fishing costa rica

Costa Rica is an angler's dream come true. The country's Pacific ports and beach resorts provide access to some the best deep sea fishing in the world, while the canals and rivers of the northern Atlantic coast feature world-class snook and tarpon fishing. Billfish are the country's biggest attractions, with abundant sailfish and marlin off the Pacific coast, but the fishermen also hook plenty of other feisty fighters, such as wahoo and roosterfish. Though deep sea fishing is the country's forte, there is also has great fresh water fishing in Lake Arenal and the larger rivers in the Northern Zone, where anglers can fight with the small but ornery guapote, a hump-backed fish also known as the rainbow bass. Giant marlin, sailfish beyond number; highjumping tarpon, record closs snook an a dozen or more hard hitting fresh water species...

Costa Rica has them all! Fishing just doesn't get any better than tou will find in friendly, pacefulCosta Rica and because this ia a small nation, it's possible to enjoy it all on a single visit, perhaps with a day of with water rafting and a volcano and rain forest tour thrown in.

On the Pacific, it's common to release a dozen or more sails and even a marlin or two in a single day, and not unusual to release more than 30 sailfish a day. There are also dolphin(including the long-standing International Game Fish Association's all-tackle record 87 pounder), giant yellowfin tuna, wahoo, cubera, rooster fish, a variety of snapper; grouper; blue runners, rainbow runners, snook and much more. And Costa Rica boat operators release all billfish that are not record contenders, so the future of the resuorce is assured.The Pacific provides Costa Rica's most consistently exciting fishing, with sailfish, marlin, tuna, wahoo, roosterfish, mackerel, mahi mahi and snapper being caught regularly. It is the abundance of billfish that has made that area famous, with sailfish and marlin being taken in phenomenal numbers. There are plenty of ports out of which you can fish the Pacific. In the northwest province of Guanacaste, charter boats work out of Coco, Ocotal, Flamingo, Tamarindo and Carrillo. Further south, you can fish out of Puntarenas, Tambor, Punta Leona, Quepos and Manuel Antonio, Dominical, Drake Bay, Golfito and Zancudo.

Northern Pacific

Cabo Blanco to the Gulf of Papagayo Flamingo Beach, with a full service marina, is the major sportfishing center in the northern coastal area, but boats also charter out of earby Coco's beach, Tamarindo, Ocotal, Potrero, Brasilito and a few points in between. A bit further south, there are boats operating below Cabo Blanco, out of Nozara, Garza, Sámara and Carrillo beach, a region that gets more protection from the winds that normally blow late December into March and April. Some boats from the more northerly areas often base at Carrillo beach from about December through March if the wind is lowing and the main billfish population is moving north from the central coast area.

Seasons

Marlin: Caught every month of the year; with midNovember to early Marh exceptional, then slowing a bit from April into early June when it picks up again, peaking in August and September.

Sailfish: Caught throughout the year; with May through August normally the top season. They may begin to thin out in September and from late August Through November.