Puerto Plata (unguided)Fish Pics

[tight line]

Was down for my sisters wedding, didnt have quite as much free time as a normal trip,lined up a deep sea charter for the second last day, and they canceled on me...luckily i brought my fly rod and did some exploring, and was rewarded. Caught lots of little Croakers off the reefs in the ocean. No Barracudas cruising, but hooked 2 large Aligator Gars, even when Switching to 15lb Floro (forgot my steel braid leader....)it was no match for their teeth... the one put on a good show before chomping through my line, he was about 3 feet long! Went into the Mangroves and found some Awesome Tarpon! I have a new respect for these fish! unreal power and very acrobatic! had a couple on in the 8-10lb range, but i couldnt handle them with my 4 piece 6wt...lol. got lots of decent sized ones still! gave the locals a good show every time i hooked one and they heard a splash they would come running. I gave one away as a guy relly wanted it...he said he would feed his whole family on it...lol, i released the rest. Beautiful fish! Great Trip http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1e1654d8.jpg no tail! lol

[tight line]

victory Breakfast after slaying tarpon

[tight line]

No tail

[Bhflyfisher]

That's too cool man. Finding tarpon like that can be a blast. The 6wt mustve really been put to the test!

[Okotokian]

What were you using for flies? And did you use the same size you would here or buy something special for down there?

[tight line]

Originally Posted by Okotokian

What were you using for flies? And did you use the same size you would here or buy something special for down there?

Shrimp imitations(lester the lobster), egg sucking leeches, and grey ghosts, they were so aggresive they would pretty much hit anything!

[tight line]

Originally Posted by Bhflyfisher

That's too cool man. Finding tarpon like that can be a blast. The 6wt mustve really been put to the test!

Ya thought it was gonna break a few times! could only roll caat it was so tight. the big ones would just drag me into the mongroves or cut me off on their gill plates when they jumped! Lol

[Bhflyfisher]

Originally Posted by tight line

Ya thought it was gonna break a few times! could only roll caat it was so tight. the big ones would just drag me into the mongroves or cut me off on their gill plates when they jumped! Lol

They're fun fish, seen a couple cruising some docks in the everglades. Sounds like a 7 or 8 weight is needed with a shock tippet! Congrats though, im sure it was a blast!

[bisonhunter]

Originally Posted by tight line

hooked 2 large Aligator Gars

I am not trying to start a fight here, just curious if the gar you hooked were these:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=alliga...w=1278&bih=739

Or these:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=alliga...w=1278&bih=739

I caught a 5 footer of the second variety while shore casting in Panama last year. Cool looking fish, but not really built to put up a good fight.

Glad you had fun. I'd love to catch a tarpon someday.

[tight line]

Definately needlefish, should have know that as i have seen them before. Appreciate that you cleared that up! Ya they are kinda wierd the one i hooked did a couple jumps then just thrashed around before bitting me off...

[Whiskey Wish]

This is more for info than anything else. We did some fishing in Puerta Vallarta a couple of years ago. Nothing scheduled or planned we just bumped into a guy on the beach and negotiated our way down to $75 a piece for a half day. He only took us off shore about 1/2 mile or so and he had an ordinary smallish boat with a canvas roof. He supplied everything including a couple of beer.

I wasn't expecting much and at first we were catching some smaller bait fish, about 1 or 2 pounds, which he kept and put in a bait well. Then we started getting into 15 to 20 pound yellowfin tuna. That was a BLAST fishing those things. We each caught a few and ended up keeping three total, one for ourselves which the resort happily cooked for us, one for the boat captain and one for the guy on shore which he promptly sold for 100 pesos to some locals. Excellent eating and fun fishing and would do that again in a heart beat.

The boat captain actually kept us out until about 1330 because he said us catching fish and having great fun was good advertsing for his seller on shore...lol.
Regards,
Dave.