Day of Rain on East Coast, Little Change on West

THE weatherhas been nice andclear on the northernCaribbean coast,with the month’sfirst hard day of rainoccurring Wednesday.The full moonlast weekend causedhigh tides and wavesat the river mouth,making the trip out alittle exciting butstill passable. There are no tarpon in theriver; all the action is outside.New Zealand angler Ken Leathers,with daughter Lalista and son Matthew,went tarpon fishing at Barra Colorado onWednesday and Thursday of last week,and jumped 12 tarpon in spite of the firstheavy rain there in recent weeks, with twoto the boat over 120 pounds, along withsome big jacks.Río Colorado Lodge operator DanWise reported that William Casey andEsperanza, from Arizona, were down lastweekend but only jumped two or threetarpon, so they extended their trip anothertwo days.Rick Wall, a recent Costa Rica transplantfrom Guatemala, came down for twodays and then extended it for three moreafter jumping six tarpon his first morning,one of them sort of a Chinese fire drill,according to Wise.“When the big one finally got on,Rick got spooled, and his quick-thinkingguide Tito Brown tied another rod on thereel of the empty rod and threw it overboard,”he reported. “Rick fought themonster on the second rod until they gotenough line in to pick up the first rod andbring in the fish.”LITTLE change on the Pacific coast,where boats from Flamingo, in the north,to Quepos, on the central coast, wereaveraging more than three sailfish a day,raising about twice that many, and somemarlin.Jeanette Perez of J.P. Sportfishing inQuepos, reported that a visiting couple,the Setters, had scored five sails to theboat for release and were getting ready tobring in their lines to head for the barnwhen two more sails smashed their lines,bringing the day’s total to seven.Also out of Quepos, Dennis Arnoldsaid the Reel Deal had three releases forall six days they fished last week, andlast Sunday had on a blue marlin estimatedat 300 pounds for 20 minutes beforethe line broke.“Another boat released two blue marlin,and there are a few yellowfin tuna,dorado and wahoo around,” he added.No reports from anyone in Golfito, onthe southern Pacific coast, but I am willingto lay odds they are still doing well ontuna and inshore, with a few sails.For more info on fishing or assistancein planning a trip to Costa Rica, contactJerry at jruhlow@costaricaoutdoors.comor visit www.costaricaoutdoors.com.Skippers, operators and anglers areinvited to contact Jerry with fishingreports by Sunday of each week. Call orfax 282-6743 within Costa Rica or writeto the e-mail address above.