An Introduction to Costa Rican Sportfishing

by Jerry Ruhlow

There are times when you can find bigger marlin in the waters of Australia, more sailfish off the coast of Mexico or monster tarpon in the waters of Africa and Venezuela. But nowhere will you find more consistent year around action for more species of fish than you will in Costa Rica.

If you're looking for a world record, you won't have a better chance anywhere. The International Game Fish Association's 1995 listing shows 68 world records established in this country, including 15 all-tackle records, 40 line-test records and 13 fly fishing marks.
Sailfish and marlin can be caught along the Pacific coast of this tiny Central American nation virtually any time of the year, along with tuna that range to more than 300 pounds, dolphin (better known in Costa Rica as dorado, and as mahi mahi in Hawaii), wahoo, giant grouper and cubera snapper, a dozen smaller species of snapper, amberjack, jack crevalle, trevally, blue and rainbow runners, mackerel, barracuda, snook, corvina and more.

The northern Caribbean coast produces more consistent action for tarpon than you're likely to find anywhere in the world, and again, you can find them any month of the year. You're not likely to run into a record-size fish, but the average is over 70 pounds and if you stick with it a few days you're almost certain to hit a couple over 100 pounds.

And snook fishing just doesn't get any better. A number of world record snook, including the 53 lb.10 oz. all-tackle record were caught here.
If you tire of catching tarpon and snook, many of the lodges on the Caribbean now have big, fast boats that will run a mile or two out to the reefs and blue water where they take Atlantic sailfish, blue marlin, tuna over 100 pounds, tripletail, barracuda, big grouper jewfish, and more.

For light tackle fishermen, the rivers and backwaters offer everything from catfish and drum to such exotics as rainbow bass (guapote), machaca, vieja and mojarra. But fishing isn't limited to Costa Rica's two oceans.
Countless miles of magnificent rivers and beautiful lakes offer fresh water fishing for trout, rainbow bass, mojarra, machaca and bobo.

Now, this is not to suggest that you're going to be guaranteed all of the above anytime it strikes your fancy to fly on down. Like anywhere in the world, fishing is going to vary widely for different species depending on the time of year and prevailing wind, weather and water conditions.
What we are saying is that there is no time of the year that you're not going to find some incredible sport someplace in Costa Rica, and because of Costa Rica's small size it's a breeze to get from the capital city of San Jose to where the fishing is best at the moment.

San Jose is only 30 to 40 minutes flying time from the prime fishing regions on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, with two national airlines providing daily service and a variety of charter airline services available to meet any schedule. And you can drive from San Jose to any fishing area in the country except the northern Caribbean coast within six hours (there are no roads into the northern Caribbean area, and it is accessed only by air or by boat).
Some of the best inland fishing regions are within two to three hours from the capital.

Fishing licenses are required of residents and visitors alike to fish inland and ocean waters. Charter operators normally provide the salt water license as part of their packages.
  If fishing inland waters, you will normally have to obtain your own license, and should also be aware of closed seasons.

- Nuevo Mundo -