Fishermen continue to spot 100-pound tarpon in Maryland

“We drifted for another 10 minutes, getting closer. But they weren’t cobia. There were seven or eight big tarpon, all 80 to 100 pounds. They were on the bottom, just below the surface, clearly visible in about 20 feet of water.”

Weaver has filmed a few videos of his encounter on August 1st, and it is easy to see in the video that the fish are big and silver, and clearly tarpon. Although tarpon are notoriously difficult to catch, his clients are casting large soft plastic jerkbaits at the fish.

“We had tarpon turn a lure twice. He would either twirl the lure or nudge it, but he wouldn’t hit it or hook it,” said Weaver, a New Zealand native who has lived in the U.S. for 35 years. “In about 90 minutes, we found tarpon four times and had five really good shots on fish.”

Weaver says he saw tarpon in the Chesapeake Bay last year, but the fish were traveling and difficult to hold and cast. This year is different — and better. The fish seem “happier,” he says, meaning they’re more likely to stay in an area and play the game compared to traveling tarpon.

“We have seen tarpon in the Maryland portion of the Bay, but the number of fish we have seen recently is unusual,” said Erik Zlokovitz, recreational fishing outreach coordinator for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in a press release“This year marks the first time we’ve had multiple reports of schools of tarpon, not just stray fish.”

Although it may surprise some anglers, tarpon have been documented in Chesapeake Bay before this summer. Anglers target tarpon in nearby coastal waters off Virginia’s Eastern Shore, and there’s also an established summer tarpon fishery available along North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound, not too far south of Chesapeake Bay. Still, it’s rare for anglers to encounter, let alone catch, tarpon in Maryland waters. (There is no state record for tarpon currently listed in the Maryland DNR registration books.)

Zlokovitz said it’s too early to tell whether the apparent increase in tarpon is an “anomaly or the beginning of a trend.” According to the DNR, many warm-water species such as Florida pompano, cobia, cutlassfish and pompano dolphinfish are becoming more common in the bay and Atlantic coast. Warmer waters could push tarpon farther north, the DNR said, or the fish could travel farther in search of food sources such as menhaden and shrimp. It could also simply be that anglers are seeing a larger northward migration this year. A surfcaster caught a tarpon in Rhode Island this summer.

But once you get out of Annapolis, you don’t expect to see a tarpon an hour and a half later, says Weaver, who Fish with weaver guide service. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, which manages the nation’s premier tarpon fishery, tarpon range from Virginia to central Brazil in the western Atlantic, along the coast of Africa in the eastern Atlantic, and throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

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“At least two other guides I know have seen big tarpon this year in the Chesapeake near where I’m fishing,” Weaver said. Outdoor living while he was fishing for red mullet Monday morning. “Today we have the right lures, heavier tackle, and crab and shrimp flies. We are all set and ready for another chance to catch a tarpon.”