Pacific Coast Good, Rain at Barra

I had a prettynervous night lastSaturday when weheard on the televisionnews channelthat the boatKingfisher had notreturned from afishing trip. That isthe name of the boatmy son Rick hasbeen running herefor about 15 years.I called his house and cellular and gotno answer, but finally ran down Rob Gordon,who has the boat Kitty Cat at Carrillo,on the northern Pacific coast. Gordonreported Rick’s boat was safe at the mooring;it turns out the one that went missingis another boat of the same name, fishingout of Flamingo (see related story).Fishing continues to be good on thenorthern Pacific coast, where Capullo skipperSteve Curtis reported that the DanielDumas party from Florida raised about adozen sailfish a day, along with some tunaand dorado, in their three days of fishinglast week. They also had a marlin on for awhile, but it got away, Curtis said.Gordon reported similar action out ofCarrillo, and Dennis Arnold said the biteat Quepos, on the central Pacific coast,has been holding, with two to four sailfishreleases a day. He added that the Caribseawas out just one day last week, with threesails and a black marlin that weighedmore than 500 pounds to the boat.No reports from anyone farther southon the Pacific coast.The rain finally caught up with tarponfishermen on the northern Caribbeancoast, where the Río Colorado Lodge saidit had three boats fishing in the rain outsidethe river mouth over last weekend,but they were not able to score.It was still raining on Monday, withjust one boat on the water, but ChristyLee and Tim Snow, from Maryland, didget a tarpon in just before noon and stillhad the rest of Monday and all of Tuesdayto fish.Local fishermen are invited to takepart in the Copa Sergio Cruz surf-fishingtournament this weekend (Aug. 6-7),organized by the National Fishing Club.The outing will be at Sámara, just northof Carrillo, where Alexander Ariasreports lots of action on small snook, takingwhite jigs with red and green feathersand crank baits.I get a lot of queries from Tico Timesreaders looking for low-cost fishing, andreally recommend making a connectionwith this local fishing club, which runs aweekend outing almost every month tofish both coasts and inland waters. Formore information on this weekend’s eventand upcoming outings, call Alex at 393-6020 or 656-0292, or e-mail arias@crsuntours.com and ask to be put on theclub’s mailing list.For more info on fishing or assistancein planning a trip to Costa Rica, contactJerry at jruhlow@costaricaoutdoors.comor visit www.costaricaoutdoors.com.Skippers, operators and anglers areinvited to contact Jerry with fishingreports by Sunday of each week. Call orfax 282-6743 within Costa Rica or writeto the e-mail address above.