Boca Grande 2019 Tarpon Season

Is currently underway, for the select few tarpon guides who target these great game fish for more than half the year. We experienced a cooler than normal November, December, and January in the tarpon capital of the world, this boas well for an above average tarpon season. Colder winters seem to always be followed by an above average cycle of tarpon. This is holding true for the early part of the 2019 tarpon season, warmer than average temperatures in Mid February started the great migration of the mighty silver king. Wherever they begin their migration and wherever they may end it, they all pass through Charlotte Harbor and Boca Grande for their spawning cycle. As of today, March 10, 2019 there can be tarpon found from inside Boca Grande Pass to throughout the upper reaches of Charlotte Harbor and into the Peace and Myakka river basins. The wonderful thing about early and late season tarpon fishing is the fish feed better than any other time of the year. Just as the warm water temperatures Que the tarpon into their migration it also triggers the migration and spawn of the many baitfish that call the Charlotte Harbor estuary home.  I normally do not book March tarpon charters in advance although I have a high demand from my client base to do so. The main reason I do not add tarpon charters into my schedule in March is due to the fact that I will not know if there will be enough tarpon here to successfully run a charter for them. I have a handful of days open from now through early July. My schedule as it sits today will allow me to accommodate any last minute tarpon request for the remainder of March 2019. Please keep in mind that even though there are plenty of tarpon here to target that these charters are very dependent on having near perfect weather. I have been contacted by a few of the other top tarpon guides in my area and we all agreed that it is time to get to”work”. If I can not personally accommodate you I will recommend you to one of the select few tarpon guides that are in the “know”.

The water clarity is fantastic, most of you reading this blog I’m sure are aware of the red tide bloom from 2018, although that bloom was devastating at the time it certainly was not the worst bloom of my life time or even in the last 15 years. What that bloom was, was the worst outbreak of redtide since the invention of social media. The 2018 tarpon season was one of the best tarpon seasons of my career, in fact July 2018 offered the best tarpon fishing of the entire season and it was the best July I have personally ever witnessed. If you follow my facebook page you can scroll back to July 2018 and see that double digit hookups were the norm, not the exception. All of that occurred right in the middle of the red tide bloom. Tarpon have been on this planet for 125 million years, they have been through countless red time blooms, climate changes and mass extinctions. I personally witnessed less than 10 dead tarpon during the entire bloom and I fished through it nearly every day. This year so far red tide counts are nearly non existent, the Florida coast is nearly free from the deadly organism, that is great news for folks who want to enjoy Florida’s beautiful beaches.

My 2019 calendar is almost full for the spring migration, I have maybe 5 days left open in April and 9 days open in May, I have 2 days open in June. July through October has room still, as always September is one of my busiest months that offers some of the best fishing of the entire season. I can be reached via email or cell phone, my contact information is below:

Chuck Jenks

239-825-8791

chuckjenks82@gmail.com