The Travel
Being an avid tarpon angler, I was immediately intrigued about Silver King Brazil, as I had never heard of tarpon being in this part of the world. The first step was getting to Recife, Brazil which proved to be very 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 of 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 roughly 45-minute transfer to our accommodation for the week.
The Lodge
The lodge itself is about 45 minutes outside of Recife, in the coastal town of Porto de Galinhas. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a pool overlooking a 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. The beds were very comfortable, and housekeeping would come through every day to tidy up the room. 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 the food was very tasty and thoughtfully prepared.
Where did you fish?
There are five rivers that are fishable in this region, and throughout the week we fished four of them.
The Capibaribe River
This river seems is the highlight of the program, and 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 good populations of snook resided in this river!
The Ipojuca River
The Ipojuca was more of what I have become accustomed to when fishing for tarpon. We would see fish rolling along expansive mangrove-lined banks, placing our fly very close to the banks to pick these fish off. A good caster will love the challenge of fitting their fly in tight spots where tarpon are rolling tight to the bank!
The Sirinhaém River
We found the Sirinhaém to be the most unique of all the rivers we fished. It took the longest to reach the fishing grounds, as we ventured far upriver into a jungle ecosystem. The boat ride upriver was incredible with tall jungle trees lining the banks. Once we were in the fishing zone the tarpon seemed to be more in the middle of the river versus the edges, which made casting quite enjoyable without having to worry about trees or bushes behind us. This was one of my favorite spots we fished!
How did you fish?
Something that really stood out 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 to 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 gave us the best chance to have a successful day, rather than just getting on the water at the same time every day even if the conditions were not ideal.
Once on the water, I liked to have both an 8 and 9-weight set up ready to go. I rigged my 9-weight with an intermediate sink tip line for the days when 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 with poppers was not only very effective but also proved to be the most fun!
The Fishing
To say that we saw, lost, jumped and landed our fair share of tarpon is an understatement. I’m confident I've not seen these kinds of numbers of tarpon anywhere else 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 and allowed us to get closer and have more shots at rolling fish. I would say that most fish we got to hand were roughly between 5-20 pounds but landed a handful in the 20–30-pound range as well. As a supplemental surprise we landed a handful of nice snook, which seemed to be fatter down there than other places I have seen.
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 too under gunned 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 were worked the best for us. With that being said, our favorite way to target these fish was with poppers. We mostly employed poppers when there were a lot of tarpon rolling in a pod and cast directly into the frenzy. It normally wouldn’t take long to get a hookup this way.
Although I like casting floating lines best, the 9-weight with an intermediate sinking line has its place down there as well. Several rivers were slightly deeper overall, so when we would see fish roll, it was helpful to have an intermediate sin to get the fly get down a little faster and 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 and provided extra lifting power to turn the fish around.
Overview
I went down to Brazil not really knowing what to expect and 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 number 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, Brazil needs to be on your list.
By Taylor Goodhue
Confluence Fly Shop - Bend, OR
Taylor is an Oregon native, who started fly fishing at a very young age. He was taught on the famed Deschutes River, which he has now been guiding since 2020. Although he grew up a trout angler, Taylor developed a taste for saltwater and exotic fish species early on. He’s been fortunate enough to fish throughout Belize, Mexico, Brazil, all over the US, Christmas Island, and Baja.
You can get in touch with Taylor at www.confluenceflyshop.com
