Doctrine · not a honey-hole list

Seasonal fundamentals

When a coast, a type of water, and a fish actually line up. If you elected Texas on the list, this page opens on Texas — Seychelles stays off the board until you ask for it. Filter by region, method or habitat, and species. The year bar is peak versus present. Limits cite TPWD and FWC — verify before you keep one.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico — urban tarpon, east-island flats

DNER water. Real NOAA gauges. Not a Keys copy and not FWC.

San Juan is Condado Lagoon and the bay — tarpon under the bridges, snook in the edges, a north-coast drop that is an offshore method. Vieques and Culebra are the Spanish Virgins: more sand, bones and permit, Mosquito Bay a reserve. La Parguera is the southwest mangrove desk, clocked to Magueyes 9759110. Blue marlin live in the story of this island; this brief will not invent a billfish on a lagoon. License is DNER. Do not paste a Jupiter snook closure onto Condado.

December. Winter tarpon in the lagoon. Sail on the north drop. DNER, not an FWC calendar.

Type

Skinny water

Inches. Baffin, Lower Laguna, Keys oceanside banks, Andros west-side sand, Ascension Bay, St François, Vieques banks. Tide character is sight-skinny: a huge range can empty the flat; a dead-small range can leave fish in a bathtub with no refresh. Push too far and you are walking the boat home. Trophy trout on serpulid rock is not the same as a school of 3-pound bones — same depth, different fish, different mistake.

Vieques

December · peak

What is actually on

Bonefish

Peak Present Off

Closures

No coast-wide harvest closure on the board. Still verify before you keep a fish.

Bonefish

Albula vulpes

Peak DecemberPuerto Rico

Thermal window

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68–88°F · best 72–84°F

Absent in Texas. Keys: big, few, educated. Bahamas: the capital — winter singles, summer schools of 3–5 lb fish. Puerto Rico: east islands more than San Juan. Seychelles: Alphonse and Farquhar sand, not Mahé town water.

Fly. 8 wt. Gotcha, Crazy Charlie, shrimp. Long fluoro, soft landing. Bahamas will forgive more than Biscayne.

Spin. Possible with a tiny jig. The honest tool here is the fly.

Leads the brief on Vieques.

Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico: treat as catch-and-release. East-island banks, not Condado Lagoon.

Official source

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