[laurenz]

It must have been 6 weeks ago that I got an email from Adrian through our website.
He told us that he had caught a baby Tarpon on Aruba on a previous visit.
Benny and I mostly chase Bonefish, Jack and Barracuda and I could not help getting a bit curious.
Having lived in Belize before, I have had a few encounters with Tarpons before!
For my friend Benny this was all quite new and after briefing him on the subject we had a new mission; Tarpon needs to be on our trophy list!
Adrian (who we would like to thank for his patience with us) mailed that he was coming to Aruba and would love to come fishing with us.
As soon as we could, we met up with him and went where Adrian was successful before in the hunt for Tarpon.
The spot; where the lagoon comes out by the sea, (Benny and I could not believe that we didn’t find this spot ourselves and we had to learn about it from an Englishman who lives in Kansas!) is beautiful but hard to cast from. We decided to take turns.
By arrival it was still daylight and we saw no disturbance or signs of any fish.
This all changed after darkness and tarpons started jumping all over the place!
We where amazed that this was happing on “our island� and we never knew.
Everyone of us had a few hits on the fly, some very spectacular but we could not land them!
It felt like they knew how to unhook themselves (any information on how to solve this problem is welcome).
After leaving frustrated that night, we had to drink a few beers and talked; knots, flies and tactics.
The next week the 3 of us went back and had the same experience and we became even more frustrated than the first time, even the fraise �the one that got a way“ turned up.
The next day when Adrian left, I thanked him for helping us and promised him we would not give up and as soon we would catch one, we’ll put the picture on our website.
Wecome to Fly Fishing Aruba.
So last night the 2 of us went out again and after a few hits and jumps, Benny managed to land this beautiful tarpon.
This was by far his biggest fish on the fly rod so far and he was jumping for joy!
Standing next to him I can remember some mixed feelings .I was excited / a little jealous but most of all; very proud that the man who I thought how to fly-fish over the last 6 months now is beating me in the race to catch the first Tarpon!
Greeting s Laurenz

[Fly Guy]

Your persistence paid off. What size were the tarpon. Baby tarpon are very hard to hook on a fly. They seem to take a swipe at the fly, unlike their larger relatives that inhale it. Use very sharp hooks with a large gap, and strip strike. A fresh water trout set will not work.

[laurenz]

The tarpons are 15/20 pound and a great sport ,but hard to catch
Thanks Laurenz