Three hours north of San Jose lies Costa Rica’s biggest and most active volcano, Arenal. Though considered very safe, the Arenal Volcano is very active and it’s frequent and spectacular eruptions have made the area a major tourism destination. This imposing figure looms over the small town of La Fortuna where many hotels take advantage of the free lava shows and were built so you can watch them right from your own hotel room.
As impressive as the Arenal Volcano is, it is the lake that is starting to gain a reputation among bass fisherman. Lake Arenal was formed when a dam was built in 1978 to provide inexpensive hydro-electricity to Costa Rica and neighboring Nicaragua. Originally just a marshy lowland, the 33 square mile lake is now the largest lake in Costa Rica. Fed and sustained by numerous rivers coming down from the mountains and surrounded by the Arenal and Tenorio Volcano National Parks, Lake Arenal is truly a freshwater fisherman’s dream. Fishing on this beautiful lake while listening to the howler monkeys in the surrounding lush, green rainforest – all the while the Arenal Volcano looms in the backround – makes for an unforgettable fishing experience.
Without a doubt the main target of anglers on Lake Arenal is the guapote, or rainbow bass. Originally found only in South America, the guapote naturally made its way to Costa Rica and now are found in huge numbers on the lake. Besides its brilliant colors, the guapote is a ferocious fighter and makes for one of the best tasting meals you will ever find. Not to be outdone, the machaca, mojarra, and tiger bass also offer great fishing year round. The general consensus of experienced fisherman on the lake is that using spinners and surface poppers is most effective in the morning and late afternoon. When the tropical sun heats things up mid-morning most people generally switch to trolling the deeper, cooler waters where the fish retreat to. Anglers can choose their spots as there is no shortage of submerged trees, points, and river mouths that make for perfect fish hangouts.
Just north of Lake Arenal is one of Costa Rica’s most unexplored and untouched national parks, the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge. This huge network of rivers and marshes all feed into the Caño Negro Lake. Close to the town of Los Chiles, this remote national park covers nearly 25,000 acres and is one of the best places in the entire country to see wildlife and an incredible variety of rare birds. Though beautiful, swimming is not recommended as the rivers and lake are the home to some of Costa Rica’s biggest crocodiles.
As with Lake Arenal, Caño Negro is relatively unkown and untouched so fishing here is first class. This area is loaded with guapote, mojarra, and machaca but also offers an entirely new variety of freshwater fish. Snook are frequently landed, though the real treat is fighting one of the huge freshwater tarpon that live here. Though a bit darker than their silver Caribbean brothers, the bronze colored freshwater tarpon can reach 6-7 feet in length and make for the fight of a lifetime. As Caño Negro is located half way between the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, the tarpon and snook found here have traveled from the Caribbean Sea nearly 100 miles inland via the San Juan River. This huge river, which runs from Lake Nicaragua to Barra de Colorado on the Caribbean Sea of Costa Rica, marks the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. As tarpon and snook are traditionally found in the Atlantic Ocean, it is thought that they use the various rivers and lagoons in Caño Negro as nurseries. While the largest number of tarpon in the area are juveniles of about 40 lbs, this is one of the best spots in the entire world to fight mammoth tarpon that can reach world record size.
