What is the largest Tarpon you have seen?

[FishWatcher747]

I'll admit right up front that I don't have a photo or video of the Tarpon I saw on Bonaire the other day at the Dive site Jeff Davis Memorial. I descended over the reef and headed south and within about 1 minute I am looking out to the blue water and I see a massive fish swim by heading south.

Keep in mind the Tarpon on videos of night dives on Bonaire or the ones I see at the Hilma Hooker are like minnows compared to what I saw. It looked like the girth of a Goliath Grouper but much longer. I have seen many Goliath Groupers in Key Largo and saw one on Bonaire this week also.

So I internet searched the topic and apparently the world record is 9 feet and 300 pounds. The fish I saw had to be all of that. Apparently they can live 50 years.

 

[shopguy]

I was going to brag about a larger one I saw, maybe 4', bigger than the average 3' we see on many dives... but 9' wow, I would have thought shark for sure.

 

[GreggS]

We were in Surf City, NC back in the early to mid 80s and walked out on thr pier. There was a guy out there that had been fighting a tarpon for about hour. We watch for maybe 20-39 minutes and hw was making no headway with it. We finally went back to the house, had lunch, and then decided to walk back out to the pier.

When we got there, there was the guy laid out on the pier with half a tarpon hanging on the display board. As one of his friends told us, after fighting this the fish for around 2 1/2 hours, he had finally worn it out (as well as himself). He had walk himself from the end of the pier to the steps going down to the beach so he could reel it in when, well you can probably guess, a shark came along and took half of it.

This tarpon was huge. With the part that was left, they estimated that it would have easily beaten the NC state record which was 150 lbs at that time. There was about 3 1/2 feet left of it so would have gone about 6 1/2-7 feet total.

 

[FishWatcher747]

I was going to brag about a larger one I saw, maybe 4', bigger than the average 3' we see on many dives... but 9' wow, I would have thought shark for sure.

Well the fish seemed to have the distinctive tarpon face.

I ran into the typical Hilma Hooker maybe 3 foot tarpon yesterday. When we locked eyes he gave me a distinct "stink eye".

This giant Tarpon couldn't be bothered with me. He glanced over but couldn't have cared less about me. Scuba diver you are truly insignificant to me.

 

[Johnoly]

Robbie's marina - and they will pull you dry off the dock and into the water they are so big.

 

[Wallster]

About 6 feet in Crystal River Florida, Kings Bay.

 

[greeniguana]

Robbie's marina - and they will pull you dry off the dock and into the water they are so big.

When I was a kid we used to compete to see how far up our arms we could get tarpon bite marks at Robbies.....

There are also some big boys at the docks in Christiansted VI.

 

[scuba127]

I've seen a 6 footer on Bonaire before. Last September I was doing a PADI Tec 45 class and saw a big tarpon on Sebastian Reef I think its called. My tec instructor lives and instructs on Bonaire and he said it was the biggest one he's ever seen. I'd say it was over 6 foot.

 

[parzdiver]

I saw a few last week in Bonaire in the 4-5 foot range, but they say the water magnifies, right? One sideswiped me on a night dive.