The Silver King

Megalops Atlanticus, or tarpon as we know them have been around for 18 million years, but their ancestors date back to over 100 million years. They are the star of the show here in Puerto Rico and I can’t think of a better fish to target. They tick all of the boxes in a sport fish; big, strong, acrobatic, beautiful, and they even eat a fly pretty well! 

We are lucky to have an island full of these fish in several different types of habitat. While most of the tarpon here on the island fall between 10 and 25 pounds, shots on residential tarpon weighing more than 80 pounds are not uncommon.

We like to target these fish with 8-11 weight fly rods with floating and intermediate fly lines.

Tarpon are a catch and release species here and although Puerto Rico has no laws or regulations set in place for the handling of tarpon, we strive to lead by example to ensure these fish swim away strong.

Please feel free to check out these guide lines from Bonefish and Tarpon Trust that goes into the details on how to properly catch and release Tarpon.

 https://www.bonefishtarpontrust.org/downloads/education/tarpon-release-card.pdf