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Costa Rica Tarpon Fishing

For over 40 years, Costa Rica has been THE place to target the legendary "Silver King".  The stories of Costa Rican Tarpon Fishing are historic.  Whether we are offshore intercepting schools of marauding Tarpon or casting flies or plugs on a meandering Jungle River, at Jungle Tarpon Lodge, you will experience one of sport fishing’s most treasured experiences. 

The fishing for these mighty fish has been excellent for the past 4 years after a bit of a downturn in the late '90's...but the big fish are back with a vengeance and our guests have been experiencing tremendous guided Tarpon Fishing, with excellent catches for most of our guests.  In the past yar we have had a number of days that have broken all time records for us for fish hooked and landed in a single day.

Saltwater Fishing

On your days in the salt, you’ll skim along the shoreline in search of large Tarpon feeding on baitfish. After spotting the telltale birds in a feeding frenzy, your guide will quietly position the boat above the drift while the fish attack bait on the surface or somewhere below in the water column. Depth is frequently between 40 and 70 feet, with the bottom being made up of flawless sand and not a snag to be found anywhere. For those who grew up saltwater salmon fishing, this is classic "motor mooching" style, with baitfish style jigs or more often live bait that you and your guide caught at the beginning of the day.

Casting your gear above a feeding group, you'll free spool to the bottom until you feel the tell-tale soft "thump" and engage the spool. Free drifting through the group, gentle jigging or even free drifting is the approach to take. Amazingly, these incredible fish take very softly, and almost always on the drop, but once the gentle take is felt it's time to set the hook..and once you do hang on, because setting the hook, 60 to 150 pounds of pure muscle will scream to the surface in one of the most amazing sights in all of sport fishing.  As the line rips across the water it will look more like a lit fuse than fishing line, and when the fish reaches the surface (they always do) the launch is truly incredible. Guests have witnessed trophy Tarpon clearing the water by 15 feet on their way to Nicaragua and points north or south!

The trophy Tarpon of Costa Rica are renowned for their fighting strength, and they are fight to the boat.  Fights of 30 to 60 minuts are more the norm than the exception, and each and every fish brought to the boat is truly the definition of a trophy.  WE RELEASE ALL OF THESE MAGNIFICENT FISH TO ENSURE LEGENDARY FISHING FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.

Offshore storms occasionally preclude comfortable ocean fishing, on which days you’ll turn your focus to the freshwater environment.  The largest number of trophy fish are in the rivers November, December and January when the storms create the larger breakers.  During the February - September time frame, the water is usually flat and more and more of the big fish will cruise back and forth between fresh and in the saltwater, where the amount of bait is peaking.

Freshwater Fishing

In the rivers, the big ”Silver Kings” will roll in the relatively shallow waters of Rio California, Jalova Lagoon or Tortugero National Park.   We also catch the big fish from shore (along with many other species) casting into the intertidal zone where the Parismina river dumps into the Caribbean sea.  While in the freshwater environment, the big fish are opportunistic feeders, and they will take well presented plugs and flies, along with trolling large jointed plugs. 

In addition to the larger tarpon, juvenile Tarpon grow up in the freshwater and are aggressive feeders and our guests catch them near the lodge with both spining/baitcasting rods and on the fly.

We release all of our Trophy Tarpon to help sustain the species and practice low impact on our environment.