Tarpon fishing continues to be good at Barra Colorado, on the northern Caribbean coast, where Joe Tedesco and Albert Stella had a threeday total of 20 tarpon jumped and six boated early last week out of the Río Colorado Lodge.
In the same time frame, Wallace Jaraboe jumped 14 tarpon and boated eight plus a 60-pound tuna and 20-pound tripletail, while George Lunt, his son Daniel, Anthony and Winston Pierce and Peter Roper boated five tarpon, a snook, a red snapper and then moved inside to fish panfish when the water at the river mouth got too rough to fish safely, the lodge reported.
Boats on the Pacific coast are still getting a few marlin and sails along with some dorado and an occasional tuna, but no spectacular catches reported.
An e-mail from Gary Ragatz at papabone@msn.com asks for information on the best time to fish for snook at Barra Colorado.
Gary, we get some snook throughout the year, but the peak season for the big Atlantic snook traditionally begins in June and peaks in September and October. The smaller calba, or fat snook, which most often run one to three pounds, are there much of the year, but far and away are most plentiful in September and October.
An unsigned e-mail asks why, with two coasts so close by, “fish places sell sea items like crabs and lobsters dead, not alive, when it should be no problem keeping them alive until they get to the Central Valley areas.”
The reader adds that “there should be shellfish like mussels, clams, conch, etc. live, but have not seen it,” and asks further if, were he to drive to Puntarenas (on the central Pacific coast) or another west coast location, he would be able to buy live or verifiably justcaught seafood.
If anyone has an answer or suggestion, contact the unnamed reader at msngc711@hotmail.com and send me a copy so I can pass the word to other Tico Times readers.