Silver Sound

Tarpon are kings of North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound when summer rolls around.

As waters simmer across the South, groups of bewitched anglers charmed by silver-sided beasts, prepare their gear, hoping to connect again with one of the most memorable opponents ever found in inland waters.

It’s the time of year when schools of the almightly tarpon, the silver king, make their ay into North Carolina waters to consume baitfish, crustaceans — and their fair share of terminal tackle.

Tarpon (megalops atlanticus) migrate up the eastern seaboard as the water temperature reaches 75 degrees, and they continue up the coast, following this constant temperature break. They arrive in North Carolina waters and capitalize on the abundant groceries that local estuaries offer before moving offshore to spawn. Very temperature-dependant, they’ll evacuate when the water cools below their desired 75-degree level.

The northernmost tip of their summer migration guides these silver soldiers into the Pamlico Sound, the largest “lagoon” along the east coast. It supports millions of pounds of fishes, crab, and shrimp — highly-favored by the full-grown silver beasts with voracious appetites. The sound becomes a well-stocked candy store for the tarpon that enter its waters on an annual basis.

Moving through Ocracoke Inlet, tarpon penetrate deep into the brackish waters of the sound, working their way westward into the Pamlico River and Neuse River estuaries. July and August are the primary months for anglers to encounter tarpon in the sound, with the water just right and the amount of available forage peaking in late summer and early fall.

Connecting with one of these prehistoric beasts fuels one of the fastest-growing catch-and-release fisheries, and for good reason. Unfortunately, face-to-face encounters can be quite infrequent, even for the sound’s most seasoned tarpon anglers. But time investment and proper technique can quickly narrow the gap and increase the chances of getting your line stretched by a tarpon on the opposing end.

Tarpon move all over the sound and can be found as far upstream as Belhaven in the Pungo River or patrolling the infamous “Royal Shoal” near Ocracoke Island on the eastern side of the sound. While their movements are not totally known or understood, changes in salinity and heavy disturbance play a role. Prevalent winds and significant rainfall will affect salinity in the sound and its major tributaries. Even in seasons with heavy rainfall, along with prevalent westerly winds, thousands of acres of water will be within a tarpon’s ideal salinity range. Successful fishermen commit to long scouting excursions across the sound to find groups of fish surfacing.

Tarpon fishing in the Carolinas is a real love-hate relationship, with many long hours spent cruising the 2,000 square miles of the sound looking for fish. Lucky for fishermen, tarpon are long-lived creatures, capable of surviving 50 years in the wild, and they appear to have a homing instinct. The S.C. Department of Natural Resources recaptured a tagged fish in the same location around Raccoon Key, S.C., after almost a year at large, so tarpon appear to have keen memories when it comes to returning to the same areas year after year.

Seasoned fishermen and guides spend long hours learning those areas before ever wetting the first line, and Capt. Gary Dubiel of Spec Fever Guide Service belongs to that group.

“With the vast sound available and groups of tarpon scattered throughout, you must find a school of fish before ever attempting to catch one,” said Dubiel (252-249-1520). “Tarpon are sometimes tough to lure onto the other end of the line, and a successful trip always begins with seeing
surfacing fish first.”

Tarpon have the ability to gather oxygen from the air with their functional swim bladder and often require this gulping mechanism to function efficiently in the brackish waters of the sound. Dissolved oxygen tends to become a problem for Pamlico Sound fish during the summer, when frequent and massive algal blooms take place, but for tarpon fishermen, the algae isn’t all that bad. It forces tarpon to the surface throughout the day to gulp air, revealing their presence at the same time. As they breach the surface, fishermen can see the silver flash and hear the splashes, especially under ideal conditions. Calm days help improve visibility and chances to hear fish gulping air at long
distances.

Dubiel prefers scouting for tarpon under light-wind conditions, and he will concentrate on protected areas when it’s breezy. Whenever feasible, Dubiel scouts the day before a guide trip and will generally locate fish throughout the middle of the day. Luckily, tarpon are somewhat habitual creatures and will haunt a specific location for several days at a time.

According to Dubiel, tarpon prefer water depths from 15 to 22 feet, but they’ll usually be close to shallower humps, points or changes in bottom contours that will attract forage fishes. He also prefers firm bottoms over mucky ones, because they sustain plant growth, which also attracts forage fish and shrimp.

When scouting, Dubiel usually covers the outisde of an area from the mouth of the Neuse River to Swan Island, Cedar Island, Brant Island Shoals and the mouth of the Pamlico River.

