Fishing in the mangroves

I spent the next couple of months after breaking my arm taking it easy at the beach and not doing much fishing or anything else too physical. I was getting a bit bored and wanted some action. I was invited to go fishing out in the mangroves with an expat friend of mine. I quickly took him up on his offer. My cast was off and my arm felt good but I wasn't ready to be fighting big huge fish yet. The mangroves would be just right.

I met my friend and we stocked up at the store on some snacks and drinks before stopping at a local fisherman's place to buy some bait from him. We bought some shrimp and some fresh sardines from him. I watched his workers baiting up long line rigs that they were going to drop out later that day. The longliners are everywhere in Costa Rica. The government lies to the world telling them that there is no longlining going on in Costa Rica. I don't know why they do that. They lie about a lot of things. The whole Costa Rica is a green country is a total lie. The government spins a good yarn about how green they are while turning a blind eye to all the non green things going on. Like the lack of sewer treatment. They dump almost all the sewage into the rivers making all the rivers polluted messes. They have been chopping down the rain forest (that the Government tells the world they are protecting) at an astonishing rate. They are just replacing it with a concrete jungle of Florida style developments. It is a very sad state of affairs.

We went over to launch his boat with our snacks and bait loaded into the cooler. We were using a small boston whaler with a little 15 horse motor. It was small but plenty big for the two of us in the flat and shallow waters of the mangrove swamps. The target species in the mangroves were, smallish pargo, triple tails, snook and various other small fish that I don't know the names of. After launching the boat we had to walk and swim the boat through some shallow water until we were in water deep enough to float in. Then we paddled until it was deep enough to use the motor. Finally we were motoring along the canals heading to the mouth of the mangroves and river that flowed through them. After about a twenty minute ride through winding ever widening canals we were near the mouth of the river where it widened out to a fairly good sized lagoon before it broke through the beach and flowed into the Pacific. We started fishing by trolling some broken back rebels along the shores on either side. We did not find fast action but there was a steady pick of small pargos. Some of the littler ones we threw back and if they were larger we threw them into the cooler. There was a mix of pargos and triple tails in the cooler. It was fun catching them on our light tackle. There was always the chance that a world record snook could be taken here as several world record snook have been caught here. We stopped and talked to the tico fishermen working along the shores. They had some nice snook in their boats but we didn't get a single snook. The locals were catching the snook on live bait and we were using dead bait and lures. Nobody had pargos much bigger than what we were catching. It was all good. We could have purchased snook to take home but we did not bother. The pargo and triple tails we were keeping would be enough table fare for us to share.

After tiring of trolling we dropped the anchor near a deep hole along the shore and we bait fished for a while. We still were only catching pargo. I caught some live bait and put out a rod with the live bait on but it was only catching pargo also. As the afternoon sun fell and the heat started to cool down the mosquitoes started to bother us so we pulled up the anchor and headed back up the river canals to the launching ramp. The tide was high enough to allow us to motor all the way to the ramp. We washed the boat down, cleaned the fish we kept and headed to the bar for a few beers. It was a nice fun day on the water with enough fish to have a great fish dinner cooked up for us at the restaurant. I looked forward to many more days fishing in the mangroves.

Still fishing in Costa Rica

Over the years that I was in Costa Rica I tried lots of different fishing out. I fished for trout up in the mountains that were planted just for that purpose. There were also restaurants around Quepos that had tilapia ponds where you had to go catch your own fish to be cooked for your meal. They just had cane poles with a hook and ten feet of line. They used a bread dough type of bait that you just squished onto the hook then dangled it into the pond until you had the fish you wanted. It was fun to take the locals out to these restaurants because for most of them it was the first time they had ever fished.

I fished on the East coast a few times. The water over there in the gulf is beautiful. Generally it is flat calm and crystal clear blue water with great visibility. It always looked fishy but the fishing was not so good. Up in the north eastern area of the country there was some excellent fishing at different times of the year for large tarpon. They hang out near the mouth of the Rio Colorado and go up the river all the way as far as Lake Nicaragua. Some of them are huge world record sized fish.

I went in the end of November and we were targeting snook and tarpon. When you are fishing for snook you can catch a tarpon so you have to be ready for a giant fish at any time. We fished the river tossing lures into deep holes along the river. Our guide knew where the holes were and did an excellent job of putting us on the fish. We caught lots of snook then we moved out into the river mouth and started to work on the tarpon. We got bites right away but we found it tough to get them to stick. There is an art to setting the hook at the right time and right power. Too early and you miss the fish, too late and the fish spits out the bait or lure. I got to fight six or seven big tarpon the first day of fishing. I didn't land any of them. I have to admit though that I was so enjoying watching them dance above the water that I was intentionally holding my rod up high to encourage them to dance. To land them you should keep the rod lower. Most of the hooks were thrown while the big fish were shaking their heads. It was a fun day on the water and I think every angler in the world should put Rio Colorado snook and tarpon fishing on their short bucket list.

