TARPON FISHING

Puerto Rico’ tarpon fishing is a mixed bag of opportunities. Nearly everywhere you find mangroves on this island, tarpon are near. And you will get shots at these fish all day long, if you commit to them. Like most Caribbean locales, these mangrove tarpon are mere babies, typically ranging between five and 15 pounds. However, No Name Lodge also hunts tarpon on large, deep flats (our guides used 25-foot long push poles) in front of numerous bays. And that’s where we found packs of larger, 15-to 80-pound fish, in groups ranging between three and 10, ‘poons happily rolling along, looking to smash a fly.  As mentioned, another unique opportunity is fishing for tarpon in town. Seemingly all the docks hold tarpon—if you’re up for some chaos, you can try to thread one out of a labyrinth of dock ropes, pillars, and moored boats, hoping to fight it and possibly land it in any patch of open water. We got a few of them, fish ranging between 15 and 50 pounds on average. You’ll be sure to have an audience when you hook one. Overall, Puerto Rico’s tarpon fishing is very unique, flies somewhat under the radar, and offers an excellent experience for nearly any level of angler.

PUERTO RICAN TARPON GEAR

We found the size 2/0 EP Peanut Butter, in a variety of colors, to be a great all-around Puerto Rican tarpon fly. But, lots of patterns work and if you join us on our next “tarpon camp” we’ll help you get your fly boxes dialed in. For tarpon leaders you should have spools of 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60- pound fluorocarbon. Traditionally tied tarpon leaders are great in 20-pound class tippet (or go 30-pound if you’re just getting started with tarpon). If you haven’t fished the mangroves for tarpon, we recommend shortening your leader, which allows for more accurate casts. However, our go-to recipe is four feet of 50-pound, tied to two feet of “class tippet”, tied to bite tippet, which can be between 40 and 60-pound test.  

While fishing tarpon we used 9 and 10-weight rods, with the 10- weight being the best option. When the tarpon are really active it would be fun to have an 8-weight along with a Gurgler or other topwater flies. 

We used, exclusively, floating lines, but a light intermediate could come in handy in some situations.  
The drag on your reel will get used, so make sure you have one that works well. There are too many great brands to recommend, but if you need help, we are happy to point you in the right direction.  We fished with the Fly Project OC2 and the Nautilus CCF. Our Fly Project OC2 is one to look at whether you choose to fish tarpon with us in Puerto Rico or anywhere else on the planet. It’s a stout big-game reel, with classic lines, at a fair price. Get your first look Here. 

PERMIT FISHING

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that Puerto Rico also has a robust permit fishery. We won’t elaborate too much, as the permit program is in development, but the days we committed to those fish gave us the most shots we’ve ever had at consistent 12-to 20-pounders. The fishing takes place along reef flats, which means there are spots with coral, but also lots of good walk/wade options on grass and sand. Either way, we recommend sturdy flats boots and neoprene wading socks. 
What we can say for sure about Puerto Rican permit is this: if you look for them you’ll find them and their tales are likely to be up.  As in, we saw lots of tailing permit. Getting them to eat, of course, can be as difficult as anywhere else.

A 9-weight rod with a floating line, such as Scientific Anglers Magnitude Salt Smooth clear tip, is probably the best setup, although a 10-weight rod is always helpful in a steady wind. And don’t forget, permit and wind go hand-in-hand.

For flies, who knows? They’re permit. However, we fished with Jeff Feczko, the developer of the Cheeseburger Crab, which we used to hook a giant parrotfish... that spooled us! Outside of that fly, the guides have the most luck with Strong Arm crabs and variations of Alphlexo crabs. With the quality of habitat and the size of the fish, we couldn’t help but wonder if those Puerto Rican permit would have eaten a suspended crab, suggesting to the fish that this was a piece of broken off coral floating on the tide. That is an experiment we’ll conduct during our next trip and you can partake if you’d like to. While we found permit in very fishable numbers, there may be even more to come. The guides are developing the fishery and reporting spots that are more productive than the ones we fished. Time will tell how good this fishery can be. This we know: these permit aren’t seeing as many flies as they would in the Keys or many places in Belize. 

GUIDES, BOATS + EQUIPMENT

We've partnered with the guides from No Name Lodge, the only outfit in Puerto Rico with fully equipped Maverick Skiffs. Our guides will utilize four 17-foot skiffs with four-stroke 90 HP engines. All boats are equally equipped with poling platforms, carbon push poles, Yeti coolers and all gear you may need. Unlike some tropical destinations there will be no disparity between the boats, the gear, and the guides on your trip. Each guide is a certified captain by the US coastguard.

Rods, reels, line, flies and materials are supplied in the event it is needed, but otherwise we recommend that you get yourself comfortable with your own gear and get plenty of practice in on the equipment you will be using prior to the trip. Click here for a recommended gear list. 

A packable raincoat, long sleeve fishing shirt, protective pants (or shorts), and a solid pair of wading boots are all necessities. Many of the permit flats are very rocky reefs, but provide great opportunities to attack permits on foot. Being ready and setup to fish these hard is something you need to be prepared for your own comfort, and your safety. If you need any gear recommendations, let us know and we will help you out.