Bill fish

I just came back from a  great weekend at the Marriott Los Suenos near Jaco, Costa Rica.  The area if famous for its bill fishing as the Los Suenos Bill Fishing Tournament is Costa Rica’s largest fishing competition held annually at the Marriott.

This was my first time fishing in the area as well as staying at the Marriott.  We stayed at Casa Harmon on the Marriott resort which is managed by Stay in Costa Rica.  The house was a fantastic house and located only 5minutes from the marina, the hotel and also the beach.  The house looked over the golf course and had 6 bedrooms however the swimming pool was the best part of the house as it was surrounded by tropical plants.

We fished on Maverick Sportfishing’s 42 ft Super Fly boat which came in 2nd for the 2008 Bill Fishing Tournament.  The boat was fabulous, by far the finest boat I have been on.  It had a full kitchen, AC and was nicely finished with wood and teak.

Our first catch was a 150lb blue Marlin and was a great fight for Chris.  The 2nd was a 150lb sailfish caught by Tony and then I caught the last fish which was a 150lb sailfish.  It was a OK days fishing based on what they normally catch, however the day before they had caught a 500lb black marlin.  Typically they say they catch around 10 bill fish a day.

You ca see more about Costa Rica fishing here.

Tarpon Fishing in Tortuguero

After spending 4 years in Costa Rica and spend the better part of that time fishing in various areas of Costa Rica, this past weekend I had the opportunity to go Tarpon fishing in Tortuguero, Costa Rica.  I have fished all over Costa Rica, from catching bass in the lakes of Arenal to fly fishing in the Central valley and catching Sailfish in the North Pacific (I personally however have never caught a sailfish).  Costa Rica has some great fishing however I was happy to be going back to Tortuguero as it is a unique location for wildlife, however to eb able to fish as well would be fabulous.

I did some research on Tarpon before going and was discouraged to find that typically on hooking 7 tarpon fishermen only ever land 1.  Therefore in order for us to land 3 fish (1 each) we would have to hook 21 fish, seemed like a lot.  Anyway we got up early and the sea was a little choppy however not too bad.  I get sea sick and I know that every time I go out on the ocean and we start bobbing around I will be sick.  miraculously this time however i was not sick, but did go a little green, much to my friends amusement (they wondered why I was so quiet).

After about the first 2 hours or trawling we had one bite which I had however we did hook it.  Then as soon as we moved to dead bait we had a hit and Chris spent the next 35 minutes fighting a jumping and strong 80lb Tarpon.  As soon as he hit his Tarpon, Primo the Capitan saw a Tarpon surface and cast a beautiful 100ft fly close by and a 120lb Tarpon took the bait, however on the handover to myself the Tarpon jumped and threw the hook.  A complete shame as this was a very big tarpon and Primo said it weighed around 120lb, would hev been a 50 minute struggle for sure.

To sum the day up we had 7 hits and landed 3 tarpon, Chris and Tony had a 80lber each and I had a 65lber that fought to no end, taking about 25 minutes to land and jumping all over the place.

We went through Hooked Up Sportfishing from Costa Rica Vacations, they are the Costa Rica Fishing Specialist.