Pacific Good; Surprise Tuna on Caribbean

JOE Riley, fromMaryland, broughttwo groups ofanglers fishing withRichard Chellemiout of Carrillo, onthe northern Pacificcoast, in March. Thefirst group fishedMarch 11-16 andcaught four doradoin the 30-poundrange and five tuna,released 38 sails out of 75 that took thelures, and also saw some marlin.The second half of the gang caughtthree tuna and two dorado, went 50 for 93on sails, and had and one blue marlinrelease.Riley said this was his eighth trip toCosta Rica – the first for the others in hisparty, and everyone will be back.“Keep those long-liners out of CostaRica,” he added.ALSO heard from Costa RicaOutdoors client Stewart Cooper and hisgang from New York, who were fishingfurther south last week.“J.P. Sportfishing took great care of uson the west coast. All scheduling and pickupswere right on time, and we fished onthe Sea Lady with two very good days andhad some great meals at the Gran Escape inQuepos,” he said.Cooper and his gang released 10 sailsthe first day, with some small yellowfin,and eight sails the second day, and alsonailed some more tuna and three dorado upto 25 pounds.“Captain Erik and mate Harold reallytook great care of us, and Carlos was agreat asset to the J.P. group; he drove usaround and gave us much help,” Coopersaid.BIG surprise on the Caribbean coastlast week: three yellowfin tuna, from 23 to53 pounds each, were caught by CharlesLundrum and his son, from Florida, fishingjust outside the river mouth at BarraColorado. That’s a rare catch on theCaribbean side of the country.Río Colorado Lodge operator DanWise said they were taken on trolledRapalas.“We are coming off a full moon and theriver mouth has been rough the past twodays, but on Sunday one boat jumped eighttarpon inside the breakers,” Wise saidMonday.He added that the long overdueenforcement of laws prohibiting netting atBarra has resulted in a lot of snook beingcaught by locals fishing from the beaches,particularly at Samay Lagoon.One of the locals sold the lodge a 34.5-pound snook taken from the beach for thedinner table, and two others in the 20-pound range were also caught.“We haven’t seen anything like this inyears,” Wise said.For more 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.