Capt Gene Kelly
TROPICAL FISHING ADVENTURES
COSTA RICA
11/25/11
This week’s fishing news can be divided into the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good
The University of Costa Rica’s Ocean Sciences and Limnology Research Center (CIMAR) has launched a website that could be a handy tool for anglers and surfers alike.
The Oceanographic Information Module site, at www.miocimar.ucr.ac.cr, puts in one place tools used by many fishermen to plan their trips. A few quick clicks gets you valuable information on tides, surface temperatures and currents, as well as a weekly forecast for wave activity along both Pacific and Caribbean coasts. The only suggestion I would make is for CIMAR to add moon phases, because certain species react differently according to the moon. The site is in Spanish, but a click will get it translated for you.
Enrique Ramírez, executive director of the Costa Rican Tourist Fishing Federation (FECOPT), has proposed a study on more sustainable fishing methods involving participation from various groups.
Many times, different nongovernmental and environmental groups are working on similar projects, but have no communication among themselves to share information. Ramírez believes that by working together, groups can work toward common goals more efficiently and at lower costs.
Groups like FECOPT and conservation organizations MarViva and Pretoma have expressed interest in working with the Costa Rican commercial longline fleet to test the effectiveness of “green sticks” as an alternative and more sustainable method of fishing. Green sticks enable vessels to fish more selectively and have worked well for fishermen in North Carolina and along the Atlantic coast of the U.S.
Ramírez has tentatively scheduled a workshop for Nov. 29 at the Club Amateur de Pesca in western San José’s La Sabana neighborhood. Groups interested in participating or fishermen with prior experience with green sticks are invited to contact Ramírez by writing him at eramirezguier@gmail.com.
The Bad
The cost of fishing is going up in Costa Rica for the sportfishing sector. According to the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute (Incopesca), the price hikes are related to the cost of administrating the fishing license system, and will go into effect Jan. 1 as follows.
Nonresidents will now pay $30 for an annual fishing license. The lower-
Also in the news is a proposal to start using the tourist dock in the Pacific port of Puntarenas to ease the load of the nearby Caldera port, which is not able to handle the amount of cargo traffic it is receiving. The Puntarenas pier is used by cruise ships six months of the year, and many Costa Rican families use it as a place to relax and do a little fishing. Opponents to the proposal claim the dock is already in poor condition and the excess traffic will further damage the structure, and prohibit the public from having access to a popular facility.
The Ugly
There doesn’t seem to be any quick fix for the shark-
Fishing Report, Nov. 24
It couldn’t last forever, could it? After endless reports of fabulous tarpon fishing on the Caribbean coast, the ocean kicked up, keeping anglers inside the river mouth, and dirty water from the rains brought tarpon fishing to a screeching halt. According to Capt. Eddie Brown, some calba (fat snook) are being taken inside. The sun returned Wednesday, and fishing should return to normal soon.
If you want to fish on the Pacific, just throw a dart at the map to pick your spot. There is action all along the coast. Richard Chellemi on the Gamefisher II reports there are still a number of sails and marlin up in the Guanacaste region. Mike Ryals out of Florida went five for eight on sailfish and added a couple of dorado and yellowfin tuna to the catch.
Los Sueños, Quepos, Drake Bay and Puerto Jiménez all report the sail and marlin action has improved, as well as the dorado bite. A trash line just north of Drake Bay produced lots of dorado, and marlin are coming into the spread daily farther south.
11/10/2011
I’m sure Dan Wise of Río Colorado Lodge and the rest of the Caribbean fishing operators
haven’t grown tire
d of listening to the same old tune about how good the fishing
is.
The bite continues, and Diann Sánchez from the Río Colorado office sent in the following report: “The weather has been sunny and hot … with the tarpon fishing continuing to be very good. Thomas Stropoli from West Virginia and Robert Reischi of Houston jumped 25 tarpon and brought eight to the boat, the largest estimated to be about 150 pounds. They also caught one barracuda. Phillipe Jacques and Fabienne Forestier, diplomats from France living in Costa Rica for an assignment, visited the Barra del Colorado area and stayed at Río Colorado Lodge. Neither of these men had ever fished in their lives, but they decided to give it a try while visiting the lodge. In one day they jumped six tarpon and each brought one to the boat weighing about 95 pounds.”
Wise added that the calba, a smaller species of snook that invade the area in large numbers annually between now and February, have started to show. Calba have been biting at Samay Lagoon, Monkey Creek and Paradise Lagoon.
Reports from up near Coco on the Pacific coast are that the sails, marlin, tuna and dorado are biting just a few miles off Catalina Island. Arco Pacífico charters had boats with as many as eight sails and some marlin hookups.
Capt. Richard Chellemi also has been hitting some sails on the Gamefisher II. The
Salazar group out of Abilene, Texas, had the top fish with a 350-
On the central and southern Pacific coast, billfish have moved in but the fishing has been hampered by green water. Some boats have been lucky enough to find pockets of sails and are raising seven or eight fish, but most boats are working hard for just a couple.
Inshore, the fishing has been excellent, with lots of football tuna, roosterfish
and snapper. Mark Harwood took a nice 44-
11/3/2011
In a couple of week
s, all this rain we have been experiencing should be all but over
and the showers will begin to fall mostly at night instead of all day long. For the
past few weeks, operators in central and southern Costa Rica have been putting on
fresh bottom paint, tuning engines and making sure fishing tackle is in top condition.
November and December are prime months for marlin from Los Sueños in the Central Pacific all the way down to the Panama border. These months are historically exceptional for dorado (mahimahi) also. Although the dorado were mysteriously absent last season, some boats working out of Quepos are already reporting the appearance of dorado in the area. Football tuna will be plentiful in schools, and the bigger tuna will be moving with the spinner and spotted dolphins. Both dorado and tuna are favorite foods for marlin.
As the rain subsides, the water clarity near shore will begin to improve and the inshore fishing will return to normal. All the water rushing down from the mountains these past weeks has been carrying tons of silt with it, making inshore fishing a washout for the most part. Roosterfish will start biting again, and anglers who enjoy fishing with poppers will see better action with both roosters and cubera snapper.
Some time around the beginning of December, the Papagayo winds will begin to blow from the east, across Lake Nicaragua into the Pacific Ocean. This is a yearly event – except in the presence of the El Niño weather phenomenon – and lasts about four months. What happens is this wind pushes the surface water offshore and the upwelling water does not have enough oxygen to support sailfish, forcing them to move south. You can catch a sailfish or a marlin any day of the year in Costa Rica, but when the Papagayo wind is blowing, the population is more concentrated in central and southern Costa Rica.
A couple of satellite tagging studies are planned for this high season in which fish will be tagged in Quepos and also in the Golfito area to the south, to see where they actually go when the Papagayo wind stops and oxygen levels return to normal. We know the fishing improves greatly in northern Costa Rica then. Some studies have already been done revealing that fish have moved from Mexico down to Guatemala and from southern Costa Rica to northern Nicaragua. The same population of fish can be found from Mexico to Ecuador. Sailfish seem to spend the first few years of their lives off Mexico and then move south. The lifespan of a sailfish is between eight and 15 years.
Another good sign is that some operators are reporting more reservations for the upcoming season. A busy season would be a godsend for operators hit hard by the recession and skyrocketing fuel costs.
Costa Ricans are increasingly aware of the importance of sportfishing to their communities.
More than 100 major supermarkets have removed sailfish and marlin from their stores.
Hilton was the first hotel chain to officially declare its menus billfish-
I myself am looking forward to the wettest time of year being over, and to my fishing line being the only thing of mine getting wet.
Fishing report, Nov. 3
Tarpon fishing in Barra del Colorado on the Caribbean coast continues to be really good, with great weather and flat seas, according to Diann Sánchez of the Río Colorado Lodge.
Between Oct. 21 and 28, with five boats in the water, a total of 127 tarpon were jumped and 58 were brought to the boat, along with several jacks.
From Japan, repeat angler Takayuki Usui with three others, Hibiki Sakaguchi, Yuichiro Kato and Iwama Hiroaki, in four days jumped 54 tarpon and brought 16 to the boat. Guests from the Ukraine Yuriy Shulak and Serhiy Semenenko fished six days and jumped 34 tarpon, bringing to the boat 18 of those, along with eight jacks.
Repeat guests Bruce Bosch and Rob Gagnon of Oregon and Louis Ferreira of Washington, in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, fished eight days, jumping 40 tarpon and bringing 24 to the boat. These anglers also caught eight jacks.
Guanacaste continues to be the hot spot on the Pacific side, but the action will soon be moving south as well. Big roosterfish are still feeding off Playa Blanca, and offshore the water has been a little cleaner than down south, with sails, dorado and marlin making an appearance.
The Quepos area is still reporting dorado and a few sails. Hopes are up for a good dorado run, which will mean lots of marlin behind them. Some snapper have been coming in a little south of town, and roosterfish action has picked up since last week.
Lots of football tuna have been entertaining light-
10/27/2011
Smiles began returning to the faces of operators along the Pacific coast as fishing
and catching is beginning to return to normal. In the far north, it has been banner
roosterfish fishing. Arco Pac
ífico had a boat working the waters off Playa Blanca,
and big roosterfish were banging trolled live bait. They had 14 bites and ended the
day landing eight roosterfish between 40 and 60 pounds. Offshore boats are picking
up a sailfish here and there, as well as dorado.
