May/June Boca Grande tarpon fishing recap

Boca Grande tarpon fishing report May and June 2018

It has been awhile since I have had time to post a report or recap of any kind. My 2018 tarpon season started on April 2nd, I have targeted tarpon almost daily since then. I had everyday booked through the end of June,  the spring season is a grind, but it is a grind that I love. Fishing almost 90 days straight for one fish and one fish only requires a lot of passion. I will continue to target tarpon all the way through October 2018 as usual. 

The season started out great, we had a colder than normal winter but I ran my first tarpon trip of 2018 on April 2nd, the water temperature was cooler than normal for April but the tarpon didn’t mind, there were actually fishable numbers of tarpon in Charlotte Harbor and Boca Grande in March. The tarpon showed up hungry, like they normally do. I fished almost all of April with artificial, my first double digit day was April 6th. DOA baitbusters were the lure of choice, artificials were out fishing live bait almost 2 to 1 the entire month. As the month progressed and we got closer to May I made the move from fishing inside Charlotte Harbor to fishing around Boca Grande, the nomad tarpon fleet and the local flats fishing guides really missed some great fishing in April.

May and June 2018- The tarpon fishing during May and June 2018 was below average in my opinion, the tarpon fishing inside Boca Grande pass was fantastic most of May but unfortunately Boca Grande pass also has a lot of Boats. The jig fleet has been widdled down to just a few out of town guides so the tarpon are staying very happy inside the pass these days.  Double digit hook ups were common drifting live crabs inside the pass for the first few weeks of May. The sight fishing along the beaches of Boca Grande became consistent by the middle of the month. Overall the weather was consistently good in May and June, I did not loose a lot of trips like the last few years. The hill tides once again offered fantastic fishing, the crab flushes were exceptionally strong this season.

Currently we are dealing with a bad red tide bloom along the coast from Boca Grande north to Sarasota. Red tide normally does not effect the tarpon. Tarpon have been around for 125 million years so they have adapted well to any threats from mother nature. What the red tide did do to the tarpon was move them around to areas that we do not normally fish this time of year with normal weather. As of today there are more tarpon around in Boca Grande and Charlotte Harbor than there normally is during early July. I expect the tarpon fishing to be above average for the remainder of the season, remember my season is not even half over yet. The out of town guides are all gone and the local guides that only target tarpon during May and June are back to fishing the flats. There are only a handful of tarpon guides targeting the silver king on a daily basis, by August there will be less than five left.

I’m really looking forward to the remainder of the 2018 tarpon season, I have high hopes that it will be exceptional due to the fact that there are more tarpon still around than there normally is. I think once the glass minnows show up inside Charlotte Harbor we will see a bite that we have not seen in years. I still have open days in July and August, I’m nearly 100% booked in September and October but I still have a handful of prime days still open. You can follow me on facebook and instagram, just search Capt. Chuck Jenks catchfloridatarpon.com.  I try to post current photos on social media a few times a week. I can be reached at chuckjenks82@gmail.com or at 239-825-8791 for any booking request.