Costa Rica in February

[csx355]

Hi all - off to Costa Rica in Feb 2007 - Tamarindo area - and looking to take some sensible shore tackle - any hints and tips would be most appreciated. I am not really looking for big game boats - just shore and inshore stuff. Plus generally any travel tips for the are would be most welcome.

[PanamaJack]

Great part of the world!

From the beach I'd suggest spin gear - 12 to 16lb line - with poppers cranked fast. You should encounter Roosterfish and any number of Jacks.

I presume you're looking at hiring a panga for any inshore trips? Unfortunately most of the tackle is likely to be crude so take your own light boat rod. Over rocks livebaiting or using fish chunks will work for again the Roosterfish and Jacks, but also Snapper and small Grouper. Then trolling Rapalas will certainly work. Although they're not through rigged with wire I've found that Slivers are effective. What turns up? Certainly at that time of year you'd expect small Yellowfin Tuna and Dorado and, at the back of the surfline, again more Roosterfish and huge Needlefish - 4' plus long. Livebaits are also effective for most of those species.

Will you be transiting through a US hub, like Miami? If so it's worth reading the notes on this thread - http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28611 - about locking luggage. Also bear in mind that when transiting down to Central America you can no longer stay 'air side' when changing flights you have to go through Immigrations and Customs and then repeat the experience to board. That can, in my experience, take 3 hours.

Make sure you store your rods in a tube secured by a lock and that it's treated as 'over-sized' baggage. Normally that's carried up from the plane and put in a separate area near the luggage carousels BUT once in a while you may find some idiot puts it on the luggage belt. Rods and tubes aren't meant to be bent! Just be careful.

When you leave Costa Rica you'll be required to purchase a tourist exit visa, from memory it's 18$US. Make sure that you buy it inside the terminal - one or two of the individuals selling them outside are criminals.

That should give you a starting point but any specific points please post again.
Dave

[PanamaJack]

I've just got this generalised report from an ex-pat - Ali Warren-Gash - who used to be a member of our Club - the Sportfishing Club of the British Isles - but, several years ago, moved to Costa Rica. Looking through his web site - http://www.billfisharmada.com - although most of the fishing is offshore - he does appear to organise inshore, panga charters. You may be able to get further information from him regarding the shore fishing.
Dave


My first report is going to be an all encompassing introduction into fishing in this area and a summary of the 2006 season, compiling info and advice gathered from other local captains, as well as myself.

The fishing off Guanacaste, as the area is locally called, can be absolutely top dog, and superb literally any day of the year. It is true that certain months excel for certain species, but my experience tells me that there are so many exceptions to the rule, that as long as you don't set your expectations heavenward, you can fish this coastline 12 months and not be disappointed. The following fish report should give you a fairly good indication of what we expect from which months.

As far as fishing methods are concerned, offshore fishing is basically 100% trolling baits and plastics. Unlike other fisheries, with the exception of the continental shelf, we have no structure to work- no reefs, no banks, no canyons.... In other words we have a whole lot of ground to cover to find the fish, and even when we find them, they still move. So don't expect much in the way of live baiting or chunking on the offshore grounds, unless the captain deems the conditions suitable. On the positive side, trolling seems to work pretty damn well, and the continental shelf is in some areas as close as 5 miles from the shoreline! Inshore fishing on the other hand employs all manner of tactics, again dependant on conditions and target species. Saltwater flyfishing, with special emphasis on billfish, is also popular. Captain Philip Leman from the Tantrum recommends January to April out of Carillo, and May through August for Tamarindo and Flamingo. He would also advise on booking for more than one day to better the odds of success, and advises that fishermen bring 'streamers' over 'poppers', particularly in the green/white, pink/white and blue/black colour combinations. All boats that I am aware of practice 'catch and release' on all billfish.

Weather-wise, I think I'd have to say that most of the international fishing community would call us wimps for the kind of weather that we call hostile. January, February and march do see strong offshore winds off of Tamarindo and Flamingo, but the charter fleet hugs the coastline and runs to the south in search of calmer seas, and invariably finds them around 15 miles south of Tamarindo. So beyond lengthening the run
time to the grounds, this does little to affect the actual fishing. The rainy season, (May-Nov), sees more varied conditions, with a whole lot of flat calm out there, but you can get caught out in squalls, and particularly in October, you can get ugly seas coming from the west.

