http://www.tampabay.com/sports/outdoors/Captain-s-Corner-With-full-moon-tarpon-are-on-the-move_168445998

With the full moon this next week tarpon are moving down the beaches and making their way out of the bay and moving out to the bridges and the passes to feed before some of them leave to go out and spawn on the full moon. Early in the morning along the beaches look for rolling tarpon and use your trolling motor to get your boat set up and cast your favorite bait 10 feet up-current of the school so it will drift down to them. On the afternoon hill tides that happen twice a month on the full and new moons in May, June, and July the fish tend to eat best on the outgoing tides as the bait and crabs starts to flush out of the bay. Look for the blue and pass crabs flushing out in the tide lines. If you drift those tide lines with your engine off you should get hooked up, once you’re hooked up on a tarpon you do want to get on your fish so you don’t get broken off. The etiquette for drifting the pass is don’t dip crabs where the boats are fishing. After you get finished with your drift idle your boat out in the middle of the channel before you jump on a plane and run back up and start your drift again. If everyone will just play nice out there we will all catch more tarpon. Proper equipment is very important from rod to hook. I like a 7- to 8-foot rod with a light tip with a lot of backbone so you can cast a small bait like a crab. Look for a reel in the 5000 to 10,000 size reel loaded up with plenty of 50-pound braid. For a leader I like a 40- to 80-pound fluorocarbon leader to a 3/0 to a 6/0 circle hook.

Jim Lemke charters out of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater and can be reached at (813) 917-4989 and at captjimlemke@gmail.com.

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