PanamaJack
29-08-2007, 18:40
What do they say about the best laid plans? The intention had been to fish for Marlin, Blues and Blacks, from my friend Terry’s – Agwe – 42’ boat in northern Costa Rica, Pacific side, up near the Nicaraguan border. Just a month before hand, 30 miles south of where we were to base ourselves, they’d had a very successful tournament; one of the boats releasing seven on one day.
So up the boat came 130 miles from the south, from its home base at the Los Suenos marina to where we anchored it in the Gulf of Papagayo. The seas were quite rough and, despite the twin 650s, it was a seven hour slog. Throughout though, given that it was rainy season - so loads of floating debris in the water and copulating turtles – one of the crew had to be posted in the Tuna tower for safety reasons. The last thing you want to do is hit something at 28 knots plus.
Well the Marlin bite just didn't happen. And some of the local captains we were talking to said it's been their worst season for years. I suspect a combination of the earlier El Nino and La Nina effects?
The only Blue, around 300lbs, I hooked up on a set of 20lb Sailfish gear came unstuck on the first series of jumps. That was part of a 'double header' though, Terry got his Sailfish. We did see some other really big fish jumping, or also back of the spread though but we couldn't tempt them.
One of the lasting memories though will be that of seeing a small 4/5lb Dorado obviously attracted to the baits, and in the spread, jump 6' in the air closely pursued by a 500lb Black. Its head and bill were out of the water and it slashed at another Dorado. Claret everywhere! Obviously caught it in the head. I’ve seen a number of prints featuring that behaviour but that was literally the first time I’d seen it happen.
In fact the only strikes we had on the Marlin lures came from Dorado. I had a 25 pounder and then lost, what initially we though was a Marlin, a big old 50lb fish. It looked well over 5’ long but came unstuck when it started jumping.
Sailfish-wise it was steady, we had fish every day we went offshore, totalling 22. Best day was seven, two of which came to a 'double header'. And there was one other 'double header'. Terry hooked up and I was racing one of the baits in, still held up in the 'rigger clip when I spotted the tell tale bill behind it. Knocked it out of the clip and got the hook up and initial jumps just 20' from the boat. The fish ranged between 65 and 100lbs.
There were no real facilities in that part of the Guanacaste province and refuelling was off the beach. Literally a small road tanker would turn up equipped with extension hoses and a generator. One of the crew then had to swim ashore towing line from a set of 50. We then cranked the fuel line back. So much faster refuelling than if we’d had to resort to hand pumping from 45 gallon drums.
On one of the days, just fishing a couple of hours inshore, I got a nice 20lb Pacific Jack Crevalle and a 24lb Cubera Snapper. What teeth those Cubera have! (I’m back in the 20th century when it come to photography, still film technology! Should be able to upload them though over the weekend. Any rate here’s a preview of what they look like – http://www.scbi.org.uk/pages/News_Aratw_CSAmerica_Panama_B.asp. BTW the Snapper took a bridle rigged 3lb Skipjack livebait!
Also, whilst the crew were diving for octopus and lobsters, I did gets some Jacks fishing surface poppers – Yo-Zuki Hydro Tigers – with a fast retrieve.
We managed just half an hour deep dropping as well, in 340' of water using the Shimano butterfly jigging system. Amazing how you can feel bites from Snapper and small Grouper in that depth of water. The crew though were ‘meat’ fishing with an electric reel, six hooks and a strobe light. Effective? Well, yes. Fishing though it ain’t!
The highlight though was undoubtedly the day and a half we spent around the Bat Islands right at the end of the trip. We had, excluding bait, 10 different species in a day - huge Houndfish (Perhaps offspring of Alberto? Sorry, an in joke with Roger, aka the Ravelling Tangler.), Wahoo, Dorado, small Yellowfin. And I even had a Sailfish hook up less than a 100' off the rocks in just 100' of water. Then Terry had a nice 18lb Rainbow Runner trolling and a 59lb Amberjack & 12lb Rock Snapper on livebaits fished close to the bottom. So quite varied fishing!