That seems like enough background info. So lets get onto the nitty gritty and find out how the 2006 season has faired for the lucky few that got to chase their dreams.

If you like catching mr. marlin, you should have been here last January and February. That was all that was on the menu, but if you don't mind chugging along and waiting for the big one, then you were in for a good
trip. Most boats recorded at least one grand slam during this period and several went on to make it a super grand slam. Some boats were releasing as many as 5 marlin a day, (predominantly blues), and a boat out of
Carillo had already released 35 marlin in 2006 by early February. So, whilst most of the international fishing community typically heads down to Quepos for their annual hot sail bite, the novice tourists trying their luck are getting blown away by the big boys. In short, I doubt there was a hotter marlin bite anywhere in the world at that time.

January, February and March are all typical marlin months for us down here, but this year March was a different story. The boats running south were on certain days having to battle gusts of 60mph, the nice blue
water was blown offshore and the water temp. plummeted. After the up beat start to the year, the fish went on strike, or more probably- on holiday. Skunkings were commonplace and customers disappointed, and the
fleet was going further and further a field and only occasionally getting lucky with the odd marlin. But unfortunately that happens. If the conditions are adverse, the fishing can just switch off, at any time of year. I wish that I could say that April was much better, but I'd be lying. These are months that can be excellent, and history can prove that, with a few years ago a single boat releasing over 60 sailfish in a day in April- but not 06!

May sees the coming of the rains. A change of conditions, the northern zone becoming accessible, the blue water pushing in close. This is the start of our advertised fishing season, seeing a little more consistency
behind the baits with the sailfish migrating north. This was a slow may for the fleet in general, not necessarily fish wise but in the number of trips that we handled during this period. Days out saw a wider variety of fish to the boat, with marlin, sailfish, dorado and yellowfin tuna.

June, now we're talking! There were a couple of stormy days at the start of the month that saw a few days of cancellations, but the picture got a lot rosier after that. The fish pushed in close and shallow out in front of Tamarindo. There were a lot of skippies on and around the ledge and shallower. Tactics had to change a little and boats started noticing that pulling back on the throttle and trolling at 6 knots saw a lot more action. The big black marlin were back in town, and were being caught from 380ft and shallower. Is there any reason why the big ones always have to come and hit the sail baits? We managed a nice 700lber on 30lb tackle after an aggressive hour and a half fight, after the fish struck at 4pm on our last pass of the reef in 120ft. a fair amount of tuna around at that time too. Nothing big. All footballs- but excellent sashimi.

July. The sailfish arrived and in numbers. Nothing too extreme, but boats could expect to see 10 or so a day. The slow trolling really helped and those that didn't adopt that tactic suffered accordingly. The sails that we catch up here at this time of year are typically on the large size, with fish in the 120lb range fairly common, but normally around 90-100lbs. they are great light tackle or fly opponents. But just to make the days a little spicier, there were still a fair number of marlin in the area- both blues and blacks. The bite remained close in,
but on some days pushing a little deeper and just the far side of the ledge in 1200ft. Seek and ye shall find! The reef in front of Tamarindo also saw some superb action. One afternoon, after an unimpressive start to the day, the fish turned on. It actually became impossible to put more than 3 lines in the water before having at least a double hook up on either jacks, yellowfin tuna, rainbow runner, skippies, needlefish and probably a few others too. We were at times hooking up with 3 different species at a time! Bottom fishing was also productive with large amberjack, roosterfish up to 70lbs, snapper in the 50lb range and bull shark. A couple of good days on wahoo were also reported off the Catalina Islands in front of Flamingo.