I fished around Bocas Del Toro in Northern Panama also. The area looks like the fishing should be spectacular but I found it to be slow. The sightseeing while fishing is awesome with all the tropical islands and beautiful water. There seems to be structure everywhere that looks like perfect fish habitat but the fish just were not there in numbers or any size. We caught some small tuna and some snappers and barracuda but not much else. I preferred to just swim or skin dive in all the cool little coves and stuff to the fishing. The diving on this side of Costa Rica and Panama is much better visibility than on the west coast so it is much more interesting except for around Coiba in Panama and maybe Canos Island in Costa Rica which both have excellent diving at the right times of the year.

Lake Arenal has some fishing I tried. They have peacock bass there which I wanted to catch. My only day on the lake we did catch some small fish early in the day but then we were blown off the lake by the high winds which seem to come up every day. I like to get on the water at the crack of dawn but we could not get the Costa Ricans to get out on the water early enough. I may have been there at the wrong time of year though. It wasn't my favorite place to fish.

I went fishing out of Tamarindo up in the north west area of Costa Rica. Again we were blown off the water fairly early in the day. We trolled around for nothing but some bonitas. That doesn't mean that the fishing up there is always slow just that we had a slow day where the wind came up strong. I have heard reports from people that had great days on the water for sails, tuna and marlin in that area.

I fished out of Zancudo Lodge in South Eastern Costa Rica and had a great time. A bunch of my friends from California came down and we stayed at the lodge and fished for a few days. We caught some nice sails and a couple of marlin and I had a very good day doing inshore for roosters and pargo. One of my roosters was the largest I caught in Costa Rica. I recommend the Zancudo Lodge for any serious fishermen. I also fished Crocodile Bay. They are over closer to the mouth of the bay than Zancudo Lodge. I only fished inshore there and I caught some huge pargo and lots of roosters. It was a really fun day on the water. Crocodile Bay is an all inclusive lodge like Zancudo Lodge was, both are fairly pricey but they both are great places to go get your fishing urges filled.

I fished one day out of a lodge that caters to the tourists at Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula. It was just panga fishing and we trolled around for a couple of hours close to shore for some needlefish, a barracuda and a few small pargos. I have fished the nearby Drakes Bay at other times for some giant dog toothed snappers and some nice snook.

I went on a multiday fishing trip out of Quepos to Samara which is up in the middle of the Nicoya Peninsula. We fished near Montezuma, Mal Pais and almost as far north as Tamrindo. The purpose of the trip was to let the deck hands have a vacation and do some fishing themselves. We had a blast on the trip. We partied a bit too hardy in Samara the first night and then the wind came up so we didn't get a lot of serious fishing in but the deck hands got to land some billfish themselves for a change. I enjoyed Samara. It is a smaller town with only a few choices for places to eat and drink so they are all crowded and fun to hang out in. There were lots of hot friendly girls around too. Mal Pais is south of Samara and is a famous surfing destination in Costa Rica. It is known for big waves. Montezuma is another small town with a couple of fun bars to party in. The boats there take off from the beach because there is no pier or good harbor. It isn't known as a fishing destination so the fishing boats out of there are mostly just panga fishing. I love panga fishing but the attitude I found with the panga fishing boats here was not my favorite attitude. They kind of just go through the motions of fishing and are not seriously trying to get you on fish. Such is life.

So I fished around Quepos the most of all these places. When the rain lets up around thanksgiving time the dorados show up in big numbers around Quepos. I really love catching dorados or mahi mahi as they are also called. Dorados can change colors and they be green, yellow, white, blue, or almost any combination of colors and patterns from polka dots to stripes or two toned or three toned whatever. They are also great to eat. The largest dorado I saw was around 90 pounds and was caught by a long liner. I love to catch them and hold my rod up high to encourage them to jump and dance on the surface. We fished the garbage lines and any other debris in the water to find them. They could be close to shore or way offshore. There were days when I had to stop fishing because I was too tired from all the dorado especially in December and January around Quepos. That is the best time to fish the area because you can catch almost all the available fish like sails, marlin, pargo, wahoo, snook, dorado and tuna at that time of year. The weather is usually perfect at that time too and stays nice through about May.

