While wrapping up a recent trip to Patagonia, a trip I had long dreamed of making, I remarked to one of my traveling companions that Bolivian dorado would likely jump to the top of my list of dream species for which to travel, now that I had scratched Patagonian trout off my list. While Bolivia's dorado may indeed remain at the top of the list, it may just get a stiff challenge from what Nicaragua's Tapam Lodge somewhat disappointingly -- but understandably -- refers to as "jungle poon."

Typically, chasing tarpon conjures up images of beaches and blue water and mangrove lined lagoons. While chasing tarpon in freshwater isn't exactly rare, most anglers associate these sort of excursions with baby tarpon which -- while "babies" -- are spectacular gamefish in their own right. But chances are, if you're an angler planning to go after big tarpon, you're planning to do so in big, blue, salty water. That is, perhaps until now.

Just about a year ago, now lodge owner (and steelhead guide) Jeroen Wohe and his friend Jaap Kalkman set out on an expedition in search of a location for a new tarpon fishing operation. Based on research Jeroen had gathered from afar, they had identified certain parts of Nicaragua as potential locations and set out to explore. Whether by skill or luck, the two stumbled onto a location where the quality of the fishing and size of the tarpon exceeded their wildest expectations.

After spending a year negotiating fishing rights with the local Indian villages and negotiating a partnership with a Nicaraguan-American couple that helped facilitate their initial expedition, that location has since become home to the later-built Tapam Lodge which has exclusive fishing rights to tarpon fishing in the area.

The images coming out of Tapam are breathtaking. The fish are big. Enormous, really. And there's lots of them. To be fair, Tapam is honest about each angler's chances, noting that the fishing is tough -- long, 10-11 hour days loaded with blind casting to well-fed tarpon -- but loaded with possibility, and that a typical angler should expect to land "zero to ten" tarpon in a week.

But, if Tapam's reports about the fishing -- which include 20-tarpon days, 120 pound fish being a regular occurrence, 150 pound fish not being uncommon and fish up to and over 200 pounds in the area -- are to be believed, and they stop taking the fish out of the water, it is likely to jump to the top of many an angler's list of dream trips.