At Los Sueños in the Central Pacific, the boats are running a long way to get out
of the green water but are being rewarded for their efforts. Lots of dorado are in
the area, as well as some billfish. Some nice tuna hit the docks this week between
40 and 50 pounds, and the bragging fish of the week was a whopping 200-
Green water has also been a problem down south, as has lack of people fishing. Capt. Bobby McGuinness on the Cazador took a group fishing inshore. He added three fish to the number of International Game Fish Association (IGFA) world records he has guided people to, bringing his total to 232. This week he helped his client gain three women’s line class records for barracuda. The IGFA named McGuinness the world’s best captain in 2010 and gave him a lifetime achievement award.
On the Caribbean side, it’s the same old song: The tarpon are still chewing.
The Amateur Fishing Club held the second and final leg of its annual tarpon tournament out of Barra del Colorado last weekend. While most of the country was getting drenched in rain, they were blessed with sunny skies, flat seas and hungry fish.
Twenty-
10/20/2011
What can I say? It’s October in Costa Rica. If you were looking for a true rain forest experience this past week, you surely got it. If you were planning on fishing, though, it wasn’t nearly as nice.
Rain pounded the entire Pacific coast all week, and not many boats went out. Up north, high winds and rough water forced most of the fleet from Playas del Coco and Ocotal to move their boats into Bahía Culebra, and several smaller boats sank on the hook at Coco.
A little farther south, Capt. Richard Chellemi on the Gamefisher II managed to get
David Raab and friends some nice roosterfish fishing near shore. The top fish weighed
about 40 pounds with a few more in the 20-
A few dorado and tuna have been working off Quepos. Jerry Glover reported the billfish haven’t been cooperating with the rain, but the good eating fish have been keeping anglers who don’t mind a little rain busy.
The only ray of sunshine has been on the Caribbean. A huge school of tarpon showed
between Barra del Colorado and Tortuguero. Capt. Eddie Brown, fishing with Earl Waters,
landed three and finally left the school for a well-
10/13/2011
I don’t think Christopher Columbus could have found Costa Rica in the weather we
have had this week
. The ocean kicked up enough in northern Guanacaste that a couple
of charters turned back toward shore.
Before the front came in this week, there were still sails and marlin in the area and catch reports weren’t bad. At Los Sueños on the central Pacific coast, some sails have been biting and dorado have started to show.
On the Caribbean coast, the rains have been holding off until the afternoon up toward Tortuguero, and the tarpon bite is still really strong.
Good news is being spread regarding sailfish and marlin. Grupo Empresarial de Supermercados S.A. (GESSA) has announced it will no longer sell sailfish and marlin in its stores, which include Perimercados, Jumbo and Super Compro supermarkets. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has placed both types of billfish on a list of species overfished toward the point of extinction.
Also, the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT) recently changed its Certification for Sustainable Tourism criteria to include removing species of tourist interest off the menus of all participating hotels. Sportfishing groups have lobbied the ICT to make the change. According to Costa Rican law, the species of interest include sailfish, blue marlin, black marlin, striped marlin and tarpon.
10/6/2011
Same old broken record, though a good one, on the Caribbean. The tarpon are chewing
and the seas are
flat. A group spent the week at Silver King Lodge and fished out
of kayaks. Joe Lynberg, a kayak guide here in Costa Rica, was along on the trip and
said everyone got towed around the ocean in tarpon-
Up at Playas del Coco on the northern Pacific coast, “Jimbo” had a good day on sailfish
and reported that a good number of marlin can be found in the area. He also saw a
good-
On the central Pacific coast, Los Sueños boats are starting to see sailfish in the
double digits. Several boats have had days of raising 10-
The fish haven’t moved into the Quepos area in big numbers yet, but anglers there are taking a few sails and dorado. Dorado are a good sign now. Last year the dorado fishing was slow; seeing a few now might mean good news when the season starts in November.
Down south, the offshore action has been quiet, although the roosterfish fishing
has been decent in the cleaner water away from the rivers. The slower tides have
been good for Pacific yellowtail and cubera snapper and some smaller 10-
9/29/2011
Multiply the unnerving sound of an aggravated rattlesnake by 1,000 times and you
will know the sound o
f the rattling gills of a tarpon when it jumps. It is a sound
that vibrates through your body and enters your soul.
The tarpon is a prehistoric fish that has been around for thousands of years. They have the ability to enter salt or freshwater at will and have been recorded to have life spans of 60 years or more.
Barra del Colorado, on Costa Rica’s northern Caribbean coast, is one place on the planet where tarpon gather by the thousands. They school together in groups that cover several acres, and you can see them roll on the surface all around you. They also travel up the Río Colorado into the Río San Juan and all the way to Lake Nicaragua, entering every tributary and lagoon along the way.
Years ago, Barra del Colorado was a small village of mostly loggers, turtle hunters and fishermen. When a turtle hunter captured a turtle, he would carve his brand in the turtle’s shell and hold the turtles in pens until a boat from Key West, Florida, would arrive to carry them alive back to Florida. They were also held in pens until slaughtered. The 1935 hurricane that destroyed U.S. tycoon Henry Flagler’s railroad to the Florida Keys washed many of these turtles back into the sea. The next turtle season, these same branded turtles were captured again between Barra del Colorado and Tortuguero.
Today, the loggers are long gone, and turtle hunting was outlawed many years ago.
The village of about 900 inhabitants survives on small-
Carlos Barrantes, Bill Barnes and Archie Fields built the first lodges in Barra. All three have passed away but left a legacy of accomplishments in Costa Rica sportfishing. Barnes catered to fly fishermen. A great fly fisherman himself, and photographer, he recorded much of the nature of the area on film, including a photo of a jaguar that got published all over the world.
Early fishing in Barra was done in small johnboats with 25-
September and October bring the best weather to the Caribbean side. The sea is almost always flat as a pancake, making rolling fish easy to spot. The fish generally bite all day long except right on top of the full moon, when the bite is in the early morning and late afternoon.
Río Colorado Lodge had four anglers hook 130 tarpon in a four-
There is a big difference between what is known as “jumping” a fish and landing one.
Tarpon have hard, bony mouths and are often contortionists when they jump. Keeping
a hook in one is not always easy. Many say the hook-
Tarpon in Costa Rica average 60-
It is an easy type of fishing. Just drift out the river mouth using a bucktail jig
with a plastic grub tail. Make sure the jig is heavy enough to get to the bottom.
Lightly lift and drop the rod tip. It is usually not long before you launch your
first missile. If the fish aren’t cooperating there, your guide will move out to
the color change where the coffee-
The action and flat seas will last through the middle of November. You may not hook 100 fish in a day, but if a tarpon is on your bucket list, now is the best time to go.
Fishing Report, Sept. 29
Leave it to a fishing writer to screw things up. The moment I start telling the whole world how great the tarpon fishing is, the bite slows. The Amateur Fishing Club held the first phase of its National Tarpon Tournament last weekend, and on the first day the fish had lockjaw. Only nine were landed.
On day two it was game on, and Adrián Goldgewicht took the tournament lead by landing four tarpon. Orlando Soto took three fish to move into a tie for second place with Alberto Laurencich, who landed one on the first day and two on the second. Laurencich added two more on Sunday’s half day of fishing to take top spot, followed by Goldgewicht, and Rodolfo Carvajal slipped into third place, passing Soto. Rafa Matera had a big day on the final day of the tourney to tie in points with Carvajal, but Carvajal took the trophy based on time of catch. A total of 50 fish were landed and released in the tournament.
A call to Barra del Colorado this morning confirms the bite is on again. It figures.
9/23/2011
It is like hearing a s
ong you really like over and over again on the Caribbean
side. The fish are chewing, and those lucky enough to make it over there will really
stretch some string. This bite should continue for another month or so.
Diann Sánchez from Río Colorado checked in and reported everyone is going to bed early after pulling on fish all day. The pressure is always on when you have a TV crew fishing. Johnny Hoffman filmed a show for Brazilian television with three other anglers. The group hooked 130 tarpon between 60 and 180 pounds – a dream trip for a television angler and a lodge owner as well. Other anglers had similar results; Phil Hoover from Naples, Florida, who has been fishing Río Colorado since I was there two decades ago, had already hooked 23 with four more days to fish.
Fishing buddies Bruce Johnson from Monterey, California, and Bob Abernathy from
Orlando, Florida, met up in Guanacaste on the northern Pacific coast to fish with
Capt. Richard Chellemi aboard the Gamefisher II. They proved there are still plenty
of fish up north. Working against changing water conditions as green water moved
in the area, Chellemi showed his years of experience reading local water. The two
anglers had 31 shots at sails in four days, landing and releasing 22. They also hooked
a couple of marlin, having a 400-
Fishing has picked up a lot out of Los Sueños on the Central Pacific, according to Capt. Rolando Chaves. He has been seeing eight to 10 sails a day and the fish are cooperating. Jerry Glover, reporting from a little farther south in Quepos, reported the sail bite slowed the last day or two, but his boats are having lots of fun chasing roosterfish.
