Costa Rica Tamarindo and Playas Del Coco Fishing
Posted Under: Fishing Reports and News
Mike Jones displays this 100lb plus trophy Rooster Fish, but not after a 45 minute battle, out of Playa del Coco
Fishing often seems to take its cue from the Longfellow poem/nursery rhyme that most Americans and Canadians growing up in the 1950s and 1960s (and before) know: ‘… when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid’.
The final spring months off most of Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, especially the Central Pacific (Quepos/Manuel Antonio, Los Sueños/Jacó) and North Pacific (Tamarindo, Flamingo, Papagayo) was exactly like that, either really up or really down. During one of the up phases, for example, Jamie Casey, owner of the 38ft Macushla out of Los Sueños with Captain Johnny Cerpas, called me to enthusiastically report that her clients raised an incredible 47 sails on a full day charter, releasing an arm-wrenching 25.
Playas del Coco
Mike Jones fishing with Captain Jimbo Lopez from Albacora Sportfishing Tours caught this huge Rooster fish weighing over 100lbs. He was using a PowerRod by Shakespear, Daiwa Spinning Reel (model 4500BL Regal Z), with 20 pound test line and it took him 45 minutes to bring it in.
Los Suenos
Captain Bill Kieldsen on the 35ft Sailfish, also out of Los Sueños, got in touch with me at about noon a couple of weeks ago to let me know that his group was already back in the marina following a half day that morning during which they released six sails and kept a mid-size dorado.
Fish Costa Rica repeat clients Ryan Mordhoust and (dad) Rich Mordhorst just spent two days fishing out of Los Sueños with Captain Oli Siqueira on the 26ft Snook. I met them for lunch in Jacó between trips, where they told me that the day before they had landed a couple of small dorado and dragged up at least a dozen good-size grouper, two of them 15lbs or more each, from the bottom.
Just before they returned home, Ryan called from the hotel to let me know that on the second day, he got his 2010 trophy fish: a snapper that weighed well over 60lbs, one of the biggest ever caught on the Snook, and the biggest by far this year. Even Captain Oli was impressed enough to have his photo snapped (excuse the pun) with the creature.
Both the South and North Pacific Report lots of Marlin
Golfito
Captain Bobby McGuinness on the 37ft Cazador out of Golfito in the South Pacific says that with the advent of the first light rains of the year, the marlin season has just begun down there. At the end of last week he called to tell me that one of his groups had come back to the marina after going 4-6 on blues and 3-7 on sails. Bobby knows where the marlin hang out, but he’s keeping it a secret!
Tamarindo
Also, you never know what you’ll find. On a half-day trip on the North Pacific with Captain Manuel Leal on the 36ft Capullo out of Tamarindo, one would assume that the group would be looking for roosterfish or something to eat close in. However, by 9 AM they had already released a marlin. Inshore didn’t produce much in the first half hour, so they trolled offshore (it’s only about 12 miles out to the ledge). Once they got to the ledge, around 400 ft., they raised a striped marlin right off the bat. The fish came up on a bridge teaser and they pitched it a ballyhoo with a circle hook on a 30lb outfit. Ten minutes later they released the stripey.
Over All
Other days have not been as successful. During one two-week down period, virtually nothing was biting out of Los Sueños, and ditto for Quepos just south of there. Boats were going out and not seeing a sail; anglers were lucky to come back from a day offshore with a dorado; or inshore with a couple of mackerel, skipjack or tripletail. It rained often on the Caribbean side so it was hard to get out of the river mouth into the ocean and jig for tarpon.
As the old saying goes, that’s why it’s called fishing and not catching. But you CAN definitely lower the odds against getting skunked, and increase your chances of having a really good day:
Fishing report by Mark Sydney – Costa Rica Travel Vacation