Ah, Roosterfish? They were meant to be the challenge for the trip, to beat my personal best of 12lbs. (Terry had had an 80 pounder on a previous visit.) Failed miserably! Terry had a bite from one on a Skipjack but we failed to hook up. And last fish of the last day, as we were refuelling off the beach, I was casting a small glass minnow on 8lb spin gear when I hooked up a perfectly formed 2 pounder. Even that though came unstuck! Now that's a reason for going back, if I needed one.
Papagayo was a wonderful place – essentially virgin rain forest, a National Park, all the way to the north almost as far as the Nicaraguan border. Here’s just a preview of the area - http://www.lapuntapapagayo.com/development.html. And outside the Park there’re significant restrictions on development, nothing over two stories within 300 metres of the shoreline. And the views, the sunsets and night time electrical storms, over the Pacific were stunning.
The 3 star hotel that we were at was on the opposite headland of the Gulf to the Four Seasons resort with arguably a better position. In fact we got very chummy with the American developer who's planning to knock down the hotel and build a 5 star resort, 800 bucks a night. The development costs are projected at 500 million dollars! Any rate Terry allowing him to use his boat for a forthcoming photo shot and he & I have been told we can come back as his guests.
Loads of wildlife, luckily I didn't see any 'nasties'. Although, given it was rainy season, lots of mosquitos so take the Deet! But there were Howler Monkeys, Racoons and Coti Mundi and loads of bird species including two types of humming birds. Then inshore we saw two Humpbacks and offshore the Turtles & leaping Manta Rays.
For anyone else contemplating visiting the area I’m aware that First Choice holidays do organise package tours to the area. And a lot cheaper for their all-in do than I paid for a restricted ticket via Houston (to Liberia) with Continental! In terms of the family they can, amongst others, arrange organised trips to the rain forests and the volcano at Arenal.
Um…the fishing’s more problematic. Rates for offshore cruisers tend to be high, higher than for instance you’d pay in Florida. However there were a number of pangas equipped for fishing at places like Coco Beach. Although essentially an inshore boat for Roosterfish and Snapper they’re more than capable of running offshore for Sails and Marlin. Best time? Probably during the dry season that runs from November to May when it tends to be calm, just big swells.
Any rate pictures to follow, hopefully over the weekend.
Dave
So up the boat came 130 miles from the south, from its home base at the Los Suenos marina to where we anchored it in the Gulf of Papagayo. The seas were quite rough and, despite the twin 650s, it was a seven hour slog. Throughout though, given that it was rainy season - so loads of floating debris in the water and copulating turtles – one of the crew had to be posted in the Tuna tower for safety reasons. The last thing you want to do is hit something at 28 knots plus.
Well the Marlin bite just didn't happen. And some of the local captains we were talking to said it's been their worst season for years. I suspect a combination of the earlier El Nino and La Nina effects?
The only Blue, around 300lbs, I hooked up on a set of 20lb Sailfish gear came unstuck on the first series of jumps. That was part of a 'double header' though, Terry got his Sailfish. We did see some other really big fish jumping, or also back of the spread though but we couldn't tempt them.
One of the lasting memories though will be that of seeing a small 4/5lb Dorado obviously attracted to the baits, and in the spread, jump 6' in the air closely pursued by a 500lb Black. Its head and bill were out of the water and it slashed at another Dorado. Claret everywhere! Obviously caught it in the head. I’ve seen a number of prints featuring that behaviour but that was literally the first time I’d seen it happen.
In fact the only strikes we had on the Marlin lures came from Dorado. I had a 25 pounder and then lost, what initially we though was a Marlin, a big old 50lb fish. It looked well over 5’ long but came unstuck when it started jumping.
Sailfish-wise it was steady, we had fish every day we went offshore, totalling 22. Best day was seven, two of which came to a 'double header'. And there was one other 'double header'. Terry hooked up and I was racing one of the baits in, still held up in the 'rigger clip when I spotted the tell tale bill behind it. Knocked it out of the clip and got the hook up and initial jumps just 20' from the boat. The fish ranged between 65 and 100lbs.
