Heavy rains brought the water up to the docks last weekend at lodges on the northern Caribbean coast, but just prior to that Florida anglers John and Ben Turse nailed a pair of 10-pound snook at the Río Colorado Lodge, and Bill and Zan Marin, also from Florida, boated one of five tarpon jumped, along with some mojarra and a small snook.
No reports from anyone on the northern and central Pacific coasts this week, but we suspect things are much as reported here in our last column, with both sailfish and marlin being taken, but not a real hot bite.
Way down south, at Puerto Jiménez on the OsaPeninsula, Capt. Mark Corn had repeat customers Ron and Caroll Domanski and their two sons down over the U.S. Independence Day holiday. They started out bottom fishing, releasing a 40-pound broomtail grouper and some jacks, then headed out for deeper water where they caught and released a small (150-pound) blue marlin on the 100-fathom line and saw a couple of sails that weren’t hungry.
For more information on Corn’s operation, check out his Web site at www.costaricasportsman.com.
From that same area, we heard from Todd Staley, veteran angler and fishing manager at Crocodile Bay Resort, who has been ailing but appears to be back in the saddle again.
He reports that the major marlin bite in the region got off to a slow start but should be going strong in a matter of days, certainly by the time this appears in print.
“What happened is it rained like crazy for almost a week in late May and all the freshwater rushing into the ocean turned the water green, and billfish don’t like that,” Staley reported. “The water changes color, fish scatter. Then the water cleans up and it’s off to the races again.”
He added, however, that the weather is returning to its normal pattern for this time of year, which is clear skies in the daytime and a late-afternoon or nighttime shower, and blue water.
“Fish find shelter under floating debris and the rush of summer marlin begins. Two years ago it was June. Last year it was July, and we should be seeing a lot more marlin in this southern area any day now,” he predicted.
According to Staley, this is the time of year one sees black and striped marlin mixed in with the blues. By July, the water has usually cleaned up enough for sails to join the party.
While billfish have been pretty spotty in that area, there has been no shortage of dorado, along with tuna, wahoo and inshore action on roosterfish and jacks. Staley said the happy angler of the week was Natalie Martínez, who celebrated her honeymoon and birthday at the lodge, fishing with husband Michael.
“Being an ichthyologist, she just wanted a roosterfish,” he said. “And she caught a nice 45-pounder, got the thrill of swimming with a whale shark, and is the current leader in CrocodileBay’s Summer Biggest Roosterfish contest to win a return trip to the lodge.”