Down south, almost everyone is going through their boats getting ready for the season, but the few that have been out have been getting some tuna. Inside the Golfo Dulce, snapper and smaller amberjacks have been taking jigs.
9/15/2011
I am about to open a can of worms. Can you imagine a fisherman doing that?
Recently, a bill was introduced to allow fishing in national parks (Tico Timesw,
Aug. 19). Thirty-
I am in favor of opening the parks to fishing. Before you throw your Tico Times across the room and call me an idiot – or worse, use it to wrap fish – please read on.
The current system is a dismal failure. Right now the only ones fishing in the parks are illegal fishermen using unsustainable fishing methods, mainly gill nets. The government agencies in charge of patrolling the areas are underfunded and understaffed and do not have the equipment to enforce regulations. Even the nongovernmental organizations doing patrolling efforts pulled out due to lack of funding.
Conservation equals commerce. Without one, you can’t have the other. Here are two
examples of land-
The Tropical Science Center, a nongovernmental scientific and environmental organization,
manages and protects 4,000 hectares of primary forest in Monteverde, in north-
On the other hand, a very popular NGO raised millions of dollars to purchase large areas of rain forest as a means of protecting it. They figured by owning it, they were protecting it. No one is managing the area, and illegal woodcutters and animal poachers enter every day.
If I were asked to come up with a plan to allow fishing in national parks, it would
go something like this: I would change them into “responsible fishing areas” and
allow small-
The areas would need to be governed by the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute (Incopesca),
the Environment Ministry, the Coast Guard and the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT).
Strict, concrete regulations would have to be established for using these areas –
not regulations with loopholes large enough to drive a truck through, like some of
the present regulations. (Shark-
Artisanal fishermen in these areas mainly target snapper and grouper. They would be allowed to fish only with handlines or rod and reel with a maximum of three hooks per line. A slot size limit would be established so all breeding stock is released, and a daily catch limit would be established. It would be illegal to have onboard any type of unauthorized fishing gear while inside the responsible fishing area.
Tourist sportfishermen would pay an entrance fee to fish in the parks. This money
would go entirely toward marine management in the park. Of course, fishing would
be done strictly with rod and reel. Almost every tourist who comes to Costa Rica,
whether for fishing or ecotourism, wants to enjoy fresh local seafood, so a one-
The ICT has finally begun to realize that nearly 25 percent of high-
Opening the parks will encourage artisanal fishermen to fish in more sustainable
ways. Groups like MarViva and product-
Fishermen allowed to use the parks legally will be eyes for illegal activity. They will want to protect the right to use the area sustainably. It will take some time, but eventually the parks will generate enough income on their own to properly manage them.
Fishing Repo
rt, Sept. 15
The Caribbean is on fire. Diann Sánchez from Río Colorado checked in and reported that guests Brian Noreski and Gary Mellwig jumped 92 tarpon, landing 47 between 60 and 160 pounds. Man, I used to love September when I lived over on that side. A mixed bag of tuna, jacks and barracuda are also taking baits. The bite slows right on top of the full moon, and the action is in the early morning or late afternoon. After the moon passes, it will be off to the races again.
The full moon seems to have slowed the bite on the central and southern Pacific coasts, where most of the action has been inshore. Up north, they are still taking some sails about five miles outside of the Catalina Islands, and tuna have been bending rods closer to the beach.
9/8/2011
If you want a su
re bet on catching a tarpon in Costa Rica, now is the time to head
over to the Caribbean side. September and October have always been my favorite months.
I was on that side of the country last week, and although I didn’t get a chance to
fish, the Caribbean breeze and the September flat seas reminded me of the five years
I spent in Barra del Colorado.
Diann Sánchez from Río Colorado Lodge checked in this week to tell me how great the fishing has been of late. She reported that Robert Stewart, Jared Aurlett, James Stewart and Bruce Wortham from Andrews, Texas, fished three days and released a total of 82 tarpon, ranging in size from 80 to 200 pounds. “The guys said they had a fantastic time and will be back with more friends soon. … The ocean has been flat, with sunshine all day long, just beautiful!” she wrote.
Eddie Brown, a little ways south of Barra in Tortuguero, said the same thing. Tarpon
are everywhere, biting from Barra del Colorado all the way to Parismina. He is still
finding a few snook, but nothing like the 38-
On the Pacific side, Guanacaste in the north is still the hot spot, which is normal for this time of year. Out of Quepos on the central Pacific coast, Jerry Glover reported his boats are getting a few sails and a couple of dorado up to 25 pounds. He also said the snapper fishing inshore has been good.
Down south, most anglers are opting for inshore where the bite has been better. Some
dinner-
8/26/2011
The Caribbean is red hot, with tarpon biting all along the coast. The seas are flat – all th
at’s lacking is fishermen. Only a few boats are on the water, but those that are fishing are enjoying the action that made Costa Rica famous.
Capt. Eddie Brown has been fishing between Tortuguero and Barra del Colorado and
hooking double digits every day out. His largest fish this week was a 160-
Dr. Alfredo López at Río Indio reports great guapote fishing in the lagoons off the
Río San Juan, just across the border in Nicaragua. López also reported a good tarpon
bite and some blackfin tuna a mile off the beach.
On the Pacific side, the offshore action is better the farther north you go. Diego
Armando checked in to say his group found a big wad of dorado 24 miles out of Herradura.
Other boats out of Los Sueños and Quepos are reporting days of a half-
They are still knocking them dead up north in Guanacaste, with some double-
Casey McCartin took this amberjack as well as several roosterfish on a recent trip off southwestern Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. Courtesy of Crocodile Bay Resort
Down south, the inshore action is making up for the lack of billfish offshore. There
are lots of tuna but only a few sails and marlin. Roosterfish and amberjack made
for a lot of the inshore action, and some dinner-
Sometimes the sights are better than the fishing. We spent the day watching humpback whales from a distance, and saw 12 different whales in the course of the day. Humpbacks arrive in the gulf twice a year to birth and train their calves. August and September brings them from the Southern Hemisphere, and in January and February they come from the north.
8/18/2011
The bite is still best in the Guanacaste area on the northern Pacific coast. Rick
Argudo, who is visiting from Florida this week to work on his project to put skateboard
parks for the less fortunate in various locations in San José, took a day off to
fish on the Scorpion I with Capt. Daniel. Looks like good deeds get rewarded. He
had a bang-
The Central Pacific area is producing a few sails and dorado, although nothing like the north. The inshore action, however, seems to be steady with lots of roosterfish and jacks.
Down south, the only thing happening offshore is tuna. The fish caught this week have run to about 60 pounds. Sailfish are still hanging to the north and will head this way as the bait migrates. Again, inshore fishing has been really good, with the added attraction of humpback whales in the area to watch. There have been several sightings around Drake Bay and in the Golfo Dulce.
Now through November is my favorite time over on the Caribbean coast. The sea is usually flat, and the tarpon and snook action is very good. Eddie Brown says he landed eight tarpon yesterday and is averaging about 12 bites a day. He also reported a good snook bite at Samay Lagoon.
8/11/2011
The action on the Caribbean side and off Guanacaste on the northern Pacific coast continues to be excellent. The tarpon bite is still good from Parismina to Barra del Colorado on the Caribbean, and billfish are showing in good numbers in Guanacaste.
The Los Sueños area on the Central Pacific was a hot spot this past week. Straight Up Sportfishing’s Bill McMenemy checked in with a report of three blue marlin and a sail released in one day working the waters southwest of the marina. Captains from Quepos report the sailfish bite has improved a great deal and boats have been seeing a half dozen or more each day. The inshore fishing is also hot in Quepos, with roosterfish and jacks stretching string for happy anglers.
Will Briegel, María Soto, Cheiry Cedeño, Thomas Fees, Daniel Soto and Escarleth Castillo
with their catch of football-
Down south, a few sails are coming up in the teasers but the fish are not cooperating
like they are a little farther north. Casey McCartin fished with me this week inshore
and took a 50-
Will Briegel took a day off from Web design for Crocodile Bay Resort to take a few
friends offshore. They were rewarded with enough football-
8/4/2011
The best bite this week has been north. It doesn’t matter which coast you choose, Caribbean or Pacific, the bite is on.
Anglers fishing the river mouths at Barra del Colorado and Tortuguero on the Caribbean
are catching good numbers of snook in the surf, casting bucktail and hand-
Reports say the seas are flat and big schools of tarpon are easy to find. They are hanging just outside the breakers or outside a ways at the color change. The tarpon biting lately have been averaging 100 pounds, but a couple of fish pushing 150 pounds have been taken this week.
Over on the Pacific side, Tamarindo has been the hot spot. The Gamefisher II with
Capt. Richard Chellemi found the sails this week, scoring six for 10 one day offshore
and getting Chris Saul a 50-
Fishing has improved some on the central and southern Pacific coast, with a few sails showing up offshore. Casey McCartin was looking for more action than size, so he opted to fish inshore with Capt. Anthony Rhoden. Throwing poppers and jigs, his mixed bag included snapper, roosterfish, jacks and yellowfin tuna.
7/21/2011
Fishing is still strong on the northern Pacific coast. Roy Quirós reports sailfish
and marlin taking baits off northern Guanacaste, not in great numbers but with enough
frequency 
for tourists to bring home a great fishing memory. He also reports that
anglers looking for inshore action are finding it wide open near Baja Mango.
