Tuna was the highlight last week down south, while most billfish were centered in Quepos. Courtesy of Todd Staley
The epicenter of fishing action the past couple of days has been in Quepos on the central Pacific coast. Jeanette Pérez of JP Sport Fishing reports boats have been averaging about eight sailfish a day and marlin are popping up in the spread. Dick Tanner up in Herradura confirmed this and said most boats running out of Los Sueños have been heading south, where the bite has been much better than in local waters. The Los Sueños billfish tournament is being fished as you read this, and unless things change they will be burning some fuel to get to any good numbers of fish.
A terrific snapper bite had anglers excited up in northern Guanacaste for a few days, but the action slowed when the wind died and the water warmed up, according to Roy Quirós. Quirós reports the bite offshore has been extremely slow the past few days, but anyone who spends much time in Costa Rica knows that can change any minute.
Down south, there was a good bite going on before the new moon, with sailfish popping up in double digits, and a nice school of 25- to 40-pound tuna was working about 20 miles off La Chanca. Fishing died right on the moon and the fish got lazy for a couple of days. Anglers are starting to take a few sails again, but the bite is better to the north right now.
Fishing is just average over on the Caribbean, down from the red-hot action of a month ago. Diann Sánchez at Río Colorado Lodge reports anglers are taking a few tarpon each, along with some jack crevalle. A couple of late-season fat snook have also hit the frying pan. The weather is nice all over the country, with some light showers on the Caribbean side.
Todd Staley is the fishing manager at Crocodile Bay Resort in Puerto Jiménez, on southwestern Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. Skippers, operators and anglers are invited to email fishing reports by Wednesday of each week to todd@crocodilebay.com. To post reports and photos on The Tico Times’ online fishing forum, go to www.ticotimes.net/Weekend/Fishing/Fishing-Forum.
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