For live and premium content, sign up for our email newsletter and we'll send reports directly to your inbox
Subscriber Mark Rubin has a lot of good things to say about his tarpon fishing trip this past October to Silver King Lodge (www.silverkinglodge.com) on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica, but he does point out one downside to the experience. He writes: “We had multiple hook-ups and landings per day of tarpon. Most of the fish were in the 120- to 150-pound range with a few smaller. The largest was about 180 pounds. We fished from center console boats, mostly in murky brown water where the Rio Colorado empties into the Caribbean. Tarpon were rolling everywhere, but the fishing was nothing like tarpon fishing in the Florida Keys. There is zero sight fishing here in clear water. You need to be aware of that at time of booking.”
Rubin says he fished five days, four of which were hot with little wind and glassy seas. It rained a bit on the last day and got a little rough. They used 14-wt. rods with 500-grain sinking lines. The flies they used were locally tied, he says, mostly red, black, and white with a little flash. “The fishing was incredible, the lodge ran perfectly, the food was great,” he writes. “They even have a pool. If you want to catch tarpon on the fly, this is the place! There were days when I just didn’t want another hook-up. Four tarpon over 150 pounds in a day can kill you.”
Postscript: Rubin gives the cost of his trip as $3,200. He booked it through Trek International Safaris in Jacksonville, Florida, www.treksafaris.com.