Quepos Fishing Report - Costa Rica Fishing Report - Manuel Antonio Fishing Report

Fishing Reports:

February 8 2012

Got some good pictures from today. Lots of sailfish out, almost had a great Marlin photo from today to put up here. Hit an islander and we saw the lure go flying. I did however get these awesome customer pictures of a nice Black that we hit last month. These Marlin pics turned out great, so I just have to share! :) Did get some good sailfish pictures from today as well, as you can see below! Great day out today, more video to come soon!

February 7 2012

Got to play with the new radar today. Here is a video for people wondering what birds look like on Radar. I didn't get a chance to spot any birds from far off, but the school I filmed on the radar popped up about 2.5 miles from the boat. You'll see how easy it was to see them though. Also had some sailfish action today. Lot's of fish raised, and everybody on board got to release one. Ended the day with a dorado for dinner! Enjoy the video!

February 4 2012

Just got this close up from a customer (maybe a little too close up, next time I'll leave at least another foot or so) of a really nice sailfish jump right next to the boat. Sailfishing has been really good this week, a few Marlin hookups as well. Got the big 25KW 6 foot open array Furuno radar finally installed. Been saving up for this for the last year, it's the best bird radar you can put on a boat without having a dedicated generator. I haven't quite got the hang of it yet, but a couple of days ago I could count how many birds there were in a small flock from 3 nautical miles away. Haven't had a chance to try it out with a big school of Yellow Fin Tuna, but we are definitely getting ready! With this new radar, i should be able to easily see any school within 5-6 miles of the boat, so we will be covering a circle of 12 Nautical miles when we go Tuna hunting (or trolling for sailfish), should find much more. The new radar will also show me all the floating debris within 3-4 miles as well, so any floating trees loaded with Dorado and marlin will be easy to see. To get ready even more, I went out today and bought a brand new Fin Nor spinning rod and reel combo with some special addition Yellow Fin Yo Zuri poppers! Finally got the HD video camera back from the warranty repair place also, so tomorrow will start shooting video again! So get ready for some awesome videos! Another great day fishing in Quepos :)

January 26 2012

Got a really nice Marlin today, but kind of did it the hard way. I guess that makes it worth more though! We had a great day two days before with these guys, hitting tons of sailfish (hooking 12 out of 15 behind the boat), so we had all the lighter gear out thinking we would be hitting mostly sailfish. Usually when we see a big Marlin in the spread, we pull up all these smaller reels and trick the fish into biting on a bigger reel. Well, a huge crash happens around 9:20 (time will be important later) and the line is just dumping off a poor Shimano Tynos on a light jigging rod. Quickly spinning the boat around, we managed to keep the reel from running out of line, but man, it was really going out. We had just gotten a nice Black Marlin on a rod I bought to get Amberjacks! Well around 10:20 I yelled down he was an hour in. Around 12:20 I yelled down that we were 3 hours in. Around 2:20, I yelled down we were 5 hours in. And we released the fish at 3:35!!! We fought this nice black for 6 hours a 15 minutes! What a crazy fight. Well after fighting a fish for 6 hours and change, i definitely think these guys deserve to have their catch up here on the board, so here is their picture! If they look worn out, it is because they are!!! Great day out fishing. I'll let the customer finish out this report from an email she sent me: (paraphrased)

My hubby's lifelong dream has been to go sailfishing in Costa Rica. Thank you for making that come true! We really enjoyed catching the dozen or so sailfish and the 250lb black marlin was awesome! We hope to come back and fish next year!

January 11 2012

Been lots of Marlin out lately. In the last two days, we released 2 Black Marlin and had 10 sailfish behind the boat. Just got this picture from the customer and we got some awesome some underwater video! Check it out here:

January 10 2012

Captain Anthony took out some customers today on the Cowboy Jr, our 23 foot inshore boat, and they really nailed the Roosterfish! Tie that with some great customer photography and this is what you get:

January 2012

Here some neat video of some Whales I just got off the camera. More fish pictures to come soon!

December 15, 2011

The goal today was to get Tim his first billfish, dorado or Roostefish. This was his fourth charter for billfish (not with us) and he had never even held a rod with a billfish on it. Well today he held 7 rods connected to those big pacific beasts, and was also connected to a dorado! We had 13 bites today and 7 of those resulted in billfish fights! He also got out with our smaller inshore fishing boat and boated some Roosters, mission accomplished! I'll finish this story out with a few pictures from today! Great day out on the water!

