[Tarpon guy]

I went this morning to fish the reef in the outer harbor, but changed my mind at the last minute and decided to fish the inner harbor. I was in the water a little after seven. I headed straight for the breakwater. About 50 yards from the wall, there was a pretty good-sized patch of kelp. I started working my way around the edges casting a 4” Western Plastic, Fireside Aqua swim bait. No takers, so I tried a 4” Fire Belly Gold Squid swimmer, still no luck.

I tried a spinner next. No bass, but a school of some of the largest Jack Smelt I’ve seen kept following it all the way up to the surface, with each cast. They were all over it, but couldn’t seem to figure out how to get it in their mouths. I’m going to try and make up a special little spinner for these guys, with a couple of small treble hooks. Maybe with a small skirt, right behind the spinner.

Next I tried a 4” swimmer with a single curly tail. I don’t know who makes them. This one is red on top, fading to a squid color with a bleeding belly. I used a ½ oz. lead head and a strip of squid on the hook. I let my first cast sink to the bottom, bounced it once and started to retrieve. A short calico nailed it right after the bounce. Drifted to another hole and brought in a legal calico with the same cast. After that, no more luck at the kelp.

I went to the breakwater and started working my way towards the lighthouse. There was kelp all along the wall, so I popped into the holes a couple of times whenever I passed one. Caught and released a few more calicos. Lost only one lure to the kelp.

When I got to the lighthouse, I ran into another yakker with a camo Tarpon 140. He said he caught a couple of shorties. I headed back and stopped at the pilings with the “Danger, 15ft.” marker. I cast past the pilings and retrieved back along them a few times. Something hit the bait like a truck, but only once. I’ll try to get that guy next time.

Nothing huge, but more action than I've seen for a while. All in all, a nice morning.