August. It seems like the rains were put on hold this year. Both July and august have been close to bone dry- not that we're complaining. The fishing, and in particular the billfishing remained good through the month, seemingly ignoring any lunar trends. There were days of almost zero current, and on other days the current even went so far as to switch from the traditional south to north, to a pure north to south. This does happen, but rarely. But the fish kept on biting. The bite had drifted a little further to the north out in front of Cabo Velas, and concentrated between 320ft to 1200ft. This may seem like a big variance, but our continental shelf basically drops off from 400ft to 1200ft, in some places very quickly, and in others more gradually. Again, the
predominance has been with sailfish and marlin releases, including some nice size fish. One captain was spooled on his 80lb gear, and this was a veteran Capt. The fish must have been big! Other days saw most of the fleet releasing at least 1 marlin a day, with some boats seeing as many as 6 a day, and that is in conjunction with a whole of sailfish too. There has been a noticeable absence in dorado catches so far this
season. There are definitely still some around, but the ones that we are catching tend to be on the small size averaging between 10-12lbs. At this point, I don't know whether to blame the commercial longliners, the 'bad dorado year syndrome', or the lack of floating debris in the water through the lack of rains. Either way, dorado is normally our staple anti skunking material, and this year, they haven't necessarily been there for us. August generally sees the start of the larger yellowfin migrating past us. Again, there was a distinct lack of tuna hitting the dinner table throughout the month. I like to think that this can be attributed to the fleet concentrating in the shallower waters on the hot billfish bite, and not pushing off into deeper water in search of the migrating schools. They could possibly be a little late too, as the peak yellowfin season is Sept, Oct. and Nov. so I guess we'll see what happens.

I hope that you have found this informative. One thing that the angler must always bear in mind, is that wherever you may be fishing, there is always luck involved. The difference between a good charter boat and an average one is how the captain and crew manage that luck, and also on the captain's ability to anticipate conditions in order to precipitate more luck. There is only so much they can do though, and realistically
they are always at the mercy of mother nature. Here's wishing you all a whole lot of luck.

[sj fiske]

i am off to occidental grand in guanacaste 1st of march taking the wife and inlaws,will grab as much of their luggage allowance as possible combined with premium allowance,i also will be looking for beach and panga fishing but have also promised the old man a couple of trips for bill fish,fingers crossed!
will be taking 10 plus rods and reels to cover all i hope.
with regards to visas have not got to worry as first choice now flying direct from gatwick to liberia airport,should be a short coach ride to resort.
have been told that pangas opperate from a near by beach playa buena! and not near my hotel.
hope you have some great sport and post a thread before i go so i can get more ideas of what i need.

[Oldnipper]

Stayed at this hotel in July 2007, very nice!

Not much happening off the beach for me, I would say its too far up the bay, Bahia Culebra, but hey i'm no expert!

There are plenty of boats in Playa del Coco which is just a few minutes boat run south of the hotel, or a 10 minute taxi ride. The boats will come up to the hotel and pick you up from its own beach, will I think is Playa Buena.

We fished 4 days with an outfit called Tranquilamar, 3 days trolling and had 9 Sailfish of around 100-120 lbs, then one day inshore and had about 20 fish mostly in the 10-50 lb bracket. Jacks, snappers Roosters, 3 to 50lb, small dorado and wahoo. These were on skirted ballyhoos or small bonitos; if we had been able to catch more livebaits I think we really would have bagged up.


Good Luck

Mike

[sj fiske]

just after posting reply saw the date but great advise!would mack feathers be of any use getting bait?
also wife u tubed resort and said sharks in that bay of hotel?

[Oldnipper]

Started to reply, nearly finished when PC crashed so here goes again

The skipper trolled 1/4 oz white bucktail crappie jigs for livebaits, but size 8 or 10 sabikis or hokkais might be good.

Only saw one fish caught from the beach an 8oz snapper on a red/white yo zuri lure, the guy also lost a good fish on the same lure, in a fortnight!!

There is of course a nice pool so you don't need to go in the sea, but the chances of a shark causing a problem is miniscule you are more likely to die of a bee sting here in the summer. There are sharks in tropical waters all round the world, we've fished in India, Sharm el Sheikh, Tobago, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala and Belize and seen and or caught sharks in all of theses places, but still swam in the sea with barely a thought.


Mike