Florida-Area Hurricanes Slow Fishing Trips Here

THE tarpon runon the Caribbeancoast continues wideopen as of lastSunday when thiswas written, the silverbullets all butjumping in the boats.As of noonSunday, Phil Hooverand his sons Mattand Drew hadjumped 185 tarpon, with 67 caught andreleased, with another half-day Sunday anda full day Monday still to go on their 10-day trip. Matt is a professional tarponguide in Florida, according to RíoColorado lodge operator Dan Wise.The Hoover family has been fishing atthe lodge every year in September andMay for the past 20 years.Greg Snyder, another regular at thelodge for the past eight years, had hooked79 and released 25 tarpon in seven days asof Sunday – all of them on a flyrod, Wisereported.ACCORDING to a report from BobHohl, action is equally good at CasamarLodge farther up the river, with a group of19 anglers from Florida and Chicago landing144 of more than 500 hooked in fivedays.No recent reports from Parismina, butimagine it is equally good in that area.Wise said resident anglers are gettingsome nice snook, trolling just inside themouth of Samay Lagoon, and Hohl reportsgood guapote fishing in some of the backwaters,some going tofive pounds.OCTOBER is traditionallythe top snookfishing here, with threeInternational Game FishAssociation worldrecords caught in the areathis month.On the northern Pacific coast, Wetass IIskipper Sonny Kocsis said he and RichardChellemi, who captains the Gamefisher II,fished Friday and Saturday out ofFlamingo, with Kocsis reporting three sailfishreleases the first day and four the second,while Chellemi nailed a marlin, somesails and a few dorado.He said weather has been good in thatarea, with about 23 miles to run to the bluewater, flat seas and some afternoon showers.JUDGING from the lack of reportsfrom boats working further south, myguess is that fishing has been pretty slow.The hurricanes that have been ravishingFlorida and the Gulf states are taking atoll on business in Costa Rica business aswell, with operators herereporting a lot of cancellationsfrom people sufferingindividual tragedyand others just unable toget flights out of thoseareas.We arranged a 10-daytrip with the DougHouston outdoor show tofilm fishing on the Caribbean, Lake Arenaland the west coast, but it was put on indefinitehold when all flights out of their airportin Mississippi were grounded by thehurricanes.For more info on fishing or assistance inplanning a trip to Costa Rica, contact Jerryat jruhlow@costaricaoutdoors.com orvisit www.costaricaoutdoors.comSkippers, operators and anglers areinvited to e-mail or call Jerry with fishingreports by Wednesday of each week. Call orfax: 282-6743 if calling from Costa Rica, orthrough the e-mail address above.