Entry 228-3

Strike King Intervenes to Save the Day with Tim Ungaro

Part 3: Tarpon and the Zulu

Question: You’d mentioned that you were catching 10-12 tarpon a day; tell me where you were fishing and what you were using.

Ungaro: That happened on an island in Mexico. The first day of our trip, we fly-fished exclusively, but the second day we went out, the wind was blowing too hard to fly-fish. We actually had to anchor-up and use our spinning tackle to reach the tarpon with the lure. When the wind’s blowing that hard, if you’re using a fly-rod, as you try and make a back cast, the line gets blown sideways, keeping you from making a forward cast. Therefore, we had to fish with spinning tackle. If we hadn’t had our spinning tackle and the Zulus, we would’ve lost a day of fishing. We used a light tippet (leader) tied to braided line. On this day, we were using a 3-foot leader. Our tippet was made of 60-pound-test fluorocarbon. I use either a circle hook or a J-hook in my Zulu. I broke a few tarpon off using the J-hook, and that’s when I changed to the circle hook.

Question: How do you set the hook when you’re using a circle hook with the Zulu?

Ungaro: Whether I’m using a J-hook or a circle hook when I’m fishing for tarpon, I always set the hook the same way. When the tarpon picks up the Zulu, the fish will generally turn its head to the side. I’ll point the rod tip straight at the fish, so I have a straight line from the tarpon’s mouth to the reel on my rod. I don’t want any bend in the rod. If I’m using the J-hook, then as the tarpon takes off drag, I’ll jerk straight back on the line two or three times to help set the hook. However, if I’m using a circle hook, I don’t use that backwards jab stroke with my rod. I’ll just let the tarpon pull off drag from my spinning reel. I usually set my drag really light. Then when the tarpon makes that fast run, the fish can pull off as much drag as it wants.

Once the tarpon’s run a pretty good ways, and I feel like the circle hook has set itself, then I’ll make a few short, quick, backwards jab strokes with my rod to make sure the hook is well-seated. That’s the only difference in setting the hook with a J-hook and setting it with a circle hook. With a circle hook, you just let the tarpon have the bait longer before you give the fish those backward jab strokes with the rod. The key to getting a good hook set is to make that backwards jab stroke straight, backwards with the rod parallel to the waterand pointed at the fish. You must make sure you have absolutely no rod bend.

Question: Using this technique, how many tarpon did you catch in a day?

Ungaro: We brought between 10 and 12 to the boat. We were jumping tarpon one after the other on almost every cast. Now these were baby tarpon that weighed probably 30- to 40-pounds each.

Question: The only color Zulu that you were fishing was white, is that right?

Ungaro: Yes, that’s the only color Zulu I carried with me.

Next: The Bass Bonanza

Contents:

• Part 1: I’m Going to Get Me Some of Those Zulus
• Part 2: The Teeth Tell the Tale
• Part 3: Tarpon and the Zulu
• Part 4: The Bass Bonanza
• Part 5: If You See Them, You Can Catch Them