Costa Rica Trip

[fish_d00d]

Hi All,

 

Wanted to share my experience last month fishing in Costa Rica, and hope these details will prove to others hoping to fish there off shore in the future

 

Every year, my in-laws like to take a family trip to someplace tropical. Last year, we went to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. We stayed at the resort, which unfortunately had the explosion a few months after Sad there was probably about 90% Canadians there.

 

Let me know if you would like to hear how the fishing went in front of the Grand Riviera Princess resort, too.

 

Prior to the trip, I tried to do as much research as I could as to what kind of gear would work best in the area. I saw videos on youTube of people surf fishing, but no one showed what they were using. Eventually, I whittled the selection down to white bucktails, natural colored jerkbaits, and swimbaits.

 

So, I headed to Bass Pro, and picked up 40lb Power Pro, some 20lb fluorocarbon, some bucktails, large twister tails, swivels, and different sized hooks. I also grabbed 3 jerkbaits (one black/silver, one white, and one black/rainbow shiny dots). Two years ago, I picked up a 12 foot collapsible surf fishing rod in Hong Kong. I packed that along with a Shimano Syncopate reel.

 

The first day we arrived, the family wanted to go to the pool, so I got permission from the wife to head to the beach and try my hand there. It was about 5PM and the beach was empty. The beach was in a quiet bay, so the waves were practically non-existent. I waded into the water, and stopped short. There were small stingrays all around. Not wanting to end up with barbs in my ankles, I decided to head back onto the beach. I didn't get so much as a nibble that evening, but I did sight a floating platform about 150ft out from the beach, and some resort kayaks. I walked back to the pool area, and was rinsing my gear in a shower, when a resort employee walked by. I asked if he knew where I could get some bait. He said "wait 2 minutes". I sat down at a nearby table. A few minutes later, a waiter comes out of a restaurant with a plate, approaches me and asks, "Did you ask for this?". He presented to me at least a pound of raw, ready-cut calamari. I thankfully accepted.

 

The next morning, I woke up at 5AM (thank you, jet lag), and slipped out of the room, quietly. No was around, so I pulled a kayak into the water and rowed out to the platform. Upon reaching the platform, I was surprised to find all sorts of rusty hooks strewn about it. There must be fish here! So, I tied on some small hooks, with small pieces of squid, tossed the line out and waited. Minutes later, something nibbled, then took the hook. As I reeled in, I couldn't help but think it felt like pulling a water balloon through water. Eventually a round object the size of a volleyball surfaced. It was spiky. It was a porcupine fish! I was sure glad I had my plies with me. Over the next hour I caught 7 of these, and they did become a nuisance. They were hilarious, however, since when you took them out of water, they made whirring sounds and squirted water from orifices all over it's body, which reminded me of furbies. I switched to a twister tail, and after a few casts, found that my tail was being bit off. I could see distinct bite marks, so this was a bigger fish, and not a spike balls. Alas, it was time to head out to an excursion and fishing ended that day. I beached the kayak, and began to walk back to the pool area. A guy approached me asking if I wanted to take a charter out (clearly makes sense to approach someone holding a fishing rod!). I said I would consider. The guy's mate, another resort employee, came over and asked to check out my gear. I sensed this guy was a genuine fisherman. I asked if he knew what would work here. He pointed to the jerk baits, particularly one that was black on top and silver on the bottom. He offered to show me a few casts, and how to retrieve. We spoke for a bit about what could be caught around the area. Finally, we agreed to meet the next day, he would bring his own rod, and he would show me where along the shore we could target some big(ger) fish.