I just got a report today from Quepos. My friend caught 9 wahoo, 4 tuna and three sails out of Quepos plus some nice big pargos down at Drakes bay and a bunch of smaller fish in the mangroves around Quepos. PURAVIDA

Inshore fishing Quepos Costa Rica

After a lot of offshore fishing for billfish in Costa Rica I kind of burned out on that style of fishing. The frequently long dry spells between fish got to be too boring and the fish were too easy to land once you learned how to handle them. I preferred to fish with more constant action even if the fish were smaller. That is why I preferred to do inshore fishing or fishing in the mangroves to trolling all day. Around Quepos my most popular target while inshore fishing was roosterfish. The roosters hang out near rocky spots all up and down the shore from the harbor at Quepos. I liked fishing just south of the Manuel Antonio national park near a group of rocky islands and submerged high spots. We would fish for bait first. Lookdowns were a local fish that made a great bait because they stayed alive on the hook for a long time and the roosters seemed to like them. We also used sardinas which were smaller and did not last as long. Sometimes the bait was hard to find and catch and we would lose a couple of hours of fishing time trying to get the bait but such is life. When you drop the bait over and slowly troll it around the rocks the roosters take the bait and swallow it whole. you need to feed them a bit of line and wait for them to swallow the bait before you set the hook or you will lose most of your hook sets. Once on the hook the roosters go nuts. They tend to stay in the area where you hook them and don't generally go on long runs but rather they tend to circle around and go back and forth. The last twenty feet to the boat they just don't want to give up and most of the fish are lost right in this range from the boat. They don't do the tuna death circles but instead they tend to just pull side to side for the last little bit or they dive for deeper water. If they get back into the rocks your line will be broken off by the sharp rocks. One day I was trolling two rods and I hooked up both rods at the same time with 25 -30 pond roosters. Both fish were landed but it was a crazy time trying to keep the two fish from getting twisted together. I had to keep switching rods putting one in the holder while I unwound the other fish and tried to reel them both in while keeping the boat from running into the rocks or the other boats. I was laughing so hard with the double hookup and the craziness of trying to land both fish I almost had to quit and roll around on the deck. I released all the roosterfish. I did have one die on me once but they are a fairly hardy species and normally they revived well.

I also liked to fish for the sierras or spanish mackeral that were common around Quepos. Sierras taste very good at the table. The locals love to use them for cerviche. I think they can be cooked almost any way and still be great to eat. The sierras were common in large schools of fish around the same area where I liked to fish for the roosters. I think they were breeding there the way they sometimes massed in thick balls of fish. When they were all balled up they were difficult to entice to bite. They had other things on their minds than food I guess. I am the same way. The best way I found to catch them was to troll broken back rebel type lures through them at a fairly fast speed. Once on the hook the sierras were fun to catch but they only put up a short battle because they swim so fast. Some of the sierras we caught were up to four feet long and looked more like a wahoo. After a long day on the water I would take some sierra to a restaurant and they would cook me up a feast and then I let them keep the left over fish for themselves and there was usually a lot of it.

Pargo were another target species for us. Most of the pargo were dog toothed snappers around Quepos but there were a few other species also. The local fishermen mainly targeted the pargo at night so the fish were mostly smallish five pounders or so with an occasional fatter one. The pargo were also good eating so we kept some of them for the table. The larger ones I always released because they were the best breeders. We fished the bottom with live sardinas for the pargo. It is interesting that in Panama the fish will willingly and eagerly hit top water lures like poppers but I tried and tried the top water in Costa Rica and I could not get much action with it. Sometimes they would hit the rebels I trolled but most of the pargo I caught on live bait or some on cut bait.

Quepos has several world records for their large snook. To fish the snook we threw live sardinas into the surf line near river mouths. The boats could not sit in the rollers so the way we did it was to get our rigs ready to go then timing the boat to the rollers we would swoop into near the breakers and toss our rigs out then turn the boat around and go back out where we could be as close to the breakers as safety would allow. A couple of anglers died there while fishing for snook when they mistimed the boat with the breakers and rolled their boats over in the surf. You needed a trustworthy skilled wheel man on the boat to fish this style. The locals caught some snook using handlines dangled from train bridges over the rivers that looked to be close to 70 pounds. That is about ten pounds over the world record. I never managed to catch any really big ones but they were always fun to catch. The snook are one of the best fish to eat. I always released any snook of any size and only kept little pansized ones to eat.

The mangroves were loaded with small snook and pargo. We would troll rebels or drift with live bait for them. There were always some fly fishermen that would be fishing around in the mangroves and they got lots of action on the little fish. I didn't have fly fishng tackle so I was stuck with my spinning rods. There were a few monster sized fish in the mangroves I just never caught one there. We only fished during the day in the mangroves because at night the bugs were thick and so were the drug smugglers and I didn't like either of them.