Silver King, Recife, Brazil
About a year ago, I was told that there was a place in Brazil that held incredible numbers of juvenile tarpon. Being an avid tarpon-angler, I was immediately intrigued, as I had never heard of tarpon being in this part of the world. I started planning and got together with a small group, and we headed out in early October for what came to be one of the best tarpon experiences I have ever had.
The Travel
Getting to Recife, Brazil, proved to be fairly straightforward. Coming from Central Oregon, we made the jaunt across the country to Fort Lauderdale, FL, for our direct flight to Recife. Azul Airlines runs an overnight flight from Fort Lauderdale to Recife every Saturday night, landing promptly around 6 AM on Sunday morning. Upon our arrival to Recife our lodge host, Guido, and one the guides, Everton, met us just outside baggage claim waiting to transport us to the lodge. They grabbed our luggage and loaded it up in the trucks for our 45ish minute transfer to the lodge.
The Lodge
The lodge itself is about 45 minutes outside of Recife, in the coastal town of Porto de Galinhas. Upon our arrival to the lodge, the first thing that greeted us was a pool overlooking the white sand beach, with a large backyard area for relaxing. We ended up getting in the pool each day after fishing, as a great way to cool off after the long day. All beds were very comfortable, and housekeeping would come through every day to tidy up the room. We never noticed anything that didn’t get cleaned daily. The lodge host, Guido, and his team were nothing short of spectacular, always making sure we had everything we needed. Each night we would eat at the dining table outside, and food was very tasty and thoughtfully prepared.
Q: Where did you fish?
A: There are five rivers that are fishable in this region, and throughout the week we were about to fish four of them:
The Capibaribe River: This river seems to be the highlight of the program, and definitely holds the most fish. The coolest part of the Capibaribe was the fact that it runs through Recife, so it was an incredibly urban environment. We would be casting at rolling fish, and look up and see tall skyscrapers directly in front of us! It was quite a surreal experience. As well as holding the most fish, this is where we would also find most of the larger fish. It was great to see such a healthy population of fish thriving in an urban setting.
The Jabaotão River: I would describe this river as a cross between an urban and mangrove setting. We would pass homes on the water, along with tall skyscrapers to get up to the mangrove lined fishing grounds. Behind the Capibaribe, the Jabaotão seemed to hold the most tarpon. We also found that the most Snook resided in this river!
The Ipojuca River: The Ipojuca was more of what I have come accustomed to when fishing for tarpon. We would see fish rolling along long mangrove lined banks, placing our fly very close to the banks in order to pick these fish off. A good caster will love the challenge of fitting their fly in some of the tight spots we would see tarpon roll!
The Sirinhaém River: We found the Sirinhaém to be the most different from all the rivers we fished. It took the longest to reach the fishing grounds in this river, because we were heading up into the Jungle. The boat ride up the river was incredible, seeing the tall jungle trees lining the banks. Once at the fishing zones the tarpon seemed to be more in the middle of the river versus the edges, which made casting quite nice without having to worry about trees or bushes behind us. Personally, this was one of my favorite spots that we fished!
Q: What was the setup like?
A: Something that really stood out to me about this operation, is that there was no time wasted when it came to fishing. Our excellent guides, Everton and Sergio, would check conditions every night, and after seeing what the wind and the tides were doing, they would make the call on where we were going to fish. Sometimes it meant waking up very early, while other times it meant that we would sleep in a little bit and wait for the tides to drop or rise into shape. We really appreciated this because they were giving us the best chance to have a successful day, rather than just getting on the water at the same time everyday even if the conditions weren’t good.
Once on the water, I liked to have both an 8 and a 9-weight set up. I rigged my 9-weight up with an intermediate sink tip line for the days where the water was a little bit deeper. My 8-weight was set up with a floating line that allowed me to switch between classic sinking tarpon flies and poppers. We found that fishing poppers was not only very effective, but also proved to be the most fun!
The Fishing
To say that we saw, lost, and landed our fair share of tarpon is an understatement. I’m very confident that I haven’t seen this amount of tarpon anywhere else that I have targeted them. Unlike many other tarpon fisheries where you’re fishing in clear water, the water in Brazil is more off color. I believe this masked our presence allowing us to get closer and have more shots at rolling fish. I would say that most fish we got to hand were roughly between 5-20lbs, but we definitely landed a handful in the 20-30lb range as well. In addition to tarpon, we landed a handful of snook, which seemed to be fatter down there than other places I have seen. Generally speaking, I prefer to use a floating line for tarpon, and this seemed to cover most situations we were presented with. I enjoyed the ease of casting an 8 weight, and I didn’t feel outgunned when I hooked larger fish. We found that red/black, white/chartreuse, and plain chartreuse tied as traditional tarpon flies on 1/0-2/0 hooks worked the best for us. That being said, our favorite way to target these fish were poppers. We would tie on a popper when there were a lot of tarpon rolling in a pod and cast directly into the frenzy! It normally didn’t take long to get a hookup.
Although I like casting the floating lines the best, the 9-weight with an intermediate line definitely has its place down there. A couple of the rivers we were fishing were slightly deeper, so when we would see the fish roll it was helpful to have the fly get down a little faster in front of the fish’s face. This also allowed us to cast slightly larger flies–like oversized Clouser Minnows–with lead dumbbell eyes. The 9-weight rod was also nice to have in hand for bigger fish, as it provided extra lifting power to turn the fish around.
Overview
I went down to Brazil not really knowing what to expect, and definitely came back as a South American tarpon-believer. As far as tarpon fishing goes, I had never fished in such a unique setting. The range of different styles of rivers that we were able to fish was nothing short of incredible, and the amount of fish in each of these rivers was the most I have found anywhere. Big thanks to Fly Water Travel and the Silver King Brazil team for helping us check out this exciting new destination and making our trip one to remember! Whether you are a first time tarpon-angler or a seasoned expert, Recife, Brazil needs to be on your list.
– Taylor Goodhue
Guide at Deep Canyon Outfitters/Confluence Fly Shop
