Costa Rica Fishing - News, Reviews, & Reports

June Fishing Report - Manuel Antonio

In a month that typically showcases calm seas, afternoon rain showers, and a second marlin run, this June was not a good one for fishing in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica.  At first there was a case of the dreaded “red tide”, and then Costa Rica’s first ever tropical storm, Alma.  The red tide is another name for an algal bloom,  where algae accumulate near the surface in a dense mass.  This algae is actually a single celled organism named phytoplankton which with their pigments can change color to create a red or pink floating mass.  The bad news for anglers is that the fishing is generally poor when there is a red tide.  The slow fishing may attributed to one of the causes of the red tide, agricultural run-off and water pollution.  The algal bloom has been tied to an increase in agricultural run-off and excess pollution due to more phosphates and nitrates in the water.  Whatever the case may be, the fish seem to know either by water temperature or quality to stay away when the red tide comes in.

As if the red tide wasn’t bad enough, Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast got hammered by the country’s first ever tropical storm - Tropical Storm Alma.  Alma was the first storm ever formed in Costa Rican territory and caused more damage than any other previous tropical storm or hurricane.  Typically Costa Rica is too far south to be affected by hurricanes with the last one passing through in 1996.  Costa Rica however took a direct shot from Alma and is still a bit woozy from the blow.  Alma left about 8,000 people without power, caused over $40 million in damages, and worst of all - it sank some of our fishing boats in Quepos!!  With the new marina not yet ready, boat owners did what they have always done - collected their boats in the estuary and hoped for the best.  No one was expecting that Alma’s rains would produce a head of water, or ‘cabeza de agua’, that would be so powerful it would take boats out to sea.  In all 10 boats sank, including the Precedent, On The Fly, Fishing Machine, Wahoo, Tiger Shark, and our very own Blue Pearl I.

Despite all that, we did still have one brave but poorly timed fishing vacation realized.  Randall Fretz came down for three days of fishing on the Blue Pearl I and was subsequently bumped up to the Blue Pearl II.  His first day he was skunked due to the red tide, but on his second day he was able to make up for it with a 35 lb wahoo.  His final day he fished in-shore and was able to haul in one of Costa Rica’s famous roosterfish.