Keep your rod's tip at the water’s surface and point your rod tip directly at the fly when stripping your line. This helps give proper action to the fly and will help when a fish eats. Strip slowly. A fast, jerky retrieve will spook most tarpon, while a long slow retrieve usually initiates an aggressive response.
For bonefishermen, a bonefish retrieve is too often short and too erratic.
For trout fishermen, a properly executed streamer retrieve is usually too jerky and fast.
The bottom line is... not all retrieves for all species should be the same... nor do they get equal results!
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| The magnificent turtle grass flats on the West Coast of the Yucatan |
Remember a tarpon's mouth is designed not impale or grab, but to "inhale" it's prey. Think of it as a tackle and not a stab. The massive gape of the mouth is tilted slightly up and therefore designed to take prey from below. Tarpon flare their gills while opening their mouth thus "vacuuming" in their prey. A fly should ideally be slightly above and heading away from a tarpon when it is first seen. Predators chase their prey and they expect their prey to be moving away from them and fleeing. This is the best way to "feed" a tarpon. You are literally trying to tease a tarpon into taking your fly. You want to trigger their predatory instincts and make them "eat" even if they are not hungry or aren't excited by your offering.
If a fish follows closely, but does not take your fly, change your retrieve: make longer strips, strip even more slowly or stop entirely. This change will often elicit a strike from a sluggish 'poon.
Lift your fly line quietly and smoothly off the water to initiate another cast. DO NOT use the water's drag on the fly to load the rod tip. Many beginning anglers rely on this "water loading" to allow themselves to make longer casts or to cast into the wind. This noisy lift off will almost always spook tarpon. The tarpon will be gone and you'll have nothing to do but deal with a guide who is muttering under his breath.