On the central Pacific, captains are working hard off of Los Sueños to find sailfish, but tuna have been bending rods regularly. Boats fishing out of Quepos are finding some sails and catching some nice reef fish, including some big amberjack.
Down south, only a few sails are appearing, and only one marlin was reported last week. Lots of tuna are being found either at the mouth of Golfo Dulce or just a couple of miles offshore all the way to Caño Island. Roosterfish have helped keep anglers busy to make up for the lack of steady action offshore. Jani Schulz of Rainforest Radio caught and released her first roosterfish.
Over on the Caribbean side, Eddie Brown reports flat seas and lots of tarpon. Fish
have been biting well in Tortuguero and Barra del Colorado, and he said the action
is also good down toward Parismina. In the Tortuguero river mouth, snook have been
cooperative lately; Brown and other local fishermen have been catching them in the
10-
7/15/2011
Archie Field
s, a giant of a man, sat wearing a white guayabera shirt on the veranda
overlooking the Río Colorado. Next to him were myself and two local women who worked
at his hotel, the world-
That was my first day of work for the late Archie Fields.
I have since learned to speak Spanish and that the word “don” is the equivalent of “mister,” a respectful title that has nothing to do with organized crime. Fields hailed from Tampa, Florida, and arrived in Costa Rica by way of the Bahamas, where he had set up a thriving tourist business but found it difficult to do business after the British gave up rule of the islands.
He then set up shop in Costa Rica and founded Swiss Travel, which today is one of the biggest travel agencies in the country. The landing of the first cruise ship in Costa Rica at the Caribbean port of Limón was organized by him. His Costa Rican Tourism Board license was No. 17.
In 1972, he bought a cabin in Barra del Colorado on the Caribbean coast and started the first boat tour down the Río San Juan and Tortuguero canals.
When he discovered what a great tarpon fishery the area offered, he added sportfishing. Cabin by cabin, he built the lodge until he had 19 rooms and created what has been called a “Rube Goldberg designed, Swiss Family Robinson type of fishing lodge.”
A history of celebrity and folklore infuses the lodge. Actor Lee Marvin and Minnesota Vikings coach Bud Grant used to fish there. Jimmy Buffett, in his book, “A Pirate Looks at Fifty,” describes Río Colorado as a place where overweight older guys who do not know much about fishing can get their picture taken with a large tarpon with relative ease and comfort. Novelist Randy Wayne White titled his “Batfishing in the Rainforest” after an experience at Río Colorado.
There are rumors that at one time a secret compartment below the lodge’s bar held a stash of guns that were secretly slipped upriver to Edén Pastora, “Comadante Cero,” and the Contras during the Nicaraguan Revolution. This was around the same time a Nicaraguan fighter plane blew up the fish house in Barra del Colorado because the pilot mistakenly thought he was over Greytown, Nicaragua.
Fields didn’t just come down here and grow wealthy. He gave back. The school system in Barra del Colorado went only up to the sixth grade in his day, so he sponsored many children who had to be fostered in Guápiles or San José to continue their education. Some have gone on to become doctors and business professionals.
He also led a campaign for conservation of Costa Rica’s marine resources. His secret to success was to “underpromise and overdeliver.” He never put really large fish in his brochures or advertising materials. He wanted all his guests to catch a bigger fish than they were expecting.
The current owner of Río Colorado Lodge, Dan Wise, was in Costa Rica celebrating his 40th birthday when he met Fields at a hotel in San José. Fields convinced him to go fishing at his lodge. Over the years, Wise became a regular visitor. When Fields fell ill with cancer, he thought it would be too taxing for his wife, Anita, to run the remote lodge, so he decided to sell the business.
Wise humorously describes how he ended up owning the famous Archie Fields’ Río Colorado
Lodge: “The name Archie Fields in the tarpon fishing business is equivalent to Colonel
Sanders in the fried chicken business. [Fields] was quite a salesman, as he sold
me a termite-
Speaking from experience, I can say that living and working in Barra del Colorado is the Costa Rican version of Herman Wouk’s “Don’t Stop the Carnival.” Archie Fields left a lifelong impression on many people. To this day I can’t remember the date of my own father’s death, but I remember the day the big fisherman in the sky took Fields: April 8, 1993. A lot of people miss you, don Archie.
7/8/2011
Oscar Villalobos was on a mission. The talk around town was that Pejeperro Lagoon,
between Matapalo and Carate on southwestern Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, had opened
up to the Pacific Ocean because of heavy rains. The week before, locals had caught
lots of snook up to 3
0 pounds, casting jigs into the surf. Villalobos wanted in on
the action.
It is not an easy task to get there. Fishing from a boat is impossible because of
the big surf. The only possible way to catch fish is from shore. The nearest place
to park a vehicle is at the elementary school at Río Oro, and from there it’s a one-
With a pair of rods over his shoulder and a handful of white bucktail jigs, Villalobos finally arrived to find a couple of locals already making a few casts.
“Any snook around?” he asked.
“Not one,” they replied, “but since yesterday we’ve caught 16 sábalos (tarpon).”
In no time, Villalobos hooked five tarpon and landed two. The size of the tarpon being landed by the group ranged from just a few pounds up to about 40 pounds.
Tarpon, Megalops atlanticus, is an Atlantic species not indigenous to Pacific waters.
The Caribbean side of Costa Rica is world-
The first time I encountered a tarpon in Pacific waters was in 1995 in the Golfo Dulce. I was fishing up near Río Esquinas when I saw one roll on the surface near the boat, then another, and another. I thought I was going crazy. I asked some of the locals about it, and they suggested I may have seen a school of milkfish. A milkfish looks strikingly similar to a tarpon; in fact, Ticos call it sábalo falso, “false tarpon.” They average about 40 inches. The fish I had seen were much bigger.
Several years later, one of my captains here on the southern Pacific coast brought
a 37-
My theory was that the tarpon had passed through the Panama Canal and somehow made their way up to the Pacific side of Costa Rica.
The Panama Canal almost didn’t get built. There was a big controversy as to whether sea snakes from the Pacific would be able to pass through the canal and set up residence in Caribbean waters. A study finally showed they couldn’t make the passage through the canal because they do not enter freshwater, and the canal was constructed. The same doesn’t hold true for various types of fish. Snapper, snook, certain types of jack and tarpon enter freshwater at will. Tarpon often travel from the Caribbean Sea all the way up the Río San Juan and make camp in Lake Nicaragua, on the Pacific side of Nicaragua.
Over the past few years, my customers have hooked a few tarpon every year and have caught tarpon over 125 pounds. My captains now know to release them if the angler is lucky enough to keep a hook in them long enough to get them boatside. But it wasn’t until recently, when locals started catching small tarpon here, that I realized there is no way these little guys are swimming all the way up here from the Panama Canal; tarpon must be breeding in the Pacific as well.
I contacted marine biologist Didiher Chacón, president of Widecast, the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network, in Costa Rica. Chacón did an extensive study on tarpon on the Caribbean side of the country 20 years ago.
There are very few baby tarpon in the most popular fishing areas of the Caribbean coast. The habitat is not suitable for juveniles. But down near the Panamanian border in the wetland estuaries, Chacón found tarpon as small as two inches. He said Pejeperro Lagoon is suitable habitat for juvenile tarpon. Tarpon larvae make their way from the ocean into the mangrove estuary, where they develop.
“The chance that someone carried those tarpon across the country and placed them in the lagoon is very slim,” he said. “It is quite possible tarpon are breeding in the Pacific, but it would take genetic sampling to be absolutely sure where they originated.” He went on to say the fish could be originally from the Costa Rican, Panamanian or even Venezuelan tarpon populations.
Wherever they are from, it is exciting news.
Fishing Report July 8
Amberjack like this one taken off Drake Bay by Donald McGuinness have been biting north and south on the Pacific coast.
Todd Staley Not a lot to talk about this week as far as fishing goes. I didn’t receive any reports from the Caribbean side, though I’ve heard the weather has improved and a few boats are fishing.
The best action on the Pacific is still to the north. Roy Quirós reports a good number of sails are still in the area and have been cooperative to a trolled ballyhoo. Marlin are also cruising the same waters, and the big news is that one was released at an estimated at 700 pounds. Quirós adds that the inshore action for snapper and amberjack has been excellent.
In the central region and to the south, offshore action has been slow except for a marlin here and there. Jeannette Pérez out of Quepos says only a few tuna are coming over the rails. She commented that the inshore action has slowed the past couple of days after a strong roosterfish bite had anglers busy for a couple of weeks.
Pretty much the same down south. Inshore is the only area of late with consistent
action, and offshore is producing only around an ecosystem created by a floating
structure such as a log, tree trunk or trash line. Still, some big roosters mixed
in with the 20-
6/30/2011
The top spot to look for billfish lately continues to be the northwestern province
of Guanacaste, where the Presidential Papagayo Cup took place last week out of Marina
Papagayo. Sea Angel took top spot with 18 sailfish, edging out team Zara who also
had 18 sails, but Sea Angel took their 18th fish first. Right in the heap was Dragin
Fly with 17 fish.
