My wife and I spent the last week in gorgeous San Juan, Puerto Rico. A friend of ours was marrying a Puerto Rican woman, and we figured we might as well go to the wedding and make a short vacation out of the deal.
I had no idea what kind of fishing that Puerto Rico had to offer, but after a little bit of research, I was set on trying my hand at tarpon fishing.
We met our guide, Miguel, at the marina around 5:30 am. A mangrove-surrounded lagoon system was our playground, so we hopped in the small flats boat and went in search of bait. It took Miguel a while to locate the baitfish, but after trying a few locations, his castnet came back brimming with anchovies. With the livewell full, we set off for our first fishing location.
About this time, the sun was just starting to peak over the mangroves–perfect timing we were told. The boils of hungry tarpon attested to this fact. As we arrived at the spot, Miguel tossed handfuls of anchovies into the water, rigged up a live anchovie on a circle hook for both my wife and I, and handed us the rods. Less than one minute later, I was hooked up with my first tarpon…which I promptly lost! Tarpon instinctlvely rocket out of the water and shake with all their might when hooked. Coupled with a bony mouth, it makes landing these beautiful fish very difficult. My wife soon hooked a tarpon and lost it. It continued this way for about a half an hour–Miguel tossing out anchovies, tarpon smashing every anchovie in sight, and us hooking and losing fish. I finally connected with a fish and lasted through several jumps. The trick is to point the tip of the rod at the fish and extend your arms towards it–they call it bowing to the silver god. After a 10 minute fight (6′ light action rod, 6lb test–amazing), I slid the tarpon next to the boat and Miguel hoisted it in. It was not a big tarpon by any means, but I was thrilled to have landed one!
We continued on that way for a little while longer, but the bite soon died. We had hooked about 12 tarpon and just landed the one. We had a few in the 20-30 pound class, but they never made it to the boat.
We then started exploring and looking for more fish–either the boils or birds signalling that bait fish were present. After sun-up, the action slowed considerably. We hooked into a few more, but landed nothing.
As our time with Miguel came to a close, I hooked up with another small tarpon and managed to get it to the boat. Just a baby, but a tarpon no less!
All in all, we had a great time on the water. Tarpon are notoriously difficult to land, and we felt fortunate for the action that we experienced. The views of the mangroves, birds, and huge iguanas were great–we even caught a glimpse of a manatee. And Miguel was very cool and worked hard to put us on fish and coach us through each fight.
If you’re looking for a warm vacation with some neat fishing experiences, San Juan is great!
Photo captions:
1. First light over the lagoon.
2. Miguel looking for bait.
3. Anchovies, at last!
4. Sun up, and the tarpon are hungry!
5. Steph holds on for dear life.
6. Success at last!!!
7. The lagoon and Puerto Rico in the background.
8. Tiny, but fun!
