Lots of action reported on both coasts, though reports from the central Pacific south have been sparse, with the region apparently being plagued by a red tide.
Off Playa Carrillo on the northern Pacific coast, a region apparently not affected by that plankton bloom that colors the water red and reduces fishing to a slow walk, Kitty Cat skipper Rob Gordon reports he was fishing Tico Times readers Mike and Rebecca Patterson from Florida last Sunday, trolling inshore off Carrillo with a few bites from small dorado, then moving about 18 miles outside where the marlin were working, and immediately getting a major bite.
After a three-hour battle they released an estimated 600-pound black, followed immediately by a blue marlin estimated at 200 pounds that gave them a 15-minute, crashand-burn battle. For dessert, Mike scored a quick release on a sailfish, giving him a coveted small slam.
A couple of days before that, Gordon fished clients James Norton and Jenny Powell. They had a late start and the wind was blowing pretty good, but 21 miles out they had a triple sailfish hookup, with one caught and released.
“Then we raised and missed another and about noon and 18 miles offshore, the client said he wasn’t feeling too good and to give it another 15 minutes and head for home, but I couldn’t let him get away that easy,” Gordon said. “In less than 10 minutes we had a 325-pound blue on, which Jenny fought for the first 15 minutes and James finished off in the next 10.”
Out of Quepos, on the central Pacific coast, Raúl Miranda of Costa Mar Sportfishing reports extraordinary marlin action south of the bank, where Florida anglers Patrick Monesi and Todd Ramson, fishing the 36-foot Precedent, had a double blue marlin hookup. Monesi battled a 400- pounder that broke the line after a few minutes, but he kept on fighting the second blue, estimated at more than 700 pounds, and had it to the boat twice before it got away. He finished the day with a sailfish release and a pair of dorado over 50 pounds.
At Barra Colorado, on the northern Caribbean coast, Dan Wise of the Río Colorado Lodge reports that Joe Tedesco of Sewell, New Jersey, who has fished at the lodge six times, with his friend Albert Stella on June 2 and 3 jumped 16 tarpon, with four to the boat for release. Also on June 2,Wallace Jarboe from Dallas, Texas, on the first day of a three-day trip boated a shark and a 20-pound tripletail and released five tarpon, Wise said.