The family team of Greg and “Mamalu” Angel, fishing with son BC at the helm and son Austin working the pit, also took firsts in the Presidential Challenge of Costa Rica and the first leg of the Los Sueños Signature Series earlier this year.
A total of 136 sails were released during the three-
Costa Rica’s own Maverick Boats sponsored the Anglers Division. Hansel Méndez took first place with 11 sailfish, followed closely by Hugo Angulo with 10. Third place went to Cliff Mountain with eight sailfish.
We want to welcome Dave Embry from Costa Rica Dreams Sportfishing out of Los Sueños on the central Pacific coast. Embry reports fishing has been good, with a variety of fish to choose from. Boats are taking a couple of sails a day and have been finding tuna, checking in with three to five yellowfin each. Bottom fishing has been decent for grouper and snapper, and people have been crowing about a good roosterfish bite.
Down south, it looks like the marlin are starting to make their much awaited appearance. Patrick, Tim, Ted and John Durkin fished out of Golfito on the Typhoon with captains Darren McClave and Donald McGuinness. Over the course of a few days, they put the hook in five marlin and spent enough time inshore to catch and release a boatload of roosterfish and amberjack up to 70 pounds.
Over on the Caribbean coast, Eddie Brown reports that the tropical storm in southern Mexico has sent some bouncy water down south, but those willing to ride it out are hooking a fair share of tarpon. It should take only a day or two for the ocean to settle back down and things will be back to normal.
6/23/2011
The tarpon bite continues on the Caribbean coast at Tortuguero and Barra del Colorado. Americana Sportfishing had a group that traveled all the way from Russia to test the waters out of Tortuguero. They saw lots of tarpon and jack crevalle and everyone in the group took home a jungle tarpon memory. Eddie Brown echoes the report, saying anglers have been getting six to eight tarpon bites a day. He worked his way out toward a spot where he has been taking wahoo lately and hooked a surprise Atlantic sailfish.
Americana also sent the Dean Anderson family up to Guanacaste on the Pacific side
to fish with Capt. Skeet Warren on the Bushwacker. They released a couple of sails
and spent the better part of the rest of the day pulling on a 500-
Rolando Chaves checked in from the Central Pacific to say the inshore action has
provided lots of roosterfish and mackerel action, and bottom fishing at the Furuno
Bank produced some nice grouper and snapper. Leanne Batton of Quepos Sailfishing
Charters had clients take some nice amberjack inshore, and offshore they are getting
a few sails and marlin. Captains Christian and Esteban have both found black marlin
in the 300-
Down south, we are still singing the billfish blues and waiting for our annual blast of marlin that always shows up this time of year. The lack of billfish hasn’t kept anglers from having a good time. Boats are averaging seven to 10 roosterfish a day, and they are no little “pollitos” either; some have been running 40 to 60 pounds.
6/16/2011
The flat seas co
uldn’t last forever on the Caribbean side; it finally kicked up a
bit but is still very fishable. The tarpon moved a little offshore but are still
biting well near the water-
Eddie Brown reports that those willing to venture a few more miles off the beach
will find wahoo at the drop-
On the Pacific coast, most of the billfish action has been between Quepos and northern Guanacaste. Richard Chellemi on the Gamefisher II has been raising between six and 10 sails a trip. He said the inshore bite hasn’t been bad with a mix of small tuna, dorado and skipjack. John Edmonson and Wesley Pye caught five of 11 sails and stopped on the way in to take enough grouper for a fresh fish dinner.
Down south, the billfish have been eluding the few boats going out, but there are still enough tuna around to keep angler’s rods bent. The size of the tuna has dropped, with most weighing in at 10 to 20 pounds.
Inshore is where the action has been off the Osa Peninsula. Roosterfish have been really cooperative along the beaches, and deep jiggers have been taking amberjack, a few small grouper and silky snapper. Anglers fishing the cuts from the beach where freshwater runs between Matapalo and Carate have been having some great snook action. Geovanny Leal and a group of friends caught 26 snook between eight and 12 pounds, casting jigs off the beach.
6/8/2011
Most of 
the offshore action on the Pacific side has been in the northern Guanacaste
region. A good number of sails and dorado are biting. Action is still good off Playas
del Coco, and Richard Chellemi reports the sails are being cooperative. Marlin also
are popping up here and there, so it seems northern Costa Rica is the hot spot for
billfish as of late.
On the central Pacific coast, at both Herradura and Quepos the billfish bite slowed
this last week. In Quepos, boats bottom-
Down south off the Osa Peninsula, the billfish action was slow this week and only a few boats were out on the water. A few smaller dorado and wahoo have been taken, but it seems the great tuna bite that lasted almost two weeks is over for now. The weather is improving and the dirty water inshore is clearing up, so the inshore action should pick up any day.
Tarpon keep pounding both bait and jigs on the Caribbean side. Yesterday the water was as flat as a pancake and boats could drift right through the river mouth, where normally they are dancing with waves to get outside. Boats are getting up to 20 bites a day and landing four to six tarpon each. The snook action has been slow, but, with the calm waters, anglers should be able to comfortably fish the areas where they like to hang out.
6/2/2011
Someone must have told the fish this week that the price of fuel is getting outrageous.
All over the country the fish were “fuel-
Roy Quirós reports the fish just off the beach up at Playas del Coco, on the northern
Pacific coast, have been putting smiles on a lot of faces. Anglers are experiencing
another week of very good sailfish bite, and lots of dorado, from little guys up
to 40-
The bite off Los Sueños on the central Pacific really picked up this week between eight and 10 miles off the beach. Good numbers of sails were taken and released, and the marlin are making a good show in the area as well. A little south, down at Quepos, the sailfish bite has improved but still is not great; however, the inshore action is still extremely good. Roosterfish, the crown jewel of Costa Rica’s inshore fishing, continue to provide great action, according to Rolando Chaves.
Way down south, the action is still yellowfin tuna. The tuna continue to hang about seven miles off the beach, and anglers going out are finding them every day. Most fish are averaging about 60 pounds. The inshore bite has been really good at Matapalo. The big swell that has had surfers excited the past few days makes fishing a little bouncy once the sea breeze starts, but anglers riding it out are being well rewarded.
Over on the Caribbean side, Eddie Brown says the tarpon bite continues to be good
with anglers hooking six to eight fish a day. The ocean has kicked up a little but
is still fishable. He ventured out seven miles and hooked eight wahoo, taking a 25-
5/26/2011
There are a lot of happy fishermen all over the country. The bite is on, whether
you wet a line in the
Pacific or the Caribbean.
Old reliables Dan Wise and Eddie Brown both report a great tarpon bite between Tortuguero
and Barra del Colorado on the Caribbean side. Phil Hoover, 82, made his 70th trip
to Rio Colorado Lodge. Hoover was fishing there 20 years ago when I worked there.
He always had a knack for catching tarpon, and entering his eighth decade hasn’t
slowed him down a bit. He fished his usual seven-
Over on the Pacific side, the fishing has come to life from the Gulf of Nicoya south. Rolando Chaves says boats out of Los Sueños have been seeing a good share of sailfish.
The sailfish bite continues up north in Guanacaste, where reports say the ocean has been good and most boats out are staying busy.
Quepos has seen some fantastic inshore fishing lately, with lots of roosterfish keeping
anglers happy. Boats have reported days of a dozen fish or more, with most running
15 to 20 pounds, but several in the 40-
Down south, the sailfish action has been fair at best, but a good run of tuna has
anglers making a lot of noise. The fish are running between 40 and 200 pounds, with
top fish this week weighing 180 pounds. Inshore has been spotty; the best action
has been deep-
5/12/2011
The Caribbea
n is still the hot spot this week with some phenomenal fishing. The weather
has been good and the ocean flat enough to fish comfortably outside the river mouth.
Dan Wise at Rio Colorado Lodge in Barra del Colorado entertained a group of 10 businessmen
from Russia. An interpreter was not needed because the smiles on their faces said
everything. In six days of fishing, they hooked 348 tarpon and landed 97 of them.
Numbers like that are what made the lodge created by the late Archie Fields famous
worldwide.
On the Pacific side, talking to Bill Kirby out of Los Sueños, Jeanette Pérez out of Quepos, Greg Mufson out of Zancudo and myself here in Puerto Jiménez was like hitting the rewind button for each conversation. Green water has really slowed things down. Those lucky enough to find a floating log that has been around long enough to develop an ecosystem of various types of bait might get a marlin, but for the most part not much is happening offshore along the central and southern Pacific coast. The saving grace has been some inshore action, but even that hasn’t been enough to shout about.
An interesting fellow is fishing here at Crocodile Bay. Manuel Salazar took an 87-
The north is seeing the only steady action on the Pacific side. Esmeralda Méndez of Papagayo Fishing Charters reports that lots of sailfish and marlin have moved into the area. She says the boat La Chila has been taking good numbers of fish. Other reports from the area say there are enough dorado around to supply a good dinner to the traveling angler.
5/5/2011
I have to adm
it that the first time I saw a guy fishing with a handline, my first
thought was, “There’s a guy who doesn’t have the means to buy a fishing outfit.”
Over time, through being both completely amazed and completely humiliated, I have changed my opinion. Today I consider handline fishing a true art form.
