Fly Fishing Information for winter anglers the island of Puerto
Rico is located just a short 3 to 4 hour flight from any major city on
the East coast of the United States. Unknown to many, Puerto Rico
offers some of the most sensational fly fishing and light tackle
opportunities in the Caribbean. The West coast waters offer to any
angler a fishing paradise in the winter. The area is home to a
significant population of year-round resident tarpon. Plenty of larger
fish also ply the regions bays, lagoon and estuaries throughout the
year. The big Tarpon are present, presumably to take advantage of the
warmer waters and plentiful forage.I had the good fortune to
call the flats and bays my office for work . Cabo Rojo is a
magnificent area to cast a streamer in front of hungry tarpon. I was
presented with the options of casting to schools of feeding fish over
vast shallow flats, working amongst entangled mangroves to pocket pools
& tiny creeks with single fish, and working the magic of the
river. There?s enough variety in this game to keep anyone engaged.A
massive mangrove shoreline dominates the coastal habitat. Crystalline
waters are the norm for the lower reaches as they empty into sweeping
flats. On the other hand, rust-stained hues characterize the smaller
quarters of the upper river and tiny creek habitats. The estuary habitat
is superb; shallow sandy-bottomed grass beds, banks dominated by
mangrove roots and green canopy. The entire region sports an average
depth of two to Twenty feet overall. The dynamics provide you with a perfect window to sight-fish.The
Bay open water affords fly fishers with 360 degrees of casting
opportunity. Keep your eyes peeled ? scan for dorsals & tails,
breezing baitfish, or erupting water and instant mayhem. The flats are a
casters dream situation. The longer you can cast a line, the better
your chances of reaping the harvest. Everyone standing on the bow of
the flat boat have the opportunity to cast your fly in front of the silver king.It?s
an awesome place to explore. It?s darn productive for feeding fish.
This place isn?t for the faint of heart however as you?ll be challenged
in all aspects of your angling skills. You earn every fish that comes
to hand. I love this game.Once the fly hit its mark a tarpon wouldn?t waste any time with their reaction. The Bite and the Fight
On the flats, you get no fight until you learn how to recognize
and respond to a bite. Bites from some species are mysterious,
seldom felt, and hard to read Bonefish tarpon, and permit, our
glamour quarry, all eat best when the fly moves straight away from
them. Important but somewhat lesser species, like ladyfish and
snook do the same thing. Since they rush the fly head on, they
often push the line toward you and eat on the end of a slack line. It's
rare to feel the initial bite of a bonefish as they keep moving
along with the school when they eat. Permit are often found alone
and pin baits to the bottom. ladyfish and snook often stop to
chew. Tarpon often announce a bite with an easily
read flashing side and occasional huge boil. Seeing a tarpon bite
is a problem for most of us. There is no doubt when a fish
responds, but a mouth offers little resistance if the fish are not
properly pointed before we attempt to set the hook. Tarpon mouths
hinge like the loading ramp of a cargo plane, the upper lip is much
like the top of a tunnel. If you pull on the string while the fish
is pointed at you, the fly usually pops right out of their mouth
You have to strip until you feel the weight of a
tarpon in your hand or against the rod tip to make sure some of
the fish is between you and the point of the hook Reaching for the
sky before you feel the fish in your hand leads to failure most
of the time, a trait called "snatching." Moving the rod to set the
hook is a mistake with most flats species. A lot has been
written about leader systems for tarpon and I am sure that everyone has
a favorite set-up. I tend to rig my tarpon fishing rods as big game
rods, coming from my big game experience pelagic species. The leader
system is very simple and allows the person that has to leader the
tarpon some control, as these fish can be downright crazy and even
dangerous on some occasions. I like to start with a 3 feet of double
line knot to which I attach to my 20 pound on the reel, that section
will be on 40 pound test. After that section I like to use a blood knot
to attach 3 to 4 feet of 60 pond test fluorocarbon followed by another
blood knot and 2 feet of 80 pound fluorocarbon leader. The rough
mouth of the tarpon along with the environment where I fish, with
mangrove roots, and waterlogged trees with barnacles everywhere, trying
to provide for protection from cut-offs is a number one priority. The
main thing for the guides fishing in many parts of the world should be
conservation; it is an unwritten rule here in Puerto Rico for all
guides to preserve the fisheries for our future generations, so we
encourage the use of circle hooks exclusively for bait fishing for
tarpon. Gone are the days where the tarpon that were released after a
fight would show up dead a couple of days later after being gut hooked
and fought with a standard ?J? hook, after adopting the use of circle
hooks exclusively almost 10 years ago, very rarely do we see such a
sight. With many types and brands of circle hooks available these days,
I like to choose my hooks according to the size of the bait, and most
importantly it?s physical characteristics. Many of the major hook
manufacturers are making extremely sharp hooks suitable for tarpon and
they come in sizes from 1/0 to 10/0. I happen to like light wire hooks
on most occasion, specially fishing in daylight hours, although you
have to be careful and try not to ?horse? the tarpon in on the leader,
as this can straighten or break the hook. There are a few
points that are important to remember when fighting these fish, number
one rule among all tarpon anglers is ?Bow to the King?, this simply
means that when the tarpon?s head breaks the surface to jump, you lower
the rod tip to perpendicular with the water?s surface, an action that
looks very much as a knight?s chivalry act with a sword. Number two,
?never give the tarpon any slack, simply said, never let the line go
limp, on many occasions the hook will pop out of the hard mouth of the
tarpon upon the line being slack. Number three, fight the fish from the
