Tarpon Sightings on the Rise in Maryland

Above: A college of tarpon noticed in Maryland waters by Captain Tom Weaver. Picture courtesy of Tom Weaver/Maryland DNR. 

After listening to a couple of tarpon in Rhode Island earlier this summer time, information of a powerful exhibiting of the silver king in Maryland isn’t as shocking as it might have in any other case been.

Nonetheless, tarpon are a uncommon sight within the Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The fish within the put up under had been noticed by an angler scouting for purple drum who noticed the tarpon’s attribute roll on the floor.

Upon his strategy, Captain Tom Weaver noticed a number of massive shapes that he estimated at 80- to 100-pound tarpon. He adopted the pack of fish, making a number of casts and even getting a strike, however the gear, he informed the Maryland DNR, was undergunned for tarpon that measurement.

Erik Zlokovitz, Maryland Division of Pure Assets’ leisure fisheries outreach coordinator, stated the division is getting extra stories of tarpon, often related to hotter southern waters, in Maryland this summer time.

“We now have seen tarpon in Maryland’s part of the bay traditionally, however the variety of fish noticed lately is uncommon,” Zlokovitz stated. “This 12 months is the primary time we’ve gotten a number of stories of colleges of tarpon, and never only a stray fish.”

Warming waters within the bay have led to a rise in species like cutlassfish, cobia, and Florida pompano. Tarpon are considerably common guests to Virginia waters and the southern a part of the bay, with anglers efficiently concentrating on them across the Japanese Shore, however they’re much rarer in Maryland.

Learn extra about this summer time’s tarpon sightings in Maryland right here.