Handline spools come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The very basic is about 50
yards of line wrapped around a 16-
No matter the personal choice, anyone proficient with a handline can cast as far, retrieve a lure as fast, and catch a fish as big as someone holding a $500 fishing outfit in his hand.
My first experience with “handliners” came during the calba run at the delta where
the San Juan and Colorado rivers meet. Calba are a smaller species of snook that
average between 3 and 8 pounds. I was anchored in the middle of the river throwing
a jig with a bait-
The boys took out a couple of handlines and started casting homemade jigs as far as I was doing with my casting rig. And they were catching fish – about four or five calba each for every one I caught. I will never forget the smiles on their faces as they made sure I noticed every fish that went in their boat. After a while I was so humiliated that I pulled anchor, took my expensive toys and went home.
On the same stretch of river, a few years later, one of my guides, Windell, told a tourist with whom he was fishing that as a kid he used to catch tarpon on a handline. The customer told him he would pay $100 to see that. Windell quickly took the line of his reel and wound it around a drink can. To make a long story short, the tourist went home with a story to tell his fishing buddies for the rest of his life, and Windell with a crisp Benjamin in his pocket.
I once took the editor of Field and Stream magazine snook fishing in southwestern
Costa Rica’s Golfo Dulce. We worked the most pristine and perfect-
Cristóbal, our hotel gardener who fished off the beach every day after work, constantly
pressured me to take him fishing in a boat. I finally conceded and gave him a spinning
rod to use. He fumbled with it for a while. Then he mumbled something in Spanish
that I can’t repeat here, put the rod down in disgust and pulled a yo-
This column has generated many emails to me from people telling me they are traveling
to a certain part of the country and asking where is the best place to shore-
There are very few secret spots or secret baits in their world. You will find they will gladly share information, and you don’t have to speak perfect Spanish to communicate; you just might find out they speak a little English. Show them your tackle box and they will let you know what works best in that area. If you leave them a couple of lures when you’re finished, you will probably make their day.
Just remember: The more expensive your fishing outfit is, the more you will be humbled.
The Caribbean is still red-
Eleven-
Down south on the Pacific side, the green water kept billfishing to a minimum, and a mysterious oil slick in the ocean didn’t help matters. There was a patch of blue water just a mile offshore, between Matapalo and Carate, and it yielded some very nice wahoo up to 60 pounds.
The news is much the same on the central Pacific coast between Quepos and Los Sueños. The fish have been slow to cooperate.
Up north, the fish seemed to have moved into the Guanacaste area right in time. Mark
Sydney checked in with the following report: “The billfish seem to have moved up
to the North Pacific. Fishing 18 miles due west of the new Papagayo Marina, the 35-
4/28/2011
Fishing is red-
the weather great on the Caribbean side, with anglers hooking
multiple tarpon almost every day, according to Dianne Sánchez at Río Colorado Lodge.
Most boats are seeing as many as 10 a day, and all the fish have been big. The smallest
fish recorded this week was about 80 pounds, with most fish running 120 to 180 pounds.
There are also lots of jacks and sharks.
Eddie Brown, down the coast in Tortuguero, reports that fishing has picked up again
after a short lull, with lots of tarpon outside the river mouth. Seven-
Dr. Alfredo López at Río Indio Lodge in southern Nicaragua has been getting guapote up to nine pounds in the lagoons off the Río San Juan. He predicts the action should last another five weeks before the rain fills the lagoons and the fish move up into the flooded jungle, where they are hard to access.
On the Pacific side, the action is a little slower. Down south at Crocodile Bay, there are still plenty of sails around but the last couple of days the fish have been lazy. Boats are having eight to 12 fish come into the spread, but only a few are hanging around long enough to take bait.
On the central Pacific coast, it is pretty much the same news with a little more action up near Los Sueños than out of Quepos. Fishing inshore for roosters, jacks and snapper has been the best bet lately in those areas.
A few more sails are starting to move into the Guanacaste area, as it is getting near the beginning of the season for the Northern Zone. As on the rest of Pacific coast, the inshore action has been good.
George Large, a lure designer for Yo-
4/14/2011
.One of the most exciting days of fishing I ever had was in a lagoon in Nicaragua
accessible only by passing thro
ugh myriad rivers and creeks on the Caribbean side
of Costa Rica. That day, Mike Holliday and I hooked more than 60 tarpon on casting
plugs. We tired of tarpon and went to the beach to cast for snook. The tarpon wouldn’t
leave us alone. We were hooking them from shore. I watched as Holliday played and
eventually landed a respectable tarpon from the beach with a fly rod. That was nearly
20 years ago.
What did I see that day? Fish, fish and more fish.
I fished that same lagoon many times over the years, and although I never matched
that one fantastic day, I always had good fishing. Then, one day, the tropical rains
had the lagoon all muddied up. I cast furiously for hours with memories of that fantastic
day playing like a movie in my head. I had not one bite. I knew the next cast might
be the one. It wasn’t. My arm tired of casting and I sat down to rest. I looked over
toward the shoreline. Then it jumped out at me. A beautiful, flaming-
On the long fishless ride back into Costa Rica, I started to notice things I never saw before, even though I had traveled this road many times. Wild orchids hanging over the creeks, some of them humongous and all of them spectacular. There were so many different kinds. On all my previous trips, I had seen only water and fish. The normal trip back took one and a half hours; this day, it took me almost four hours. That was the day I learned it is not always about the fish.
I have had many similar experiences here on the Pacific side. The ocean off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica drops off fast. A couple of hundred yards off the beach, you’ll find a couple of hundred feet of water below your boat. By the time you reach 20 miles out, more than a mile of water separates you from the ocean floor. Most of the big game fishing is rarely done beyond 20 miles, unless green water forces the fleet farther out. Fishing the Pacific can be like living the Discovery Channel.
The humpback whales come twice a year, from the Northern Hemisphere in January and February, and in August and September from the Southern Hemisphere. I have been lucky enough to see a pod of 50 or more migrating offshore to the south. Mothers will bring their calves into the Golfo Dulce, and, when they are here, sighting them is almost a daily occurrence as they teach their young how to feed on their own and breach.
On another occasion, I was chatting with the guests below when the captain suddenly changed course. That is always a surefire sign that he has seen something. He pointed to the horizon, and there, way off in the distance, were silhouettes of something large jumping and making tremendous splashes. We were sure it was a huge school of very big tuna. As we got close enough to see what it was, it turned out to be a mammoth group of pilot whales. There were literally hundreds of them. As the boat got closer, they came over to check us out and began to swim alongside the boat the way porpoises do. We watched them for over an hour with not one tuna in sight.
I’ve seen killer whales here several times, usually about 10 miles off the beach. But once, three of them were headed up the coast only a few hundred yards off the coast. Mike Grace of Cummins Motors got the most spectacular shot of one as it charged in out of nowhere and began surfing the wake only inches off the transom.
Huge pods of spinner dolphins are common offshore. They may travel in groups of 50 or fewer, or as many as a thousand. You can bet there will always be yellowfin tuna near them. The tuna might not always bite, but they will be there.
March and April are the best months to bump into whale sharks in the gulf. These gentle giants show up almost yearly and feed on plankton in the calm waters on the upper end of the gulf. The most I’ve seen at one time is eight. They are not fully mature and average about 30 feet long.
Turtles are an everyday sight here while fishing. Most are olive ridley and green turtles, but on a rare occasion you might stumble upon a giant leatherback turtle roughly the size of a pool table.
This is not to mention the flora and fauna one sees while inshore fishing. The beaches are pristine, and a wide variety of macaws and seabirds hang close to the beach.
On every one of those Discovery Channel days, I have no recollection of what I caught. But forever etched in my memory is what I saw.
April 15 Fishing Report
The ocean went flat and the tarpon turned on the Caribbean side. Boats are reporting good numbers of fish all along the coast, with most anglers fishing Barra del Colorado and Tortuguero. JoAnne VonGriff from Golfito, on the southern Pacific coast, slid over to the other side Wednesday and fished with Eddie Brown. She hooked seven tarpon and landed five, a good day’s work for any angler.
On the Pacific coast, it seems the bite moved north on Tuesday. At least the fishing
slowed in the Southern Zone at Crocodile Bay Resort after two weeks of spectacular
fishing. On Monday, boats were seeing double-
Reports from the Quepos area on the central Pacific coast say boats are seeing five to seven sails each, and even a little better up at Los Sueños in Herradura. Rolando Chaves, my reliable guy from the Central Pacific, says fishing is picking up. I did not hear from other areas this week, which usually means the fishing is slow, although the peak season for the northwestern province of Guanacaste is just around the corner.
4/7/2011
The Club Amateur d
e Pesca’s 30th annual International Sailfish Tournament was held
last week at the Crocodile Bay Resort in Puerto Jiménez, on southwestern Costa Rica’s
Osa Peninsula. Ten boats competed, with teams from South Africa, the United States,
Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala and of course Costa Rica. The group landed a total
of 150 fish over four days, with the Guatemala team taking top honors. South Africa
finished second and Puerto Rico third (full results listed at end of report).
