WHAT DRAWS TARPON TO THE FLORIDA KEYS MORE THEN ANY OTHER PLACE IN THE WORLD?
This is is a cool pic of some rolling tarpon in the Florida Keys! Why do such large numbers of tarpon in all sizes travel so far to come to the Florida Keys? I think its food, and warmth! Just like all of us humans we search out warm areas during winter month even if its for a short time. If we can afford it we make any excuse we can to travel south in the winter time. I think that tarpon think a lot like us humans do. Much more then we think!
We don't really know a lot about tarpon. We are learning more about tarpon and there habits everyday with the help of the BTU (Bonefish-Tarpon Unlimited). I am going to share with you why I believe so many tarpon travel to the Keys! I mentioned above I think food and temperatures are what make these fish come to the Keys in such large numbers. The Keys have such a vast amount of shallow water flats intertwined with deep water channels that enable the water temperatures to increase quickly in the winter time on sunny days making this area a great place for bait fish to grow and live. This in returns draws the large amounts of tarpon into large pre spawning staging areas as early as Christmas time! The tarpon will then stay in these areas till the water temps reach near 80 degrees (usually mid March - Mid April) then they will move to there migrating routes and start to travel almost on a daily basis. The Palolo Worm hatch is also a huge source of food and or excitement for the tarpon every year! Palolo worms like to hatch in late May till late June and often create feeding frenzies like no other! I notice that the tarpon like to move a lot more after the worms hatch is over which I think means the worms have a lot to do with why the tarpon are in the Keys in the first place. I am not sure if we will ever know the truth about this but that's what makes it so fun!
