Action Jumping on Both Coasts

ACTION is fastand furious on bothcoasts as this is written,with MelissaChellemi reporting13 anglers from LaGrange, Georgia,nailing 77 sailfish, ablue marlin, twowahoo, 14 tuna andseven dorado in threedays, March 3-5.Melissa said theGeorgia anglers were fishing her husbandRichard’s Gamefisher II, and the Wetass II,Osprey and Permit III, out of PlayaCarrillo, on the Pacific coast.Also fishing that area, Capullo skipperSteve Curtis reported five striped marlinreleases for one day early in the week forthe Kit Boatcher party, with four or fivesails a day, in front of Carrillo.Rob Gordon, on the Kitty Kat out ofCarrillo, went seven sailfish releases fornine in the air and got a shot at a blue marlin,along with a nice dorado, two tuna andthree skipjack, and reported the Permitreleased a striped marlin, two sails and afew tuna last weekend.They were fishing straight out ofCarrillo, with little wind in the morning butkicking up to 15 mph in the afternoon.ON the Caribbean, Dan Wise reportedon March 7 that the 30 anglers at the RíoColorado Lodge jumped from four to 15tarpon per boat per day over the weekend,and were in solid tarpon schools as ofMonday morning, fishing flat seas just outsidethe river mouth at Barra Colorado.Skies are blue and the water level in theriver is down, he added.Among the anglers at Barra was LukeMueller, a Tico Times contributor whorecently joined the staff of Costa RicaOutdoors. It was Luke’s first fishing trip inCosta Rica, and he had a proper initiation onMonday, finally boating his first tarpon aftertangling with three or four that got away.Dan said fishermen are having a hardtime getting to the tarpon through theschools of big jacks competing for theirlures.NO reports from Los Sueños on thecentral Pacific coast. Jeanette Pérez reportedboats in her J.P. Sportfishing fleet atQuepos are doing three to five sails a dayand seeing but not hooking marlin.Bill Golden from Hatillo, south of SanJosé, and friends Chris and StephanieColeman with Bill and Jonnie Combs fromthe Outerbanks of North Carolina, madetheir first Costa Rica billfish trip. On theirfirst day, they landed 10 out of 14 sailfish;the second day, they landed three for three.An avid fisherman, Chris claims Queposhas the best action he’s ever seen. Theyfished the Alboran and the Cowboy.THINGS have slowed appreciably inthe Golfito area, where Roy Ventura ofRoy’s Zancudo Lodge reported little actionon billfish last week, but lots of big roosterfish,a couple of snapper over 30 pounds,and a 70-pound and a lot of the smaller,football-size tuna.For info on fishing or assistance inplanning a trip to Costa Rica, contact Jerryat jruhlow@costaricaoutdoors.com orvisit www.costaricaoutdoors.com.Skippers, operators and anglers areinvited to contact Jerry with fishing reportsby Sunday of each week. Call or fax 282-6743 within Costa Rica or write to the emailaddress above.