“We shut off the engine and listen for 15 to 20 minutes at each location, hoping for a few fish to appear,” he said.

Scouting is essential, and Capt. George Beckwith of Down East Guide Service (252-671-3474) is no stranger to tarpon fishing, either. In fact, he’s won four of the past 18 Oriental Rotary Tarpon tournaments, but his success does not come easy, and scouting is at the top of his priority list as well.

“On calm days, I will usually ride (around) the sound and river mouths until I find them,” Beckwith said. “Sometimes the best place to find a school of tarpon is when several other boats are set up in the middle of nowhere.”

What follows finding a school of tarpon is critical. Tarpon spook easily, so Beckwith makes every attempt to slip into a school of fish and deploy his lines without being noticed by his targets, which are patrolling the estuary floor.

“We carefully sneak up on the school from an upwind or upcurrent position and quietly slip our anchor overboard and start our chum slick, sometimes taking up to an hour to get into position,” he said. “These fish are extraordinarily spooky, and any engine noise can kill the bite and blow the fish out.”

The bottom line is, setting up close to a group of unalarmed fish will drastically increase the chances of a bite. Unfortunately for fishermen, tarpon prefer to feed at night, and bites may come slow during the daytime — even when fish are rolling and gulping air around baited lines. Catching tarpon is a waiting game, but to be successful, anglers must fish all day in areas where fish have
been located.

With his boat anchored in place, Beckwith sets out a buffet of freshly-cut baits on Carolina rigs, knowing that the more baits he’s got in the water, the better the chances of a hookup.

“Menhaden, spots, mullet and croakers are most-commonly eaten forage by tarpon in the Pamlico and are also the best bait choices,” said Beckwith, who uses chunks of cut bait weighing from four to six ounces. Keeping fresh baits out is of utmost importance.

“They never soak more than 10 minutes before getting changed,” he said.

If set up in the right place, the baited lines will not have much substance left on them in 10 to 15 minutes, anyway. The sound is full of scavenger crabs and fishes ready to pillage a fresh chunk of meaty and bloody flesh tumbling along the seafloor. But some areas of the sound have fewer bait stealers than others. While painful and aggravating at times, Dubiel prefers areas abundant with bait thieves.

“If bait stealers are not demolishing your baits in a few minutes, you need to go somewhere else,” he said. “We always catch tarpon in areas where fresh baits don’t last long soaking along the bottom.”

The tarpon that visit North Carolina waters are brutes, weighing between 50 and 150 pounds. Heavy tackle with abrasion-free line and strong hooks is mandator for wrestling one of these big-eyed beasts boatside. Dubiel recommends 24 inches of 100- to 125-pound monofilament leader between the hook and a heavy duty swivel. Tarpon have tough, boney mouths and sharp gill plates that can quickly sever lighter leader materials.

Dubiel prefers a super-sharp J-hook, usually in the 9/0 size class, but he will use circle hooks at times in the 12/0 range. Even with gorilla-tough and super-sharp terminal tackle, the priceless tarpon bite often ends up only arousing anglers for a brief moment in time before leaving a fisherman with limp line.

Tarpon are extremely powerful fish with exceptional stamina and endurance, but the initial bite is more subtle and the most critical action point in a tarpon angler’s rate of success.

“Unlike bull drum, tarpon will inhale a bait into the backs of their large bucket-shaped mouths and move off slowly,” Dubiel said.

These powerful beasts, subtle and gentle in nature, change drastically when they feel the hook, leader and/or weights inside their mouth. For this reason, Dubiel utilizes the lightest egg sinkers possible that will keep baits on the bottom, in order to give fish little notice when they lift and swim off with them.

When a tarpon realizes something foreign is in its mouth,
it will immediately become unbolted and rocket to the
surface.

“As soon as a bite is detected, you got to be vigilant and set the hook quick and with force. There is not time to delay any hooksets when tarpon fishing,” Dubiel said.

Beckwith keeps all of his lines tight and will set the hook on anything as well.

“Sometimes the bite resembles a bluefish bite, but often results in a screaming run,” he said.

The adventure of having an unusually large hook buried in the mouth of a 100-pound tarpon can be infrequent at times, but where else can a North Carolina angler wrangle with a fish that big and be protected inside the Outer Banks? While Florida remains to be the tarpon capital of the U.S., the Pamlico Sound is becoming a destination well-worth visiting during the summer migration route.

“Catching tarpon in our waters is just as frustrating as anywhere else,” Beckwith said. “It takes fresh bait, fishing where the fish are and perseverance to be a rewarded with one of these beautiful fish along the side of the boat,” Beckwith said.