Costa Rica Fishing Notes

Tamarindo inshore fishing on the Capullo

By S. Curtis on May 7, 2010 9:42 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Paul Murray and buddies fished with Capt. Manuel Leal and mates Cheyenne Rosales and Luis Rosales aboard the Capullo yesterday for a half day trip and had tons of action. Right off the bat they caught a small bait and put it out live. A nice 25 lb. roosterfish wolfed the bait, and posed for a photo before being released.

Another bait resulted in a bite by a black tipped reef shark, which turned out to be around 150 lbs., a good fight.

Paul and the guys wanted to try and catch some food fish, so Manuel went to a grouper spot and they put some squid-baited rigs on the bottom. The caught several nice grouper, including a nice 20 pounder. All in all, a great half day inshore.

Blast from the past - great tuna memories

By S. Curtis on May 5, 2010 5:28 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I was going through some old photos and found this relic from the old days. My buddies Warren Sellers and Luke Hoch and I went out on Luke's boat, the Caroline. We were out on a busman's holiday to catch marlin, no clients, just the three of us; ostensibly the pros were going to show everyone how it was done. It was one of those days when there was a lot going on out there, and we were seeing sailfish, dorado, etc., but we were only pulling big plugs, looking for giant marlin. We had a 50 lb. rig, two 80 lb. rigs, and a 130 lb. rig of Warren's that was basically like a broomstick with a reel on it. We were pulling a huge super plunger on the big rod, really short, maybe 6 or 8 feet behind the transom, and an assortment of large marlin lures on the other rods.

As luck would have it, we came up on a school of spinner dolphin with birds working them, and set up to make a few passes kind of behind the group and out to the side. We worked this way for a short while, then moved closer to the group, figuring that we wouldn't get any bites from tuna because the lures we were pulling were too big. Right. As I can see the sequence in my mind's eye, the bites came from back to front, in fast order: first one rigger went down, then the other, then the long flat line, then the short flat line, which was the 130 lb. rig. The hole left when the super plunger was hit was like dropping a 55 gallon barrel of concrete in the water.

So here we are, 3 of us trying to figure out how to fight 4 big tuna at once. We left one rod, one of the 80's, in a rod holder in the gunwale and just let that fish do whatever he wanted. Luke grabbed one of the 80's with a fighting belt (Luke was a strapping lad), and I took the 50 to a seat Luke had on the bow with a gimbal. Warren went to the chair with the 130 and strapped himself in.

I can't remember how long we fought those fish, but my estimate would be around an hour. The first fish to come in was a 150 lb. yellowfin. We took a quick length and girth measurement and let that fish go. The next was a 180 lb. yellowfin that we put on the deck. By this time we had the other 80 out of the rod holder and the fish was still hooked up. We landed that fish, a 240 lb. yellowfin, which we put on the deck.

The last fish was the one Warren had on the 130. At one point Warren goes, "Let's see what this boy's got," and pushed the drag all the way up. He's in the chair wearing a bucket harness hooked to the reel of that 130, and I'll never forget his grin as the fish proceeded to pull him out of the chair up on his feet before he backed down on the drag. Eventually we landed that fish as well, which weighed out to be 255 lb.

Exhausted, we headed back to shore in the late afternoon rain, with thoughts of taking the tuna to Puntarenas and making some money. We actually filleted those beasts, using machetes along with knives. We put all the meat in the walk-in freezer of a friend who had just built a new hotel/restaurant. Then we went and had a few beers and had tuna for dinner and got some shuteye.

The next morning we prepared to take the fish to the tuna cannery, but when we got to the walk-in freezer we found out that the power had gone out in the night, and all we had left were several hundred pounds of dog food. Our first and last try at being commercial fishermen.

BTW, that's Warren in the yellow rain jacket, Luke squatting, and me on the left in the red jacket.

Striped Marlin

By S. Curtis on April 28, 2010 5:34 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Capt. Manuel Leal called me on his cell around 9:00 this morning and said they'd just released a marlin on the Capullo. Since they were doing a half day trip I'd assumed that they would be looking for roosterfish or something to eat close in. Turns out the inshore didn't produce much in the first half hour, so they trolled offshore. After about 30 minutes they got to the ledge, around 400 ft., and right off the bat raised a striped marlin. The fish came up on a bridge teaser and they pitched it a ballyhoo with a circle hook on a 30 lb. outfit. 10 minutes later they released the stripey.

Tamarindo Sailfish, Marlin, Dorado, Wahoo

By S. Curtis on April 26, 2010 5:11 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Robbie Goolsby and group fished with us April 25 out of Tamarindo, Costa Rica, and had a super smorgasbord day. We started off the day with a nice 35 lb. wahoo, caught offshore in about 2000 ft. of water. The fish left a wide hole behind the short left teaser, and as we were in a turn to send out a bait, it hit the long rigger with a marlin lure in it.

Shortly after that, in the same area, we raised a sail on the short left teaser, pitched back a ballyhoo with a circle hook, and hooked and released it.