There were no real facilities in that part of the Guanacaste province and refuelling was off the beach. Literally a small road tanker would turn up equipped with extension hoses and a generator. One of the crew then had to swim ashore towing line from a set of 50. We then cranked the fuel line back. So much faster refuelling than if we’d had to resort to hand pumping from 45 gallon drums.
On one of the days, just fishing a couple of hours inshore, I got a nice 20lb Pacific Jack Crevalle and a 24lb Cubera Snapper. What teeth those Cubera have! (I’m back in the 20th century when it come to photography, still film technology! Should be able to upload them though over the weekend. Any rate here’s a preview of what they look like – http://www.scbi.org.uk/pages/News_Aratw_CSAmerica_Panama_B.asp. BTW the Snapper took a bridle rigged 3lb Skipjack livebait!
Also, whilst the crew were diving for octopus and lobsters, I did gets some Jacks fishing surface poppers – Yo-Zuki Hydro Tigers – with a fast retrieve.
We managed just half an hour deep dropping as well, in 340' of water using the Shimano butterfly jigging system. Amazing how you can feel bites from Snapper and small Grouper in that depth of water. The crew though were ‘meat’ fishing with an electric reel, six hooks and a strobe light. Effective? Well, yes. Fishing though it ain’t!
The highlight though was undoubtedly the day and a half we spent around the Bat Islands right at the end of the trip. We had, excluding bait, 10 different species in a day - huge Houndfish (Perhaps offspring of Alberto? Sorry, an in joke with Roger, aka the Ravelling Tangler.), Wahoo, Dorado, small Yellowfin. And I even had a Sailfish hook up less than a 100' off the rocks in just 100' of water. Then Terry had a nice 18lb Rainbow Runner trolling and a 59lb Amberjack & 12lb Rock Snapper on livebaits fished close to the bottom. So quite varied fishing!
Ah, Roosterfish? They were meant to be the challenge for the trip, to beat my personal best of 12lbs. (Terry had had an 80 pounder on a previous visit.) Failed miserably! Terry had a bite from one on a Skipjack but we failed to hook up. And last fish of the last day, as we were refuelling off the beach, I was casting a small glass minnow on 8lb spin gear when I hooked up a perfectly formed 2 pounder. Even that though came unstuck! Now that's a reason for going back, if I needed one.
Papagayo was a wonderful place – essentially virgin rain forest, a National Park, all the way to the north almost as far as the Nicaraguan border. Here’s just a preview of the area - http://www.lapuntapapagayo.com/development.html. And outside the Park there’re significant restrictions on development, nothing over two stories within 300 metres of the shoreline. And the views, the sunsets and night time electrical storms, over the Pacific were stunning.
The 3 star hotel that we were at was on the opposite headland of the Gulf to the Four Seasons resort with arguably a better position. In fact we got very chummy with the American developer who's planning to knock down the hotel and build a 5 star resort, 800 bucks a night. The development costs are projected at 500 million dollars! Any rate Terry allowing him to use his boat for a forthcoming photo shot and he & I have been told we can come back as his guests.
Loads of wildlife, luckily I didn't see any 'nasties'. Although, given it was rainy season, lots of mosquitos so take the Deet! But there were Howler Monkeys, Racoons and Coti Mundi and loads of bird species including two types of humming birds. Then inshore we saw two Humpbacks and offshore the Turtles & leaping Manta Rays.
For anyone else contemplating visiting the area I’m aware that First Choice holidays do organise package tours to the area. And a lot cheaper for their all-in do than I paid for a restricted ticket via Houston (to Liberia) with Continental! In terms of the family they can, amongst others, arrange organised trips to the rain forests and the volcano at Arenal.
Um…the fishing’s more problematic. Rates for offshore cruisers tend to be high, higher than for instance you’d pay in Florida. However there were a number of pangas equipped for fishing at places like Coco Beach. Although essentially an inshore boat for Roosterfish and Snapper they’re more than capable of running offshore for Sails and Marlin. Best time? Probably during the dry season that runs from November to May when it tends to be calm, just big swells.
Any rate pictures to follow, hopefully over the weekend.
Dave