 

The next day, I was at the beach an hour ahead of time, and excited. "Johann" was still on his shift, and he approached me for a hand shake, with a Fire Tiger hooked onto his collar. I said "Hey! That's a freshwater lure". He said "Really?". That was interesting. Johann was not off for another hour, so I proceeded to hike along the left side of the short towards an outcrop of rocks. The waves here were really rocky, and crashed dangerously over the rocks. I could see the rocks dropped off to about 20 ft of water. My mother would have had a heart attach if she ever saw me fishing there, but I thought it was awesome. I tied on the jerkbait (a $5 BPS brand), and proceeded to retrieve the lure with some decent action. After a few casts, I saw 2 fish - looked like tuna - chasing after my lure, then swim away. I couldn't believe my eyes! This could work! Eventually, Johann arrived, and he looked upset. Unfortunately, on the hike over the rocks, he had tripped and snapped the tip of his rod. We checked it out, and it was unusable. I offered him my spool of Power Pro, and access to any of my gear, and even offered to take turns with my rod, but he declined and said "you should catch some fish". He did take the spool of Power Pro and began handlining, hoping to catch some baitfish for me to use. I resumed my casting. I always find that fish tend to hit really hard when you're not paying attention. All of a sudden, my rod was almost wrenched out of my hand and my line was peeling out. I couldn't believe the power of whatever it was on the end of my line, and it was stronger than the 46" muskie I had on my line in the early summer. Johann ran over. I was swearing my head off, trying hard to keep the line tight, but not put too much tension on it. Below me, a wide silver shape was gliding back and forth in the water, like a stealth jet. Finally, Johann was able to grab the line and we pulled in a nice sized amberjack, about 24" in length. It wasn't huge, but damn did it give me a good fight. He told me it wasn't the best to eat, but it was edible. My father in law loves fish, so it was going to be dinner. High fives all around, and we got back to fishing. Johann eventually landed a small eel, and let it loose in a tidal pool. We took a break to watch it swim around and around. It would be free in an hour when the tide would come in. We fished a bit more and I landed a small grouper and a trumpet fish. The trumpet fish was the ugliest thing I had seen. Finally, the tide was coming in, so we had to leave. We agreed to try to fish at least once more before I left. As I walked through the resort to the restaurant (where I would leave the fish for storing and preparation), the fish seemed to draw alot of attention. From then on, for the rest of the trip, people would approach me and ask "hey, are you the fishing guy?". It was with conversations like these that I met a spoke with some really great people. Fishing brings people together The next day, we ate the amberjack. The chef prepared in a gourmet style, just seared on the outside. The family loved it and demanded more!

 

The next day, Johann and I found some time to meet again, and do more fishing. He still had not replaced his rod, since tackle shops in Costa Rica are even less common than in Toronto. He continued to handline with the power pro. We caught many of these groupers until all of a sudden my rod was swept down, and I almost lost my balance on the rock I was perched on. This fish was more erratic, but still powerful. Bringing it in close, I swung the fish out of the water, and onto the rocks. Johann came over and called it a rock snapper. It was probably about 4 lbs, and looked dangerous. It looked like a red snapper, but with earthier colors. He said it was very good to eat. We ended the day there, and brought the fish to the restaurant. An hour later, the family was presented with the fish cooked and prepared in the fashion restaurants in the region like to prepare snapper: fried. They loved it. seeing the success I was having fishing off the shore, my father in law asked me to arrange for all of us to hire a charter. On our way out of the restaurant, one of the couples I had become friends with stopped me and asked "what are you doing tomorrow?". I said, "Well, we're going to Nicaragua.". The guy said, "we're going sailfish fishing tomorrow, and we have one more spot. You sure? You won't have to pay anything. Just come!". This sucked. I said, "Sorry, I have to go with the family.". It really sucked to pass up that opportunity.

 

Nicaragua was not fun. I got sick on the 4hr bus ride there and back. No fishing.

 

