I am going to Puerto Rico in a few months to see my daughter and new grandchild ... but I will take along an 8 weight and a couple of boxes of flies ... one for Bonefish and one for Baby Tarpon (8-10 pound).
The trouble is I have never fished in saltwater and have little to no idea what flies to tie and take. I am reading up on the subject, but I am looking for some suggestions too ... fly patterns ... colors... sizes ... from those of you with experience and knowledge about fishing in Puerto Rico.
Bones will go for gotchas, small crabs, small clousers, and make sure to throw some unweighted patterns in for shallow tailers. I prefer natural bunny or marabou colors on the wing with pearl or tan dubbing body and a little flashabou (not much). The "Acklins crab" is a winner, chenille body with legs and the head from a turneffe crab on it. I have a feeling PR bones are not very wary. Culebra is where most of the known bones are.
The tarpon will hit most anything that looks good when they are on the hunt, best in the off hours. I had the best reactions to a large shrimp but it could be regionally one fly vs another. They slammed anything that looked good for me.
More to think about is the leader - I stopped upgrading at 30# test maxima tippet to hold them. They are not leader shy and they are crazy strong with mouths of concrete. What a freaking blast
The PR lagoons are far from exploited, although the one at the airport has been getting guided attention and has produced 160# fish.
Webstain mentioned a river to the east of the airport in a recent thread that sounded good but he said the fish were full sized - an 8wt might be a stretch.
I would buy the NGS map and look at lagoons you can access, or take the ride to Culebra, or rent a car and search out all the islands lagoons for poons. Drive real early and catch them finning in the morning then spend the rest of the day with family.
Prepare to become hopelessly addicted to the silver king.
I am really looking forward to your fishing report when you get back.
Yep that is what I need ... another addiction ... Trout, Steelhead and Atlantic Salmon were not enough.
Stephen
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