I’m sure Dan Wise of Río Colorado Lodge and the rest of the Caribbean fishing operators haven’t grown tired of listening to the same old tune about how good the fishing is.
The bite continues, and Diann Sánchez from the Río Colorado office sent in the following report: “The weather has been sunny and hot … with the tarpon fishing continuing to be very good. Thomas Stropoli from West Virginia and Robert Reischi of Houston jumped 25 tarpon and brought eight to the boat, the largest estimated to be about 150 pounds. They also caught one barracuda. Phillipe Jacques and Fabienne Forestier, diplomats from France living in Costa Rica for an assignment, visited the Barra del Colorado area and stayed at Río Colorado Lodge. Neither of these men had ever fished in their lives, but they decided to give it a try while visiting the lodge. In one day they jumped six tarpon and each brought one to the boat weighing about 95 pounds.”
Wise added that the calba, a smaller species of snook that invade the area in large numbers annually between now and February, have started to show. Calba have been biting at Samay Lagoon, Monkey Creek and Paradise Lagoon.
Reports from up near Coco on the Pacific coast are that the sails, marlin, tuna and dorado are biting just a few miles off Catalina Island. Arco Pacífico charters had boats with as many as eight sails and some marlin hookups.
Capt. Richard Chellemi also has been hitting some sails on the Gamefisher II. The Salazar group out of Abilene, Texas, had the top fish with a 350-pound blue marlin, but others who fished the following days were rewarded with sails, tuna to 50 pounds, and dorado in the 30-pound range. Those choosing to fish inshore we pleased with roosters to 45 pounds, jacks and barracuda.
On the central and southern Pacific coast, billfish have moved in but the fishing has been hampered by green water. Some boats have been lucky enough to find pockets of sails and are raising seven or eight fish, but most boats are working hard for just a couple.
Inshore, the fishing has been excellent, with lots of football tuna, roosterfish and snapper. Mark Harwood took a nice 44-pound cubera snapper, and lots of roosters between 20 and 35 pounds are keeping anglers smiling.
Todd Staley is the fishing manager at Crocodile Bay Resort in Puerto Jiménez, on southwestern Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. Skippers, operators and anglers are invited to email fishing reports by Wednesday of each week to todd@crocodilebay.com. To post reports and photos on The Tico Times’ online fishing forum, go to wordpress-257819-2837440.cloudwaysapps.com/Weekend/Fishing/Fishing-Forum.