At Crocodile Bay and at Zancudo Lodge across the Golfo Dulce, the fishing continues
to be strong. The sail numbers have dropped, but the marlin have been making a show
this week. Richard Schrader, 88, from Denver, Colorado, took his first sail on a
fly and landed a 50-
Rudy Dodero has been running from Dominical on the southern Pacific coast up to the Furuno Bank to do some deep jigging. His clients have been rewarded with amberjack, broomtail grouper, jack crevalle and bluefin trevally.
Up in Quepos and Los Sueños on the central Pacific coast, anglers are working hard for their fish. The good sailfish bite has slowed a bit, and marlin have been really scarce, according to Rolando Chaves.
Over on the Caribbean coast, Dan Wise of Río Colorado Lodge in Barra del Colorado reports fish being taken at the river mouth. Rough seas have forced anglers inside, but both Wise’s boats and Eddie Brown are catching tarpon upriver as well.
Mike Lilla reports the backwaters of the Río San Juan, on the border with Nicaragua,
are coming alive with guapote (rainbow bass). Fishing with Dr. Alfredo López of Río
Indio Lodge, Lilla hooked one close to 10 pounds that ended up breaking his 30-
3/30/2011
In my youth I was a rocker. Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Rolling Stones and 
the like
were at the top of my playlist. As my children entered their teens, they reminded
me of how I must have driven my mother absolutely out of her mind with my loud music.
Today I still listen to old rock music, but, more often than not, I find myself following
my redneck roots, listening to country music. My fishing kind of took the same path.
I used to love to chase big fish. The bigger, the better. Where I’m from, the west coast of Florida, it was tarpon and big sharks. After moving to Costa Rica 20 years ago, I added marlin and big tuna to the list. My biggest tuna here weighed more than 280 pounds. I sweated for just over three hours to land the fish and loved every second of the battle.
I’m not up to multiple-
Costa Rica has cubera snapper on both coasts. Huge fish have been taken out of Parismina, Tortuguero and Barra del Colorado on the Caribbean side, but they are much more prevalent on the Pacific coast. They look like a giant aquatic pumpkin with big canine teeth, and have the strength of a locomotive.
The Pacific side and its volcanic reefs make perfect habitat for how cubera snapper
operate. They hang casually above and around the reef and go on attack when hungry,
or quickly rush into a cave or under a rock when threatened or when hooked by an
angler. Stopping one before it reaches the rock is like winning an arm-
Years ago, the norm was to troll over a reef until you caught a nice-
Today, with high-
Last time out, I finished my day with snapper winning the game 3-
3/23/2011
Quepos se
ems to be the center of the action this week, as Leanne Batten of Quepos
Sailfishing Charters reports. Good eating has finally arrived in the form of dorado
(dolphinfish), which have been scarce most of the year along the Pacific coast. Sailfish
have also made a really good showing. Batten got to escape the office and spend a
day on the water with Capt. Rick Fisher, and landed 11 sails including an exciting
triple-
Dan Ross of DR Sportfishing seconds Batten’s report, saying there has been good sail
action around Quepos and fewer sails but good marlin fishing up at Carrillo, where
the 15th Presidential Challenge of Costa Rica Billfish Tournament is taking place
March 25 to 27. Ross also says he slipped down south to fish near Golfito, where
he took a 78-
Fishing was red-
No good news from northern Guanacaste yet, as the wind has been blowing hard. On Wednesday the wind started to lie down, so fishing should be improving soon.
Over on the Caribbean coast, Dan Wise out of Río Colorado Lodge reports that John
Shari and son fished five days with Edwin Brown and jumped 16 tarpon, boating six.
They also spent some time with good results on light tackle fishing the backwaters.
Anthony Milam, son Hunter and daughter Ashley flew in for a one-
At Tortuguero, Eddie Brown says the snook bite has started again and anglers are averaging six to eight tarpon a day.
3/10/2011
The tarpon bite is great along the entire Caribbean coast, with Barra del Colorado
and Tortuguero having m
ost of the action, according to dependable Eddie Brown, who
contacts me weekly whether the fishing is good or bad. Anglers are landing four to
six tarpon per day. Snook fishing has slowed to a standstill.
Alfredo López up on the Costa Rica-
Over on the Pacific side, an excellent sailfish bite is being reported from Los Sueños
southward. Double-
The best inshore action has been reported out of Guanacaste in the northwest, where lots of grouper and big amberjacks are coming over the rail. Capt. Jesús Vallegas had a nice surprise while he was fishing for amberjack about five miles off the beach, and a marlin took his bait.
Inshore action has also been good near Dominical, reports Rudy Dodero, who also supplied this week’s photo. He has been doing quite well trolling Rapalas near shore and taking jacks, roosterfish, sierra mackerel and some nice snapper like the one pictured, taken by Rudy’s girlfriend, Luxinia Campos.
The National Fishing Club recently held its 50th anniversary tournament near Upala
in the Northern Zone. The club is made up of shore anglers, and more than 70 participated
in the tournament. Ricardo Hernández took top honors, followed by Sebastián Vega,
who had a nice guapote over 6 pounds in the mix. Third place went to Napoleón Amuy,
and José Aguilar is currently holding top spot in the annual catch-
2/24/2011
Good news for tarpon fishermen on the Caribbean side. Mireya Rodriquez of Río Colorado
Lodge reports a great tarpon bite with anglers averaging eight to 12 tarpon per day.
Eddie Brown in Tortuguero e
choes the same news and reports that one group of anglers
hooked 46 fish on a three-
I didn’t hear from Mike Lilla up on the Río San Juan on the Costa Rica-
Capt. Jesús Vallegas didn’t have the same good news from the Guanacaste area on the northern Pacific coast. He said the good dorado bite had slowed and the sailfish were thin, but the winds are not blowing as hard offshore, which should soon move more fish into the area. Inshore sierra mackerel and jacks were bending rods mixed in with a few roosterfish. A large school of roosters and jacks have been busting bait in the surf behind the Four Seasons Resort.
According to Capt. Rolando Chaves, fishing has improved immensely in the Quepos area
on the central Pacific coast, and boats were seeing double-
Down south, Gregg Mufson at Zancudo Lodge reports boats raising six to 12 sails a
day on a regular basis, with a great snapper bite and schools of hungry roosterfish.
The big news around the lodge this week was a 110-
The Amateur Fishing Club of Costa Rica recently finished the second and final leg
of its 54th National Sailfish Tournament. At the end of the first leg, Alberto Laurencich
sat in a tie for eighth place, five fish behind leader Sergio Montealegre. In the
second leg, Laurencich landed 11 fish for a total of 14 sails, giving him a first-
2/17/2011
The northwestern province of Guanacaste is still dealing with the Papagayo winds,
which are keeping most of th
e action near shore. However, anglers there are reporting
the best dorado (dolphinfish) action in the country, with a sailfish mixed in here
and there. Close inshore, a few roosters are biting, as well as small tuna and snapper.
On the central Pacific coast, reports from Los Sueños and Quepos say the fishing is still off a bit with boats raising four to eight sails a day. Roosterfish and snapper have been active around the rocks near Herradura. Boats making the run toward Drake Bay, on the southern Pacific coast, are seeing somewhat better numbers.
Down south, the fish are giving me indigestion. One day we are raising 12 to 15 sails
per boat, and the next day just one or two. Anglers are seeing lots of free-
On the Caribbean side, both Río Colorado Lodge in Barra del Colorado and Capt. Eddie Brown report similar action. With the sea somewhat rough, boats get out some days but not others. Anglers have been hooking four to 10 tarpon a day at the river mouth.
Up in Nicaragua at Río Indio, the calba action has finally slowed, but the water level has dropped enough to bring the guapote out of the jungle. The “handsome one” has been taking mostly spinnerbaits, but as the water continues to drop, they will start hitting topwater baits.
The National Fishing Club celebrated its 50th anniversary with a tournament last
month in Jacó. The club is made up entirely of shore fishermen. Roman Alvarez took
top spot with a 14-
2/10/2011
I lived 373 steps away from the first Hooters restaurant, which opened on April Fools’ Day almost three decades ago in Clearwater, Florida. I don’t know what possessed me to count those steps on the way home one night, and I doubt seriously if I covered them in a straight line.
I quickly became friends with two of the owners, Lynn Stewart and Ed Droste. The Hooters chain has since grown to almost 500 restaurants in 27 countries, including two in the San José area. The only reason I tell you this is because I organized the first Hooters Costa Rica Fishing Tournament in March 1991, which also happens to be one of the greatest days of fishing I’ve experienced in my lifetime.
The memory of this trip was brought to the surface again recently as I began reading articles and watching news clips about the conflict between Costa Rica and Nicaragua over ownership of Isla Calero. The second day of the Hooters tournament took place in a lagoon about 10 minutes from that island.
The tournament was based out of Archie Fields’ Río Colorado Lodge in Barra del Colorado on the northern Caribbean coast, and the participants were Tampa Bay area businessmen, athletes and magazine writers. I drew Mike Holliday of Florida Sportsman magazine as a fishing partner.
Fields, who was always known for putting on the dog for guests, told us that about an hour or so from the lodge was a lagoon in Nicaragua that the locals reported was full of tarpon. He said the ride up the jungle rivers of Río Colorado and Río San Juan was spectacular, and if the local gossip was true, we would have a day of tarpon fishing we would never forget. We planned the trip for early the next morning.
