There’s still time to sign up for the 10th Billfish Foundation Presidential Challenge of Costa Rica tournament, scheduled for April 21-23, based at the Guanamar Hotel in Playa Carrillo, on the northern Pacific coast.
All proceeds from the event will be used to further conservation efforts in Costa Rica. The entry fee is $2,400 per angler or $1,500 for a private boat team, including ground transfers, three days of fishing, two dinners and cocktail parties.
Sponsors of the tourney are Baptist Health International, Berkley, Contender Boats, Costa del Mar, Eagle Claw, Lowrance Electronics, AFTCO, Accurate Reels, Bacardi, Boone and GameFace Gear. The event is part of the World Billfish Series and a qualifying event for the Rolex/IGFA Offshore Championship.
For more information, contact Joan Vernon at Sporting Traditions at pezvelajv@aol.com or joan@southfishing.com, or visit www.preschallenge.com.
Capullo skipper Steve Curtis has been fishing off Carrillo, but this week he’s back closer to his home base farther north in Tamarindo, where he reports some sails and also scored a striped marlin and some tuna on Sunday, with the water temperature running about 86 degrees and wind in the morning, lying down in the afternoon.
Off Quepos, on the central Pacific coast, Bill Gannon said he fished a three-day charter with three fly fishermen from Norway, raising eight sails, hooking three and breaking one off on 20-pound tippet their first day out on Sunday. He reports clear water and lots of boats out in that area.
The Sea Lady, out of J.P. Sportfishing in Quepos, had eight sailfish releases on Sunday.
No reports were received from other boats in the area.
Farther south, Todd Staley reports from CrocodileBay at Puerto Jiménez, in the Golfito region, that his boats are raising up to a dozen sails and seeing three or four marlin most days, with flat water.
A rainstorm hit the area late last week, and while it lasted only an hour, 15 pangas were sunk at moorage, and Staley said he clocked winds up to 25 mph.
Rain also hit the Caribbean coast late last week, raising the river level at Barra Colorado, but Dan Wise reports that things were almost back to normal by Saturday, and as of Monday boats out of Casamar, Silver King and Río Colorado Lodge were all finding plenty of tarpon, with action right at the river mouth and backwaters still muddy from the rains.
He said there were boats out from all three lodges Monday morning, all hooking fish.
