Abe was a fantastic captain. Although I grew up on the Texas coast and have fished all my life, this was my first tarpon trip. It was fast in the morning and we had a couple monsters spit the hook after a few seconds but the action abruptly ceased. Abe moved us several times and refused to give up. 20 minutes after he should have headed back to the dock I finally got a hit and boated a great tarpon after an exciting fight. Thanks Abe for going above and beyond to get me that amazing fish and fantastic experience.

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.

Captain Tommy was fantastic. He reached out a few days ahead and asked if we had flexibility in our plans as there were several fly fishing groups booked and he tried to cater to the fly fishermen. If we weren’t flexible, he said it wouldn’t be a problem, but we were on vacation and flexibility while on vacation is kind of the point. Communication ahead of time is important and he was was great and quick.  Once we arrived, were in the boat fast and on our way.  We had a great day on the water and despite the challenges my dad and I had with casting - if you haven’t salt water fished, it’s different and it took us some time to learn. Tommy was patient and worked hard to not only teach us but put us on the fish!  We had a great day and I’d highly recommend!  Tarpon fishing with a fly rod is simply awesome!

Mateo was excellent and put us all on tarpon. Not only did we get tarpon, but they were the biggest fish any of us had ever caught. A Tarpon in the 50lb range and another one estimated at over 88lbs were the highlight of the trip. Be patient and understand you don’t always win at fishing, but sometimes you can fish with someone like Mateo who can greatly increase your chances of having a day like we had today. 5 Stars!