The Tarpon Are Back!

And it's about time. After several months of getting no respect from the local bonefish population, a welcome push of Springtime tarpon have started crusing through the shallows here on Vieques. The northwestern flats near Green Beach have been the gathering point for several schools of these fish each morning. We're not seeing the same size of tarpon that you'd expect this time of year in the Keys or West Florida, but thirty pound fish are big for Vieques and perfect for the light tackle and fly rods that my anglers prefer.

The tarpon pictured here was caught by Tom Biziorek of Michigan on an 8-weight Sage fly rod casting a Black Death pattern. This is only a ten pound fish but Tom had a quite a few shots at tarpon three to four times this size. Every time we got in range of these bigger tarpon a small cloud would blot out our daylight and the fly would drop on the wrong end of the fish. Very frustrating. This baby tarpon was one of a school of fifty that finally swam right up to us and impaled itself on the 1/0 Owner hook.

When I first moved to Vieques almost five years ago the tarpon fishing was very consistent on the north end of the island. This slowed down a season later and I havn't chased them consistently for quite some time. Tarpon are not a food species and there is absolutely no pressure on them here on Puerto Rico. For whatever reason, the Vieques tarpon migration is back for the time being. If you're lucky enough to be here this week you'll get to experience a little Key's style tarpon fishing the way it used to be.