Speed Kills on East, Blue Water Returns to West

A Costa Rican Coast Guard crewman was killed reportedly late Sunday when the patrol boat he was in struck the island at the mouth of the Barra Colorado at full speed and soared more than 60 feet through the air before crashing.

Río Colorado Lodge owner Dan Wise and several of his guests at the lodge witnessed the tragedy, and said all three of the 200-h.p. outboards were wide open when the boat struck the island. How many people were aboard and the extent of other injuries was not known.

Dan said the patrol boat had been cruising the rivers at high speeds for the past couple of days, and on Saturday nearly ran down one of his boats with fishermen aboard up the river.

ANOTHER Coast Guard officer was killed in a similar accident about a year ago, striking the same island at high speed, he added.

The rain and winds in that area reported here last week had died down as of Monday, and boats were fishing outside the mouth, with one tarpon release and several more in the air as this is written.

Fingerling snook are moving into the river in immense swarms, extending miles along the shoreline, attracting hundreds of pelicans that feed on the tiny fish.

WATER conditions off the central Pacific coast are improving by the day, with boats finding blue water within an hour’s run from Quepos, and going about three releases a day. A couple of marlin releases were also reported last week.

No reports in more than a week from the Guanamar, Tamarindo or Flamingo boats, and can’t remember when we last heard from Roy’s Zancudo Lodge, Parrot Bay, Crocodile Bay or anyone else in the Zancudo, Puerto Jiménez or Golfito regions in the Southern Zone, so your guess as to what’s going on there is as good as mine.

We have a number of requests for the March-April edition of Costa Rica Outdoors magazine containing a complete list of the 101 world record fish recorded from Costa Rica water in the 2004 edition of the International Game Fish Association’s World Record Game Fish. It should be printed by the end of this week, and we’ll get them out as soon as possible.