The vast ocean flats aren’t the only spot where you can get your tarpon fix. Often you can find just as much excitement fishing for juvenile tarpon with light tackle in the dark and stagnant back waters that are scattered throughout Florida. These canals, creeks and mangrove swamps provide an 
abundant food source, plenty of cover, and low oxygen content which helps to keep larger predators at bay.
“Juvenile tarpon really don’t need their water to have much oxygen in it—they can get just about all of their oxygen by gulping it at the surface, because of their modified swim bladder,” said Aaron Adams, a fisheries/environmental scientist with Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. “They can live back in sticky, mosquito-infested places where other larger fish that might eat them can’t survive. Think of a place where you probably wouldn’t want to be in a mangrove swamp and that’s probably where juvenile tarpon are going to be.”