Flash forward to the 2nd last day of the trip. It was the day we were going to go with the fishing charter. I made it out to the beach first, ahead of the rest of the family, and the captain took me around the bay to catch small bonitas for bait. Aha, this was probably what was biting my twister tails! The charter took us about 30 minutes away from the resort. We passed Michael Jordan's and Madonna's vacation houses on the way. We came to a large bay, where you couldn't see the bottom. They set up the lines and began to troll really slowly. Seeing my rod, the guides gestured for me to hand it to them. They tied on a popper, and told me to fish. Within minutes, we had a fish on one of the trolling lines. I told my father in law to go first. The fish was strong, and eventually I had to help him bring it in. A 20lb rooster fish! He had a great time, and I have never seen him so genuinely happy (okay, maybe the day I married his daughter). Everyone was ecstatic. I think they had believed we would be lucky to catch anything at all. The fish is protected and back into the water it went. I resumed my own casting. To make a long story short, I did not catch anything on my rod that day (it would have been amazing, though), however, a barracuda once gave chase, then gave up, and a large roosterfish appeared on the surface and took a nab, but missed. The universe is just cruel, teasing me. All in all, we caught 2 more roosterfish, a good 40lb amberjack, and a small blackfin tuna. It was a good day, and everyone on the boat had a turn pulling the fish in. The guides fileted the amberjack and tuna, and we headed back to the resort. Within an hour, we were sitting by the pool eating the tuna sashimi style. It was ecstacy. That night, we celebrated my wife's birthday. The chef prepared the amberjack, and it looked like grilled steak. Admittedly, the snapper and tuna were the best tasting fish, in my opinion.

 

The next day we had to leave. I was packing up my gear, then figured I wanted to give something to Johann for his generosity. I appreciated that he had taken the time to show a foreigner how to fish in the area. On the way to the lobby, I left my reel and all the other tackle (except my rod) with the dive shop at which he worked, considering how difficult it is for them to obtain such gear. I sent him an email, and he was really happy. Since then, he has kept me up to date with his own fishing adventures. Unfortunately, one day, he had a tuna on the line, and it broke the reel. However, he has since had it fixed.

 

In conclusion, Costa Ricans are some of the (genuinely) friendliest people you will find, Gallo Pinto is an amazing rice dish (better than any fried rice I've had), and the fishing is damn awesome. In addition to fishing, the second best activity I experienced there was surfing. It was my first time, and to be honest, I think my ability to snowboard definitely helped! If the fish don't tire your arms, surfing is quite a workout.

 

If you ever plan to venture to Guanacaste, or stay at the Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort, feel free to give me a shout, and will try to advise on what to use.

 

Hope you enjoyed this (long) story!

[camillj]

Thanks for the report ! I am planning a fishing trip there this fall.

 

(Not sure where exactly as we are staying with friends)... but it looks like quite an adventure !

[asdve23rveavwa]

Interesting read. Some pics would be great

[Jigs]

Good read.

 

I was just there in April. Same area. Playa Del Coco to be exact. Did you see the monkey head rock on your way out?

 

Caught some Tuna, Jacks, a 135lbs sailfish and Mackerel. Best fishing trip of my life. Man was it hot though. 40 Celcius most days.

 

Here's the sailfish. I booked a charter out of the yellow building restaurant in Playa Del Coco. Name escapes me now sorry. What an amazing place though.

 

 

 

 

 

[fish_d00d]

Agh! That's what I missed out on!!

 

Yes, did pass the monkey head rock on the way out. Apparently, lots of bull sharks swim around that rock. We tried fishing around there too. Had a Jack miss.

 

Will upload some pics from the shore fishing when I get home (still at work). Charter pics are on an SLR with the in-laws.

[Jigs]

Yeah my guides told me about the bull sharks too. We caught our bait on small jigs around the monkey head. The Mahi-mahi was caught right next to it and the sailfish the next bay north (towards Nicaragua).

 

I must have landed the right guide because there were a lot of americans in the villa I rented who had been fishing there for years and never caught a sailfish. I'll try and dig up exact info on the guide for anyone interested. (trouble is there are no addresses over there and most people don't have a cell so you meet some guy by the big tree on the beach and off you go lol) Really affordable and they put you on fish. They also clean the fish for you in the boat and bring beer and fruit for like I said a very reasonable price. (under 100$).

Edited August 25, 2011 by Jigs

[Jigs]

To anyone interested I don't remember the name of the guy but he's a local who operates tour guides out of Hotel Coco Palms in Playa del Coco. He booked the guide for me with 24hrs notice. He also offers canopy zip-lining in the tropical jungle and boat river tours (which I tried and highly recommend) and rafting at the right time of year. He's pretty easy to find if you go to Hotel Coco Palms and ask about it. He's about 30ish and speaks fluent English. Great guy who can really set you up for some amazing fishing.