Enrico Capozzi has done it again. On his first day of the season, fishing inshore out of the central Pacific coast’s Los Sueños Marina on his boat the Spirit of Pilar, with Capt. Scott Jones at the helm, Capozzi and crew landed a new International Game Fish Association record for a roosterfish weighing 71 pounds, 6 ounces, on 16-pound test line after a 31-minute battle. That brings the total number of world records caught on his boat to 62, which is more than likely a record in itself.
Farther north, Michael Woloshin from Medford, New Jersey, on his 10th fishing trip to Costa Rica, said it was a sunny, calm morning last week when he nailed the first fish of the day – a 35-pound dorado that he said gave them a nice warm-up fight –aboard the Wetass II out of Flamingo.
“Almost 15 minutes later we had the next fish on the line and the sail danced on the water as Mitch Lynd from Richboro, Pennsylvania, brought the fish in and touched the beautiful animal next to the boat as first mate Oscar released the hook,”Woloshin said.
Throughout the rest of the day, 20 sailfish were raised and nine caught, as well as a 200-pound blue marlin brought in by Woloshin’s companion Jeff Fallon and a 65-pound dorado taken by Woloshin, who commented, “We will all be eating well for a while.”
Plenty of action about a week ago on our southernmost Pacific coast, off Cabo Matapalo,
where Costa Rican angler José Manuel López, fishing with Andres Vega, Carlos Campos and Castro Carranza, was trolling close to shore with live sardines on the boat Pesca Pasión, with Capt. Yves Harllepp and his wife Bernadette.
López said they caught needlefish, roosterfish, dorado, sierra and an African pompano, and lost a few big fish that made it into the rocky inshore. All of the anglers are members of the Rapala Costa Rica pro staff of Costa Rica.
I’ve had a couple of e-mails asking about a fishing closure off Golfito, also on the southern coast. To the best of my knowledge, and after talking to some fishing operators in that area, there is no closure and nothing on the drawing board. If someone knows more, let me know.
As reported here last week, there is a fishing closure on the northern Caribbean coast, with no fishing permitted in the Tortuguero region, including the park and inshore coastal waters, but this does not affect fishing from Parismina north, where the major tarpon lodges are located.
Tarpon in the Barra Colorado area continue to attack the boats, with beautiful weather and plenty of fish. Río Colorado Lodge reports that Ryan Meary in one day last weekend jumped 13 and boated seven, while Steve Seagrave, Tray Watson and Lamar Hayward from Georgia jumped 14 and released seven.
All are running big, averaging close to 150 pounds.