Epic Fishing Adventures in Costa Rica
This is part one of a series that I am writing from Costa Rica on fishing with some charter guests. The charter guests are here with me for 4 days of fishing and 2 free days to explore the country. I wanted to share the experience of having charter guests here with me and watching them catch their first Pacific Ocean warm water species. We are stationed in Quepos on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. We are fishing out of Marina Pez Vela while I am here.
Day one was offshore on a 45 Cabo with a captain and 2 mates. They let us know that the traditional excellent Mahi Mahi bite was horrible. They mentioned that the Mahi had been in these waters back in November but had moved on. Very few were being caught and that was unusual. That left us with marlin, sailfish, and yellowfin tuna to chase for the 8-hour trip. We left the harbor at 7:15 am and headed out for about a 45-minute commute to the fishing spot that Captain Jesse had in mind. We arrived at our location and the mates quickly got busy getting 6 lines out with ballyhoo as the bait and 2 teasers. That in itself is pretty impressive to watch. Within 10 minutes we had our first hit by a sailfish, but we missed the bite. We continued to troll the area. We would occasionally see sailfish jumping around us. At 9:50 am we got hit again and this time we were able to set the hook on our first sailfish of the trip. Charter guest Steve had the first crack and had the fish boat side in 12 minutes. We took a quick photo and safely released the fish. High fives all around. We quickly reset and continued. We ended the day with 6 sailfish landed with three misses. Overall, a perfect first day and charter guests Steve, Ed, and Dave had all landed their first sailfish. It was great to see their smiles and energy all day. The drive back in from our fishing location to the marina is very spectacular. Seeing the rugged mountains rise behind the marina is special. One that I could take in every day!
Day 2 was another offshore fishing day with Captain Junior and one mate. This was a modified 32-foot Bertram that was more open. It felt much more like our center console at home. We told the captain that we wanted to bring home some dinner tonight! He said then let’s grab some snapper and then look for big game fish! We first grabbed some live bait with a sabiki rig. We were snagging blue runners. The bait didn’t cooperate much, so we packed it up with three live bait in the live well and headed about 35 miles offshore to a reef area that is about 6 square miles. When we arrived, we slowly trolled a Sabiki rig for a small bonito for live bait for tuna and marlin. We snagged one of perfect size and threw it in the tuna tubs to keep it alive. We snagged a much larger bonito that we killed and for which we would chunk up and use for snapper bait. We drifted and dropped a dead sardine to the bottom with a weight for a snapper. Our first fish was a yellowtail snapper. We repeated this and the second one was a mullet snapper. One more time and we had a dogtooth snapper. So, we had dinner! The mate processed the fish and we got them on ice.
We then set out trolling again like the previous day. We started trolling about 10:15 am and we had our snapper put away. We landed one sailfish between then and noon time. But things were about to get hectic! Between 12:30 and 3:30 pm, we landed 7 sailfish, lost one sailfish, and lost our first marlin. It was an epic 3 hours of nonstop action! A couple of times as we got the sailfish boat side, another one would be following it. The water is so clean you could see them right behind the boat. We pitched some bait to them but didn’t get them to take it. As we were fighting what would be our last fish at 3:15 pm, a marlin chased it to the boat. The mate threw bait at him while the captain put the boat in gear while Ed was fighting a sailfish. Boom! The marlin hit and immediately exploded out of the water about 25 yards from the back of the boat. A beautiful blue marlin. It landed and took off. It quicky pulled the hook. A short but exciting fight! Felt like some bluefin tuna experiences back home. All this was happening while we were trying to clear lines, and Ed was fighting his sailfish. We lost him as we pulled ahead trying to land the marlin. It was time to call it a day. It was a great day! 3 snappers for dinner and 8 sailfish landed. A couple of cerveza for the ride back into the marina with smiles all around!
I will update you after we fish next with an inshore day and one last offshore day. I like this area of Costa Rica because it feels safe and it feels like I am in Costa Rica. Not a resort. We have a 3 bedroom, 4-bed house with a pool to watch the sunset from. We cook our meals when we catch fish and check out some local fare when we don’t feel like cooking. It is a fun, relaxing environment with 85-degree weather every day. It sure beats what is going on back on Cape Cod this time of year.
