Wow!! what an unforgettable experience with Captain Fernando Montalvo! 🌊🎣 This man truly knows the waters like the back of his hand and exactly where the huge fish are hiding. With his patience and expertise, we hooked and landed a Tarpon well over 100 lbs an absolute monster! 🐟🔥

Captain Fernando’s deep knowledge of fishing, combined with his awesome personality and top-notch professionalism, made the day even more memorable. Whether you catch a fish or not, you’re guaranteed to have an incredible time if you trust the Captain and let him work his magic.

We were lucky enough to land a true giant, and it was an adrenaline rush from start to finish. Thank you, Captain this was hands down one of the best fishing adventures we’ve ever had. We’ll definitely be back and booking with you again!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly recommended!

Our boys (14 & 10) wanted to doing a fishing trip on our family vacation to PR. We debated between deep sea and backwater tarpon. Ultimately, we chose backwater because of the calmer waters of the lagunas and (hopefully) a solid fight with a good size tarpon. We booked an early AM 5:45 start, so we could be among the first on the water. While things started off slowly, we eventually hooked 3 tarpon, landing 2 of them, along with a snook and a barracuda. All 4 of our kids got in on the action (ages 16 down to 10). We even had a chance to feed Pepe the Pelican off the back of the boat. Our guide, Miguel, clearly knew his stuff, finding us a variety of spots and methods to get some bites. He was engaging with the kids, sharing stories of fishing excursions across PR. He also had a lot of great recos for restaurants and activities to get into while we were in San Juan for the day. All in - a fantastic trip. Well worth the early morning departure and trek across to San Juan.

Captain Gabi was awesome. Tarpon fishing is different then our past charters because essentially your putting out 5 rods with bait and waiting for the magic to happen. If a tarpon catches you have a 45 minute fight ahead of you. But if you don’t catch anything then it’s a lot of sitting around and talking in a beautiful setting. My advice is ask if rods can be dedicated to tarpon fishing and a couple for catching smaller things like barracuda or snappers. That’s what we ended up doing and it was best that way. If you are from out of town Pinones can seem intimidating but highly recommend eating at their food stalls and exploring the area.

Me and my 11yr old son had the opportunity June 2025 to go out with Miguel on a few trips.

Had a great time and caught lots of fish, including some trophies!

Miguel truly loves fishing and we had a blast fishing with him.  He is incredibly knowledgeable and skilled as a captain.  My son had a blast with Miguel and considers him his “bud”!  :)

If you are looking to experience Tarpon fishing I cant say enough good things about these guys.

We had some minor confusion with our booking and Backwater jumped through hoops and went above and beyound to get it straightened out.  Very professional and reputable outfit.

Thank you for taking us out!

We caught one Tarpon (approx. 40 lbs), and a bunch of smalls (mangrove snappers and a poagie). The captain told us on the way out that the mornings in San Juan have been slow, which was certainly true in the beginning if the trip (we didn’t catch anything the first hour and a half). But then we moved spots and got lots of bites and reeled in a nice Tarpon!

The only trouble we had was finding the location as the marina gate was closed when we arrived and nobody was around to let us in. I had to get out and open the gate myself and then someone did show up to tell us where to park.

The captain was fantastic! Patient with us first time anglers, very personable, and gave us tips not just about fishing but where to go for meals, nightlife, etc.! I would recommend this captain!!!