We beat up the area for about a half hour longer, but didn't raise anything else. We headed offshore and raised and released another sail in about 4500 ft. of water.

While in this area a 40 lb. dorado hooked up on the shotgun bait, a circle hook/ballyhoo on 20 lb. tackle. This was a tough fish that fought for over 20 minutes, but we landed it and were eating dorado sashimi not much later.

By this time we were over 20 miles from shore and started heading back towards Tamarindo. We raised a billfish on the short left teaser (very popular today--green and black silicone wide range clone) that took one swipe at the teaser then went down. We didn't get a good look at it when it first showed, so, thinking it was probably a sail, sent out a ballyhoo with circle hook on a 20 lb. test rod.

Within a couple of seconds the fish showed on the teaser again and we realized that it was a marlin, but by now it was too late, we already had the sailfish bait out. The fish wasn't that big, so we just left the sail bait there and the marlin took it and we hooked it up. It then went ballistic and while greyhounding around the ocean we saw it was about a 175 lb. blue. It took 45 minutes, but we finally released the fish, always a lot of fun to watch someone fight a marlin on 20 lb. gear. Fun for the crew, anyway!

Great Inshore Fishing

By S. Curtis on April 3, 2010 1:35 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Bruce Ong fished with Capt. Gerald Ruiz on our 22' Boston Whaler and had a great day inshore, catching roosterfish, amberjack, jack crevalle and rainbow runner, as well as a variety of mackerel and baitfish.

Click on images to see a larger version

Super Carrillo Fishing

By S. Curtis on March 5, 2010 9:31 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Peter Allen and Omer Riza fished with us and had their usual great fishing luck out of Carrillo, Costa Rica, releasing 4 sailfish, 4 dorado, a striped marlin, and a nice 400+ lb. blue marlin.

Seas were calm and the weather perfect. The blue water was around 20 miles offshore, with a gradual color change from the green closer to shore. Just a few days ago the blue water was over 30 miles away, so it's welcome to see it moving closer to shore. If this sounds like a complaint, remember that we're pretty spoiled here. Nothing is better than to have the blue water right up against the shoreline, and a good marlin and/or sail bite going on just 5 or 10 miles away.

The stripey came up on a short teaser, a Wide Range Senior clone made of soft silicone. We fed it a large ballyhoo and hooked it up on the tiny little Accurate BX2-500, loaded with 80 lb. Spectra and a 100 yd. topshot of 30 lb. mono. The fish was about 120 lbs. and the pectoral fins were brightly lit up on the release. Check out the photos to the left and right (by the way, just click on any of these photos to see a larger version).

The blue came up on the same purple and black teaser as the stripe, and we fed it a dorado belly bait on the Accurate ATD 30, which we've got loaded with 130 lb. spectra and a 100 yd. topshot of 80 lb. mono. The fish topped 400 lbs. and gave us quite a show. Omer got a shot of the fish on the wire with Manuel, although in the excitement the lens got slightly smeared with sunscreen. Great fish though!

November Costa Rica Fishing Still Hot

By S. Curtis on November 12, 2009 4:08 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The season is changing in Costa Rica, and the fishing has been hot, in a smorgasbord sense. After a very light rainy season, the first 10 days of November were a bit wet, and we are just now transitioning into the dry season. In October we had good sailfish bites at various times, with a lot of dorado as well.

Typically, throughout the year in Costa Rica we see fluctuations in the fishing, with different species being active on the bite at different times. Sometimes, however, everything gets active and we have good, solid fishing, which is what's been going on the last couple of weeks.

The Chris Reid group fished on Capullo, our 36' Topaz sportfisher, out of Tamarindo on Nov 11th, with captain Manuel Leal and mates Cheyenne and Luis Rosales. The group caught 8 yellowfin tuna in the 40 lb. range, 2 large dorado, 2 sailfish and a 350 lb. blue marlin. We were glad to see the good sized tuna around again, as they have been a bit scarce for the last several years. We'll see how this dry season holds up tuna-wise, and I'll post notes.

The marlin was caught on 30 lb. standup tackle, on an Accurate BX2-500. The size of this reel is very small -- so small that you wouldn't normally use it to try and catch a 350 lb. marlin. We use the reel in the shotgun position, with a bare ballyhoo on a circle hook, run in a clip with the reel set in free spool and the clicker on. The reel is loaded with 80 lb. spectra backing, with a 100 yd. top shot of 30 lb. mono.

We are normally looking for sailfish, dorado or smaller-than-300lb. marlin on the shotgun, but every once in a while a bigger fish slams the bait and, what are you going to do? Off you go. The reel handled the Reid's 350 lb. blue with breaking a sweat.

The offshore winds are now beginning to show signs of picking up here on the northwest coast of Costa Rica, and our fishing charters will soon begin running an hour or so to the south on days that are forecast to be blustery in front of Tamarindo. This seasonal change is a re-shuffling of the fishing deck, so to speak, and we will see how the fishing scene shapes up in the coming months.