Caribbean Coast, Costa Rica

Tarpon

Megalops atlanticus

The silver king — a giant, chrome, leaping gamefish that defines Florida's late-spring flats and passes. Sight-fished with bait or fly, it is a fish of a lifetime.

Machaca

Brycon guatemalensis

The machaca is a mostly herbivorous freshwater characin of Caribbean-slope rivers that fights like a miniature tarpon — rising to falling fruit, exploding on the take and jumping repeatedly. It is Costa Rica's premier fly and light-tackle river target.

Tropical Gar

Atractosteus tropicus

The tropical gar — the pejelagarto — is an air-breathing, armour-plated predator of the swamps from Tabasco to Costa Rica and Tabasco's most emblematic freshwater fish. Handle with care for its razor teeth — always with a glove or jaw grip.

Sergeant Major

Abudefduf saxatilis

The Atlantic's bold little striped damselfish, in yellow-green with five black bars, swarming over shallow reef tops and around piers. Taxonomy matters here: FishBase is explicit that Abudefduf saxatilis is strictly Atlantic — the look-alike Pacific fish is a separate species, Abudefduf troschelii, so no Pacific distribution is claimed on this page.

Redtail Parrotfish

Sparisoma chrysopterum

A common Caribbean parrotfish that grazes algae from reef and rock, keeping reef surfaces open for coral — an encounter species best admired and released, as parrotfish are discouraged as food in many places for their grazing role.

Yellowtail Parrotfish

Sparisoma rubripinne

A widespread Caribbean parrotfish — yellow-tailed as a juvenile/initial-phase fish and red-finned as a terminal male — that grazes algae off reefs and is best released to keep reefs clean for coral.