Buena Vista Fishing - Atlantic Tarpon

" [unk]"

" Got him. Yeah, baby tarpon! "

" [unk]"

" Well here we are, this is the Rio Agabama in Trinidad and it flows down into the area outside the harbor, a few miles off shore and it's a great place to find one of the most famous fish all over the Caribbean area. Of course, I'm talkin' about the tarpon. Now, this one's a real baby. This fish can grow up to over 200 pounds in weight. It's a migratory fish and we've just unhooked that one. The tarpons are migratory fish. It works its way around the coast of the US, around the Florida coast line, up the coast; and of course, in many areas of the Caribbean itself. Basically, we're talking here about the Atlantic tarpon; and here in the Rio Agabama, there are certainly fish of all sizes; some of them are actually very, very large; up to an over 100 pounds. But of course, one of the things I'm having to contend with on this journey across Cuba is the fact that many of the areas I'm fishing including this one are only just opening up. We know the fish are here but we don't necessarily know what they're feeding on, how the tides influence them, the influence of the moon for example, time of year, and also, potentially some of the problems with commercial fishing. Has the area been netted? Have they've removed some of the sort of indigenous fish stock? And these are the sort of problems that you've gotta contend with when you're a pioneer with this kind of fishing. You have to take the rough with the smooth. You can have great days and you can have bad days. But really, when you're opening up new areas like this, it requires a great deal of experimentation. But that's a good start. Here's another bite. Now I'm fishing today with Nelson. A first fish with Nelson, a few years ago, over in Cayo Largo. This is a slightly better fish than the last one. And that's the other thing with tarpon, you know; if you forgot to have a shower in the morning, no problem. You'll always get one. Here she is. He didn't like that Nelson. He didn't like the neck."

" I was looking for the neck."

" Yes. Yes, this time. Lovely fish. That's a nice fish, Nelson. Well, there you are. Megalops atlanticus, the Atlantic tarpon. "

" Okay."

" Great! Nice job."

" Mouth like a bucket, lovely fish."

" They are good."

" Beauty."

" Okay, thank you."

" Let's have a look at this jig. I've got here a few jigs. It's the type that I've been using. This is the one or one of the jigs I've been using today. I've actually tried red and white, that's been successful, and so is yellow. The water is quite colored so you need a jig that's gonna show up when it's like this. In clear waters, sometimes a darker jig with more natural colors would be good. And you'll probably notice, I've got some very strong line to connect the jig to my fishing line. Now, this is 80 pounds mono and you can see how the fish has frayed this rubbing tip is. Now without this, if you just use normal line; a tarpon hasn't got any teeth in its mouth but it will actually fray through the line and it will break you off. So, you need either wire or with jigs, I find it personally, that heavy mono is better. It allows the jig to work more naturally in the river or wherever you're fishing it really. So I find it, when you're fishing here in Cuba, if you're after tarpon bring along some jigs because you'll hook more fish, you'll keep more fish on. And quite frankly, it's a lot of fun. It really is."