Head guide and manager Tom Enderlin looking for the day’s last shot on the lagoon. Photo: Brian Gies
Jungle Tarpon Reserve Giants from Costa Rica’s Intimate Interior Rivers
By Brian Gies
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orthern Costa Rica’s Jungle Tarpon Reserve is a vast inland system of freshwater rivers, creeks and flooded lagoons surrounded by verdant rainforest and swampland. During the dry season the lagoons and creeks are reduced to nearly a trickle, but come August, the area literally springs to life. Runoff from surrounding volcanoes fills the creeks, rivers, and lagoons, creating a vast inland sea teeming with migratory baitfish, monkeys, wading birds and caiman. Somehow the primal tarpon of the Atlantic sense this and journey over a hundred miles inland to feed on the bounty of the jungle’s flooded interior. The feast attracts tarpon of all sizes with the majority of the fish weighing 50 to 100 pounds as well as behemoths in the 150 to 200-pound class. The most unique and dynamic fishery in the region is unquestionably the river. Flowing through a mosaic of virgin rainforest and active farmlands, this mid-sized jungle river is among the most intense and intimate landscapes imaginable to pursue trophy tarpon. When hooked, these big tarpon typically go wild, leaping into overhanging branches or diving into the dark waters to wrap you on countless obstacles. Fighting tarpon here is active-duty jungle combat at its finest. The other unique fishery is comprised of a network of shallow creek-fed lagoons. While these are meadows in the dry season, in the fall and early winter they are full of baitfish creating an incredible stillwater tarpon fishery. With wind PAGE 40
and chop being extremely rare, the lagoons provide a glassy smooth volcano-ringed arena through which hooked tarpon violently erupt.
The Fishing Program The Jungle Tarpon Reserve is limited to four anglers per week. All anglers fish two per guide out of local pangas and employ a split-day schedule, typically fishing the river one session and the lagoons the other. Days start early with a 100-yard walk to the boats where a light breakfast of fruit, local pastries and coffee is served onboard as you head out to the morning beat. Late morning you will return to your accommodations for lunch and a siesta and then head out for an afternoon/ evening session that typically runs from 2pm to 6pm. Fishing will be a mix of casting to rolling or actively feeding fish, blind casting to likely holding spots, or targeting wakes and nervous water in the lagoons. There are even times when the tarpon line up in the mouths of creeks like giant trout and feed explosively on baitfish as they are flushed out of the jungle.
The Scene Jungle Tarpon Reserve is a rustic fishing-focused travel adventure. The lodging is simple but comfortable. Guests stay in private family-owned cabanas less than 100 yards from where they board the fishing pangas. They have two single beds,
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