In mid-July 2025, nature photographer @northseaoutdoors posted a video of a pair of tarpon swimming 25 yards off the beach in Southhampton, New York. It’s the third straight year that tarpon have been reported in the Northeast. This was the latest in a string of silver king encounters between New Jersey and Massachusetts.
September 2024 – Surf-Caught Tarpon on Martha’s Vineyard
While looking for a bluefish to weigh-in for the Martha’s Vineyard Derby, surfcasters Rich Mann, Tony Dagostino, and Jared Strobie instead caught a 72-inch tarpon.
June 2024 – Eel-Eating Tarpon in Rhode Island
Thomas Czernik was casting eels for striped bass in Rhode Island when a 70-inch tarpon took his bait.
August 2023 – Surf-Caught Tarpon on Cape Cod
While fishing for brown sharks of a beach on the South Side of Cape Cod, Hans Brings caught a 5-foot-long tarpon on a chunk of bonito.
August 2021 – Tarpon Speared in Barnegat Inlet
A spear fisherman working the Barnegat Inlet Jetty in New Jersey saw multiple tarpon. He attempted to spear one, but it glanced off the fish’s hard scales. The following day, he returned and saw a school of four tarpon, spearing one that later weighed 45 pounds and measured 60 inches.
July 2016 – Dead Tarpon Found in Shinnecock
Paul Gusmano was motoring through Shinnecock Bay in eastern Long Island when he spotted something floating in the water. Upon closer investigation he identified it as a dead tarpon that, when he and his friends pulled it aboard, measured at 70 inches in length.
While targeting tarpon in the Northeast might be a long way off, Chesapeake Bay fishermen have enjoyed a fairly consistent tarpon season in recent years. In the meantime, check your knots and set your drag anytime you hit the summer surf. You may be the next Northeast surfcaster to be granted an audience with the silver king.
