Costa Rica Fishing - News, Reviews, & Reports

Los Suenos Fishing Report - July 09

This past weekend I had the luxury of heading down to the gorgeous Los Suenos Resort & Marina again for a weekend of fishing.  We knew we were going up against two formidable foes - a red tide and the fact that we were fishing in the so called ‘off-season’, but we weren’t too worried about our chances because we knew that we had a few good things going for us too - the fact that we were fishing during the “summer of San Juan” and the knowledge that we were heading out on some of the best charter boats at Los Suenos.  For those of you who don’t know, Costa Rica’s green season runs from early May to late November, and that also coincides with the slower fishing months around the Los Suenos Resort.  The “Summer of San Juan” is simply a one or two week period in July where the Central Valley experiences dry season weather.  All weather factors and superstitions aside, the fishing at Los Suenos once again lived up to it’s lofty reputation.

On Saturday we headed out on the 32′ Maverick Yacht named the Sunny One amongst reports that there have been lots of wahoo around, but no sailfish.  After making an hour run to the continental shelf we put our lines in the water and wouldn’t you know it, within 15 minutes we had our first sailfish.  We were all excited that we were going to have a huge day out on the water due to all good signs we were seeing - calm seas, great weather, no other fishing boats in site, and our first sailfish by 8:30 AM.  That excitement and adrenaline quickly began to fade and eyes that were once eagerly watching our spread for the next bill or dorsal fin slicing through the water began to close as the drone of the engine and sound of the water on the hull began to coax people to sleep.  Next all of us began to think that those eerily calm seas, the lack of other fishing boats, and lack of any birds or garbage floating in currents meant that this was indeed the off-season and the billfish had all migrated north to Guanacaste.

The first mate came over at 12:30 PM and suggested we eat our roasted chicken, which was wrapped in aluminum foil and being kept warm on the Catepillar engine, and then pull in the lines to try some in-shore fishing before calling it a day.  During lunch I asked  him if it has really been this slow lately and he said yes, but that sometimes when the tide changes it can bring new currents and new fish.  I thought he was just trying to say something positive to keep us optimistic because I thought that at 40 miles out, how in the world could the changing of the tide affect our luck?  We polished off the chicken in no time and had five of the six lines out of the water when all of a sudden I spotted the unmistakable sight of a sailfish’s dorsal fin cutting through the water not 15 feet from our boat.  It was heading from bow to stern and right for our only ballyhoo left in the water, and then sure enough our Penn reel began to scream.  I had that sailfish to the boat in 15 minutes and we hauled in two more within the next 30 minutes bringing our total to four.  As a big Pacific storm was gaining strength, and gaining on our position, we decided that with four sailfish we had had a great day and headed back to the friendly confines of the Los Suenos Marina.

The next day saw us head out for a day of in-shore fishing on a beautiful 26′ Regulator.  This was one of the nicest center consoles I have ever been out on as it was equipped with two huge 350 hp Yahama engines, full electronics, comfortable seating, and full coaming all the way around the boat.  Our captains, Bill from New York and Eric who is local to the Jaco area, quickly showed us that their boat was not in the Los Suenos Marina to keep up with the Jones’s, they were there to fish.  We jigged for live bait and quickly filled the live well, then within 15  minutes I was fighting a large jack on the other end of my Shimano rod & reel.  He gave a good fight and did everything jacks do, the quick head twitches underwater trying to shake the hook and then once in my hands he made the ’snorting’ sound that I’ve only heard jacks do.  We then moved out of Playa Herradura south to Jaco Beach and were trolling around a big rock with five other boats.  There was not a lot of action so Eric took the wheel and said he wanted to try a spot that not many people knew about.  We continued south towards Playa Hermosa and then started trolling around another rock that Eric said he used to go lobster diving at as a kid - talk about local knowledge!  Right as we were having a half serious conversation about how bananas are bad luck on boats the Shimano reel screamed and my friend Richard was in a battle with his very first roosterfish.  For 20 minutes we didn’t see any sign of the fish, just Richard swearing as it took more line out.  We were all convinced it was a big rooster on the other end, and after about 30 minutes we finally saw the huge white body come to the surface.  It took both Eric and I to pull the roosterfish on board by the tail, and after snapping a few pictures we released him full of fight back into the ocean.

All weekend we heard how there weren’t any sailfish around and that the red tide north of the marina had scared all the in-shore fish away, but our finally tally was 4 sailfish, one 20 lb jack, a big needle fish, and the prized 60 lb roosterfish.  I find it hard to believe that we had such great luck because we are living well and karma was paying us back, I simply believe that the Los Suenos fishing is truly some of the world’s best despite ‘low-seasons’, red tides, and bananas on boats.