Lately there have been rumblings of unrest in the tarpon fishing community. In the past, the loudest shouts have come from those condemning the Boca Grande Pass jig as a snagging device. Is it? I don’t know; I’ve had a lot of very insistent people tell me it definitely is and a similar number of equally insistent people tell me it’s not. We have an experiment in the works that might show for sure, but conditions in the Pass dictate we wait until next spring to put it to the test.

In the meantime, the current flap is more about the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series and the number of fish that die after being released. Although no one doubts that some of the tarpon do in fact die after being returned to the water, the tournament anglers purchase harvest tags which would give them legal right to kill each of the tarpon which are dragged to the weigh scales. If some die, isn’t that better than all of them dying?