bow of the boat, many anglers make the mistake of staying in the back
of the boat, this hinders the anglers ability to react quickly to a
surging fish tarpon have an amazing ability to seek places to break you
off, and that includes the boat?s engine, trim tabs and hull, the
angler in the front of the boat can compensate for the fishes behavior
and can protect the fishing line from contact with the boat, on some
occasions even having to put the tip of the rod in the water and swing
the rod around the bow, after the fish dives quickly under the boat. One
of the most important things to remember while fighting a tarpon is
that if you want to end the fight quickly, the angler must modify his
actions with the rod. Tarpon must be forced to work hard by
pulling with the rod in the opposite direction of where the fish wants
to swim; this hinders the tarpons ability to properly oxygenate and
zaps his strength. You can put the rod in the water while applying
pressure in this manner, a technique popularized by the legendary
Florida guide Stu Apte, and is called the ?Down and Dirty? way of
fighting a tarpon. The tarpon will tire more quickly this way and
eventually rolls over and gets confused, giving the Captain or mate the
opportunity to hold him either the lower jaw for smaller fish and the
jaws and gill plate for the larger individuals. This applies to
spinning, casting and fly rod fishing and when one properly, this fish
fighting technique works wonders on many other species as well. Tarpon
fights swing in the fishes favor with every passing minute, so the
angler must strive to apply the maximum amount of pressure in the
shortest amount of time to be successful. If you want to fight the fish
for a long time keep the rod in the normal position, pumping up and
down during the fight. Fly Fishing for Puerto Rico winter
paradise fishing for tarpon of all sizes continues to be a sport in
growing demand for the traveling angler, as more and more people
realize it is easier to schedule a fishing trip to Puerto Rico than to a
foreign country. Being a commonwealth of the United States, there is
no passport and tourist visa required by US citizens to enter and leave
Puerto Rico, also the local currency is the US Dollar further
simplifying your travels. It is like going to Florida for the winter
but with a Caribbean flair! I am the only fly fishing guide service in
the west coast of Puerto Rico and we are booked months in advance
during the winter tourism season, which coincides with the best tarpon
fishing, with many opportunities for fly fishermen to experience tarpon
on a fly. An experienced angler should hire a guide to see
where the fishing action is taking place, what is the technique
employed and the choice of flies and equipment, once that is
information has been passed on by the guide, the more adventuresome
angler can then fish with confidence for the same species the guide
fished with the customer. Unfortunately, the truly great fishing is
available only from these knowledgeable guides, who monitor the moving
schools of tarpon, and in reality these fish are accessible only by
boat. Tarpon are indeed the favorite target for fly fishermen, with
fish of every size available at all times of the year, from juveniles in
the mangrove lined channels that run from 5 to 15 pounds to 150 pound
or more giants that can be found anywhere in this water . Fly
fishermen can expect some chances to hook one of these fish, with
success measured in the fish you ?jump? rather than catch, mainly due
to the hard mouth of the tarpon, which makes hooking and landing one of
these fish very frustrating at times. As a guide, I have noticed that
the main reason for tarpon to throw the fly is because most anglers will
lift the rod on a strike, like in the act of hooking a trout, tarpon
have a very hard mouth and must be struck very hard, I like to recommend
the fishermen to practice fishing with the rod slightly lower than
perpendicular to water?s surface, and practicing strip striking with the
stripping hand, then lifting the rod and fighting the fish. The
techniques that were mentioned work for the fly angler . Releasing a
tarpon of any size on a fly rod is an awesome feeling, knowing that you
have conquered one of the truly game fish species in the world. Fly
fishing in saltwater is really a lot of work, casting heavy rods for
hours waiting for the right time, it is worth the wait! The visiting
fly fisherman that travels to Boqueron Bay in search of tarpon and
snook will have to be equipped with at least 3 rods, an 8 wt, a 10 wt
and a 11 wt; these will enable the angler to address most of the
fishing conditions that arise. The fly fisherman
needs to be able to cast in different scenarios, short 20 foot roll
casts in the mangrove channels and 60 to 70 feet long casts for open
water fishing. It is important to practice the double haul at a park,
football or soccer field. I am going to emphasize, Please practice your
double haul ahead of time, I can not tell you how hard it is to learn
this on the water, with tarpon rolling everywhere. And in the event of a
spectacular tarpon feeding frenzy, you will hear your heart pounding
through your chest. The waters in Boqueron Bay is cristal clear, and
let me tell you folks, tarpon have the keenest eyes, make no mistake
about it, when they want your bait or fly they will eat it! Because
of the cristal clear water , distance is more desirable an accuracy;
the longer the fly is in the water (Strike Zone!), the better the
chance for a strike. Many different types of flies work in Puerto Rico,
most of the tarpon and snook are taken on the following: Tarpon Toad
Purple/Black, Woolly Mullet, gray Grey/Silver/Black, a tarpon bunnys
Back/Brown/Purple, Clouser Minnow,Olive/White/Black, Black paradise,
and the innovative Gummi Minnow. Always have some Guglers in 2/0 on
hand just in case a Tarpon and Snook feeding frenzy forms while you are
in the water, an unforgettable sight for those fortunate to see the
hundreds of fish working under the screaming seagulls and pelicans. Puerto Rico is the ?secret? hotspot just a few hours from any major airport in the US mainland.This
is a fishery that makes for lifetime memories. The guides and hosts
will certainly add their special touch. If you?re interested in more
travel details please contact :Capt. Francisco "Pochy" Rosario PO BOX 355Hormigueros, PR 00660-0355e-mail: [email protected]: (787) 849-1430Cell: (787) 547-7380
