, we did and a double hook-up resulted. Later he told us this was an established tactic for narrow water tarpon fishing. I subsequently checked this out with several other Cuban guides and they all agreed this was so. The other day, Sue and I tried this in a narrow section of our lagoon. Well, all I can say is our tarpon clearly were taught different behavior from their Cuban cousins… Nada, as the Cubans would say. Still I do wonder if we might be herding tarpon in front of the boat when what we THINK we are doing is following them!
Anyway, back to the lagoon. Everyone knows that hooking and landing tarpon is hard, hence the American habit of counting “jumps”. I would guess we are landing two or three out of ten which is about average. I had a solid hookset on a popper, only to have the hook pull out (of the lure). I have subsequently drilled the popper and inserted a long shank hook right through, so this will not happen again. That’s the problem with using poppers designed for large and small mouth bass, so beware, those poppers are not designed for the pressure a double figure tarpon can exert.
Losing fish in a heavily overgrown environment is a fact of life. I lost another good fish in a heap of sunken logs, although we both had a feeling this might not have been a tarpon.
Well during the week we jumped quite a few fish, lost several, cracked off a couple on the strike, and had plenty of follows, near misses and on two memorable occasions two double hookups in the same place! We did have to follow the fish around quite a bit though (hence my thought above that we might have been herding them). We did wonder if the noise of my outboard even at tickover was spooking them. I tried poling the boat, but we could discern no great difference in catch or hit rates.
So what else happened? Well Bryan managed two tuba which look a bit like overweight perch (see pic). They were small but fight like hell. Bryan extracted one from heavy cover right in the sticks in about a foot of water on his Sammy lure. The fish managed to snag itself on a log but with some acrobatics we managed to free it. I have seen these probably two pounds or so near our mooring, but I suspect they grow bigger. He also caught the first ever Cubera snapper (aka Pargo) I know of from the lagoon. I have long thought these would be present in the lagoon, having lost a couple of heavy fish that were definitely not tarpon but slugged away and in both cases managed to get into the mangrove despite my putting heavy pressure on them. The cubera Bryan had was around 3lb but again I am sure they grow a lot bigger in this unpressured environment.
The lagoon teems with fry virtually year round and is a wonderful nursery for all species of fish. I have caught tarpon fry in my cast net from time to time, and on one memorable occasion had literally thousands of two inch long tarpon thrown up on the beach by a marauding shoal of blue runners. I must have rescued hundreds and put them back in the water, but our cats, dogs, chickens and of course wild birds ate them by the bucket load. It’s nature I suppose.
Bryan went on to land three small jacks, a small mangrove snapper and a baby barracuda. All in all a fun time. Not high pressure, just a few leisurely hours in beautiful surroundings where even if the fish are off duty, the bird watching is wonderful.
Ospreys (nesting now), three species of heron, cormorant (only a couple though!) anhinga, two species of wood peckers, three species of kingfisher, various hawks, odsprey, vultures, egrets, tanager, ibis (loads right now) pelicans, kiskadees, parrots, warblers and LBJs (little brown jobs-ie unidentified by me)
And if that is not enough, we have a resident crocodile which locals have estimated at 14 feet. Having nearly run this beast down in my boat would say 12ft but who’s arguing? Bryan did see a baby croc about a foot long but missed a sight of the big one.
OK here’s the rub. Bryan is writing his own version of this little episode, which Sue insists will be posted unedited, so a comparison will be informative!!
posted by Sue Harris @ 4:47 pm
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