How the Tarpon Inn got its name. (It's a fish story that's really true).
When Frank Stephenson, a boat pilot and assistant lighthouse keeper, built the original inn in 1886, he called it the Tarpon Inn for two really good reasons. Tarpons were an abundant and prized trophy fish in the Gulf of Mexico waters nearby. And Port Aransas was known back then as Tarpon, Texas.
Now, what's so special about the big fish known as a Tarpon? Well, the Latin name is Megalops atlanticus and it belongs to the Elopidae family. But lots of people also call a Tarpon a "Silver King." In other words, to those in the sport-fishing world, it's royalty. To catch one is a huge thrill-because it's so challenging.
How can you spot a Tarpon? It's big-really big-usually well over 100 pounds. It's got bright metallic sides, and a very distinctive mouth that tilts upward with a large, under-slung jaw. Along its back, it has dark, bluish-black coloring and very large scales and gills. One of the things that make it so hard to catch is that distinctive mouth. Because as big as it is, it has bony plates inside the jaw, so there's very little flesh for the hook to catch onto. Plus, it puts up a heckuva fight if it does get hooked-and frequently shakes the hook loose or breaks the line in the process and escapes. A Tarpon is a fierce striker, and really puts on a show when it's hooked. It makes spectacular leaps and jumps, shakes its head violently, and rattles its gills ferociously. It can take lots of energy and quite a while-sometimes hours-to land a Tarpon. These days, Tarpon are released after they're caught-for conservation reasons, and because they're not really the kind of fish you want to eat-they're just too boney. If you plan to fish for Tarpon, bring a camera--just in case you need to prove that your fish story isn't fishy.