When we left Río Colorado Lodge at daybreak, there was still a morning chill of mountain air that had blown in overnight. By the time we reached Greytown, Nicaragua, the sun had risen enough in the sky to make the jungle hot and humid.
Greytown is a place with amazing history. Spanish settlers first landed there on June 24, 1539, and named it San Juan del Norte after Saint John the Baptist. In the early 1700s, the village was captured by Miskito Indians, and by 1848 the town was under British rule and renamed Greytown. Today, the village is still known by both those names, and by its modern name, San Juan de Nicaragua.
After a quick check by Nicaraguan authorities, we rounded the corner and entered
the lagoon. It was stunning. Dense green jungle and an azure sky reflected on the
smooth surface. As we glided across that mirror, we noticed an old dredge off to
the right, and to the left was a half-
The only thing that moved the slick surface that day was rolling tarpon. I had never
fished for tarpon in freshwater before, and it was amazing to see 100-
Holliday hooked a fish on his first cast. The tarpon inhaled his red-
We ended up hooking 60 tarpon that day in the lagoon, landing and releasing 12. At
one point I had an 80-
In 2003, Costa Rican doctor Alfredo López opened the doors of Río Indio Lodge on the same lagoon, after two and a half years of construction (TT, Nov. 19, 2010). The first time I visited it, I could not imagine how he could build such a beautiful place in such a remote location. Anglers are still catching tarpon right in front of his lodge.
Even with the dispute between the two countries over Isla Calero, Río Indio is passing lots of tourists through its door. Most ecotourists are entering through Managua, but the fishing crowd is still entering by boat through Costa Rica, which is much faster, until the airport under construction at Greytown is finished.
As I replay that day over and over again in my memory, I think of all the political chess being played these days over that area. I remember the only conflict we had that day was in choosing a lure: Should it be red and white or chartreuse?
1/27/2011
Marlin was the main attraction this week as the lady in the blue dress entertained
anglers along the entire Pac
ific coast. Most were blue marlin in the 200-
Reports of good marlin action also came out of the Quepos and Los Sueños areas on the central Pacific coast. Both Jesús Vallegas and Leanne Batten of Quepos Sailfishing Charters reported multiple hookups on marlin with just a fair sailfish bite.
Batten said there have been some marlin out there, but the numbers on sails have
not been that stellar. She also reported that the 2011 Harry Gray Fly-
Down south, Greg Mufson out of Zancudo Lodge and my boats out of Crocodile Bay Resort
in Puerto Jiménez saw similar action. The marlin bite has continued and the sails
have been hit-
On the Caribbean side, Eddie Brown said the tarpon action is great between Barra del Colorado and Tortuguero. The snook bite has really slowed, but the tarpon action is keeping anglers happy.
Mike Lilla sent in a note to say the calba (fat snook) action has been spectacular up on the backwaters of the Río San Juan out of Río Indio Lodge. As the water level continues to drop, the guapote will move out of their hiding spots deep in the jungle and into areas accessible to anglers.
I will soon be giving a complete update of these Nicaraguan waters that many anglers have loved to fish for years, entering from the Río Colorado in Costa Rica.
1/13/2011
Both Dianne Sánchez of Río Colorado Lodge and Capt. Eddie Brown from Tortuguero report
the tarpon activity on the Caribbean side has heated up. Anglers are hooking eight
or more tarpon a day outs
ide the river mouths. Snook fishing slowed a little this
week, but anglers are making up for the slow snook bite by stretching string fighting
tarpon.
Steve Vech and David Troester fishing out of Río Colorado hooked eight tarpon, along with eight jacks and a barracuda, and managed one snook for the dinner table.
On the Pacific coast, reliable reporter Jesús Vallegas says the fishing in northern
Guanacaste has improved dramatically. Offshore the winds are still hampering boaters,
but closer to the beach anglers are having a heyday catching dorado (mahimahi) in
the 20-
The action in the Quepos area is also improved with more sails showing up and better inshore action. I received confirmation of this from both Leanne Batten of Quepos Sailfishing Charters and Richard Krug of Americana Sportfishing.
Batten reports that anglers continue to be delighted with the marlin bite out of Quepos. David Kennedy and his wife spent two days offshore and released a marlin both days and four sailfish total, and caught two nice dorado. Wesley Wilson had a nice striped marlin on that spit the hook, but he released three sails and a nice dorado.
Krug reports that Richard Boesel and son Jonathan of Charlotte, North Carolina, had a great three days on the Blue Water III with Capt. Dale Weir, releasing nine sailfish in two days offshore and six roosters on an inshore day.
Down south, Greg Mumford at Zancudo Lodge reports the sailfish bite is improved,
with boats raising eight or more sails a day about 10 miles off the beach. Dorado,
which have been elusive recently, also are starting to show in the 20-
1/6/2011
Last word I heard from the Caribbean side is that tarpon fishing is fair and snook
fishing good. Several snook have been landed near the river mouths, most in the 15-
Over on the Pacific coast, in northern Guanacaste, Capt. Jesús Vallegas didn’t have
very good news. He said a combination of high winds and cold and dark water has kept
the fish from being active. Anglers are catching a few inshore species, but most
boats have stayed in port because of rough water offshore.
Carlos Rojas of JP Tours
in Quepos and Rudy Dodero both reported that on the central Pacific coast the water
is much calmer, and a few sails and a marlin here and there are being caught and
released. A few tuna are being taken, but the ocean seems to be devoid of dorado
(dolphinfish).
Inshore anglers are taking snapper, roosterfish and mackerel.
It was better news down south off the Osa Peninsula, where marlin and tuna made a
very good show this week. The tuna were running with schools of spinner and spotted
dolphins, and several fish over 100 pounds were taken. Lots of marlin were popping
up in the teasers, mostly in the 150-
Inshore has been a little slower as the roosterfish and snapper seemed to take a
vacation during the holiday week. Mike Bailey from Toronto, Canada, did manage to
fool a 35-
12/24/2010
I’ve never been one to be afraid or too proud to ask for help. Some things I don’t understand, and with others I’m all thumbs. That’s why I’ve always kept close friendships with boat mechanics, fishing guides, reel repair people, doctors, scientists and even shrinks.
I’ve wondered for some time what makes Central America so special when it comes to sailfish. Why does the season peak from December through April? Why are the fish so big in Costa Rica, and why don’t we catch juvenile fish? Where do the fish go at the end of the season? Do they go offshore or do they go south or north?
A few months ago, Dr. Nelson Ehrhardt from the University of Miami and scientific adviser to the Central American Billfish Association (CABA) contacted me and asked if I could share my data collected from operating the largest billfishing resort in Central America for the past 10 years. I gladly agreed, and learned he had been doing an extensive study in Mexico and Central America for the last two years.
Each meeting with him in San José and at the resort in Puerto Jiménez, I learned
a little more about blue-
The same population of sailfish – pez vela in Spanish – traverses the eastern tropical
Pacific from southern Mexico to Ecuador. It is one of the most condensed sailfish
populations in the world. The lifetime of a sail is 10 to 15 years. Most of the juveniles
spend their first few years off the coast of Mexico. That doesn’t necessarily mean
they were born there. For example, a west coast Florida tarpon starts its life 100
miles or so off the beach, but spends its early years in the estuaries. The largest
sailfish and the long-
The tropical Pacific is really not a very inviting place for sailfish. The low oxygen content in the water will not support them, but two famous currents bring in healthy water. The Humboldt Current flows north from Chile and Peru and collides with the California Current flowing south from the U.S. and Mexico off the coast of Central America, forming a “tongue” of current that supports sailfish, though to a depth of only 100 meters or less. Unlike the striped marlin that is caught off Mexico but might spawn off Australia, the eastern tropical sailfish’s range is limited to the coastal waters of the two currents and the tongue formed off Central America.
Another phenomenon happens each year: Three distinct and powerful winds blow from land offshore. They start in December or January and blow until March or April. In Mexico, winds that start in the Gulf of Mexico push across the Tehuantepec lowlands offshore into the Pacific. Likewise, the Papagayo winds from Lake Nicaragua push offshore across Nicaragua near the Costa Rican border. Also, a Caribbean wind current crosses Panama heading into the Pacific near the Panama Canal.
As the Pacific surface water is pushed offshore, the upwelling sends to the surface
oxygen-
The reality is that these areas do not have a tremendous abundance of fish, but the
whole population is forced to share these pockets. When there is a strong El Niño,
the winds do not blow, so the population is not condensed into oxygen-
Costa Rica has the benefit of two peak sailfish seasons. From the Gulf of Nicoya south, the peak is January through April. The Guanacaste region to the north begins to peak in May after the winds die and the fish begin to move freely out of prisons formed in Guatemala and southern Costa Rica.
Dr. Ehrhardt’s studies have shown that a strong management plan is needed with all Central American countries working together. The Costa Rican Tourist Fishing Federation (FECOPT) is working with sport and commercial fishermen and the government on management plans within Costa Rica. In addition, CABA, The Billfish Foundation and local groups are working with Central American governments to form a united effort to conserve the region’s sailfish populations.
So now I’m standing on the stern of this boat with half a chicken’s worth of pink-
|
2011 COSTA RICA FISHING REPORTS
|
by Todd Staley at Crocodile Bay for the Tico Times