Florida Keys Fishing Report Page 3

1/06/06

Captain Rick Killgore
1-800-698-5773
killgore@bellsouth.net
Fish-Killgore.com

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Releasing 9 tarpon on July 15 was the best day of the season caught by Iraq war veteran (2nd war), Christopher Dorsi and his wife, Hope, along with her brother, Shannon Paramore from Georgia. I was so happy for them. I wanted them to have a good trip. All Chris wanted was to do was catch "a tarpon," just like everyone else. But let me tell you something, that is the last thing I want to do - "catch 1 tarpon!" And did they catch more than one tarpon: 80 lbs., 60, 45, 40, 35, 30, 30, 20, and 15 lbs. Now most of them were small, but that can happen in July. The big breeders start to move out in July and the smaller ones move in to replace them around the bridges. They too are fun, and you can always catch a nice one or two also.

In 2004 our "best day ever" was 11 tarpon released by the “Ferian” Gang. They kick some tarpon “butt.” Lad Ferian, Lad Sr., uncle Marti, Dave Langemo, and Steve Demboske have been fishing with me for a number of years and have become some excellent tarpon fishermen. How about this impressive “hook-up to catch” rate: 11 tarpon released for 15 hooked-up for 15 strikes. They also have learned how to catch them relatively quickly, which improves your odds at more fish per day. Lots of pressure and changing direction of pull can even beat big fish quicker than one would expect. One fish was around 150 lbs. Another measured out to 135 lbs. (83” x 36”). Their fish weighed: 150, 135, 90, 80, 70, 70, 70, 70, 65, 50, and 25 lbs. Records are
to be broken, let's try to catch more this year!

They even caught 6 tarpon the day before, and three were over 120 lbs.(140, 120, 120, 70, 55, and 40 lbs.) Great going guys. We have come a long way together and I look forward to the future.

Other top days: We caught 7 tarpon per day on one day, we caught 6 tarpon per day on three days, and we caught 5 tarpon per day on four days.

These are big fish. One tarpon was 190 lbs., and another tarpon was around 170 pounds. Six of the tarpon were 140 pounds or larger. I measure the length and girth to get these estimated weights from the very accurate fish formula: [length x (girth 2)] divided by 800.

The percentages for catching big tarpon are:

A) Tarpon over 80 pounds: 58 % of the catch

B) Tarpon over 100 pounds: 30 % of the catch

C) Tarpon over 120 pounds: 14 % of the catch

D) Tarpon over 140 pounds: 3.5 % of the catch

E) Tarpon over 50 pounds: 84 % of the catch

(In the last two weeks of July the big tarpon, “the spawners,” migrate out of the Keys leaving the smaller tarpon behind. We still catch big tarpon of 80 to 100 plus pounders, but the percentages start to fall. We catch more tarpon in the 50 to 70 lbs. range and more tarpon down to 30 pounds. The number of tarpon per day stays the same.)

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