A tarpon of 247lbs is a large fish by all accounts but it was by no means the largest we hooked. There were other, much larger fish that we hooked, saw once and then never saw again after fights lasting 90 minutes and longer. We only measured fish that we gauged initially to be 150lbs and larger. A simple fork length measurement and girth measurement will give you a very accurate indication of the tarpon’s weight. We lost count of the number of fish we boated over 150lbs. We boated several over the 180lb mark. After six days of fishing and eight broken rods later we boarded the charter flight back to San Jose tired and weary but very happy. To all intents and purposes it was the best saltwater fly fishing trip of our lives and far exceeded any expectations we might have had about Costa Rica’s tarpon fishery.    

Frontier Fly Fishing will be hosting trips to Costa Rica, on the Nicaraguan border, during September and October 2022. The primary target species will of course be the area’s giant tarpon but a worthy bi-catch is jack crevalle which can grow to respectable sizes and fight extremely hard for their size. Resembling a giant trevally in shape, most specimens will run in the 15lb to 20lb range. Almost every day we experienced feeding frenzies on the surface that went on for hours. The feeding fish were a mixture of tarpon of all sizes with thousands of jack crevalle thrown into the mix. A cast made into the feeding carnage was eaten in seconds!