Tarpon fishing in The Florida Panhandle

In The Florida Panhandle, tarpon peak June–August and are around May–September, according to Fish Scouter's month-by-month season calendar. June: The beach run: pods cruising 10–20 ft of emerald water from Pensacola to Mexico Beach. Run the beach at dawn on a glass-calm morning, get ahead of the pod, never on it.

1. JanuaryNot here
2. FebruaryNot here
3. MarchNot here
4. AprilNot here
5. MayArrivingFirst pods off Perdido Key and Pensacola Beach late in the month, once the Gulf tops 80°F — the front of the Gulf-side run heading for the Mississippi Delta.
6. JunePeakThe beach run: pods cruising 10–20 ft of emerald water from Pensacola to Mexico Beach. Run the beach at dawn on a glass-calm morning, get ahead of the pod, never on it.
7. JulyPeakPeak of the Panhandle run — the best shot is late June into July. Live menhaden or a big swimbait led well in front of rolling fish; Apalachicola and St. Joe bays hold fish too.
8. AugustPeakThinning out. Late fish laid up in Apalachicola Bay and off Cape San Blas on the bait schools.
9. SeptemberLeavingThe last of them sliding back east and south. A calm September morning can still turn one up on the beach.
10. OctoberNot here
11. NovemberNot here
12. DecemberNot here

Deep bays behind long barrier islands — Pensacola, Choctawhatchee, St. Andrew, St. Joseph, Apalachicola — with grass flats on the bay side, bayous and creek mouths, and the passes cut through to the Gulf. Emerald water on the beach side; the surf is a real fishery here.

Fish Scouter charts 79 beach / surf, 25 bridge, 12 pass / inlet spots in the The Panhandle map area — the kinds tarpon hold on.

• Blue crabsWhole and small for permit and tarpon; halved or quartered on the bottom for black drum, redfish and cobia.
• Threadfin herring (greenbacks)Nose-hooked on a circle hook and free-lined, or slow-trolled. Fragile — handle them wet and fast.
• Pilchards (whitebait)Free-lined or under a cork, hooked through the nose on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook. The one bait that catches everything inshore.
• Finger mulletLip-hooked on a 2/0 to 4/0 circle hook and free-lined, or on a fish-finder rig in the surf. Cut mullet on the bottom for redfish and drum.
• PinfishHooked through the back ahead of the dorsal on a 2/0 to 4/0 circle hook; the small ones free-lined, the big ones on a fish-finder rig.

• Leader50–60 lb fluorocarbon
• Hook5/0–8/0
• Jig head1–1 1/4 oz
• Braid40–65 lb

Feeds in 74–90°F water, best at 78–86°F.

All about tarpon · The Panhandle, the whole year