Both Dianne Sánchez of Río Colorado Lodge and Capt. Eddie Brown from Tortuguero report the tarpon activity on the Caribbean side has heated up. Anglers are hooking eight or more tarpon a day outside the river mouths. Snook fishing slowed a little this week, but anglers are making up for the slow snook bite by stretching string fighting tarpon.
Steve Vech and David Troester fishing out of Río Colorado hooked eight tarpon, along with eight jacks and a barracuda, and managed one snook for the dinner table.
On the Pacific coast, reliable reporter Jesús Vallegas says the fishing in northern Guanacaste has improved dramatically. Offshore the winds are still hampering boaters, but closer to the beach anglers are having a heyday catching dorado (mahimahi) in the 20- to 30-pound range and yellowfin tuna of 15 to 20 pounds.
The action in the Quepos area is also improved with more sails showing up and better inshore action. I received confirmation of this from both Leanne Batten of Quepos Sailfishing Charters and Richard Krug of Americana Sportfishing.
Batten reports that anglers continue to be delighted with the marlin bite out of Quepos. David Kennedy and his wife spent two days offshore and released a marlin both days and four sailfish total, and caught two nice dorado. Wesley Wilson had a nice striped marlin on that spit the hook, but he released three sails and a nice dorado.
Krug reports that Richard Boesel and son Jonathan of Charlotte, North Carolina, had a great three days on the Blue Water III with Capt. Dale Weir, releasing nine sailfish in two days offshore and six roosters on an inshore day.
Down south, Greg Mumford at Zancudo Lodge reports the sailfish bite is improved, with boats raising eight or more sails a day about 10 miles off the beach. Dorado, which have been elusive recently, also are starting to show in the 20- to 30-pound range. Inshore, the roosterfish have finally turned on. Most have been running about 15 pounds, but a few in the 30- to 40-pound range are taking sardines and goggle-eyes. Snapper fishing has been fair, with some Pacific yellowtail up to 9 pounds biting regularly.
Skippers, operators and anglers are invited to e-mail fishing reports by Wednesday of each week to todd@crocodilebay.com or info@costaricaoutdoors.com, or call in reports to Dan Wise at 8816-2882. To post reports and photos on The Tico Times’ online fishing forum, go to wordpress-257819-2837440.cloudwaysapps.com/fishingforum.