December 6, 2011

Had a great story to tell from today! If you've been following my reports, you know lately we went overboard making the boat quiet to help raise more fish. Well today, we definetely got some positve confirmation that it is working! Usually when we set up the spread, we throw out 4 teasers and three ballyhoo out long, and then a pitchbait which we swim close to the boat. To mix it up a little bit today, we thought we would try running 5 teasers. Because of all the lines in the water, we were worried the pitchbait would get tangled if we ran it short, so we left it on the pole hanging with it's tail almost dragging in the water behind the transom. Well, while trolling, Mike the mate saw something funny under the boat and as he looked over the transom, there was the giant sailfish down there, bill touching the boat trying to raise up out of the water sideways to bite the pitchbait as it swung out of the water on the transom! Literally with the bill touching the boat, Mike lowered the drag and let the ballyhoo fall to the water and the results are above. Definitely a good sign my boat is getting quiet enough, I wouldn't have even believed this story myself if I hadn't seen it. I was upstairs, and the fish was so close, that I couldn't even see it when Mike pitched to it, I had to lean all the way out just to see the tail! Other than fearless sailfish, there have been lots of Marlin out as well. We hooked two blacks in the last 4 trips, a 250 pounder and a 350 pounder. Unfortunately, the fish won both battles, but that's why we call it catch and release :). There is also a bottom fishing spot we have which has been overrun by snapper. We dropped down 22 bait the other day and all of them got smashed. The day before we quickly got 10 to the boat and then went looking for Marlin. Here's a ton of pictures from Early December!

November 23, 2011

Had a blast out today, we went looking for the big one and man did we find it! We put on the slow trolling valve and the extra large tuna tubes in the boat in Late October, and as you can see from this report and the last one, they have been pretty effective. Really big blue Marlin today, hooked up with it around noon, and got back in to the dock right before the sun went down! Interesting story, this fish was really hungry! We were slow trolling three small bonitos, and this fish grabs the one on the right. My second mate and photographer, Jose, hooks him. At the same time, there is a big hit on the middle bait. My first mate mike, hooks that one. About that time, there is a hit on the left bait. No more mates, but something crushes that bait as well. Well come to find out, this Marlin ate two and killed all three of the baits! We spent the first 1.5 hours fighting this big fish with two poles. One leader busted and we finished it off on the 50. Both hooks landed right in the corner of the mouth, so they mates are fighting over who hooked the fish! :) Great day fishing here in Quepos, got some video of this beast and some more photos as well, I'll post them soon!

November 12, 2011

Bananas = Bad Fishing?

Ok, before I explain the picture of the 350 pound 120 inch Black Marlin with a banana in his mouth (which was caught by us today), I'll have to take you back a few weeks. I decided I was going to start eating better. That meant lots of berrys, fruit, veggies and juice. So I started bringing different healthy foods on the boat, in my lunchbox. One of those good wholesome foods was a banana. You know, potassium, helps to keep the cramps away, etc. Well, i quickly learned from a customer that you can't catch fish with a banana in the boat. Now, I have no doubt that bananas are a very, very evil thing while fishing in other parts of the world, but here in Costa Rica, I have the insider's knowledge that big, Costa Rican, fish don't like cramps either. Well, as it went, today I had my banana for lunch, in my lunchbox, and the mate started complaining that we could never catch a fish with it aboard. Granted it was only noon, and we already had a pair of sailfish released, he just kept going about bad luck, no bananas etc. ??? Knowing what I know about Costa Rica Marlin, and other big Costa Rican fish, I decided to just dispell the rumors once and for all, and I went ahead and put a really big hook in the banana, attached it to the 50 wide, and threw it out in the spread. Literally five minutes later, we were hooked up with the big one in the photo... So next time you're out and the fishing is slow, remember two things, eating bananas is great for keeping away the cramps, and bananas are best trolled from the shotgun, way back, oh yeah, and they swim better frozen!

Other fish pictures from this month:

November 2, 2011

Been having some pretty good fishing lately, I love the new upgrades. Had a couple of offshore trips, and we have pretty much been spending half the day on the bottom, and half the day on billfish. We have landed 3 sailfish on the last three trips, and have had multiple bites on the bottom each trip. Last trip, we had at least 10 fish on just in the morning bottom fishing. On the bottom, there have been some nice Broomtail Grouper, like in the photos, and some nice snappers as well. We have alos had some good Amberjacks and customers have been coming home with bags of fish! Don't have any sailfish pictures, but we'll have cameras out next trip. If you have been with me in the last couple of weeks, I'd love to get some pictures! Inshore we had 2 really busy days in the past week, one with 7 !!! Roosterfish and one with 2 and a big Jack. The new trolling valve has helped us sneak up on the big ones, and we're noticing that the Roosterfish are much bigger now that we don't have to bump the diesel in and out or gear! For those not used to diesels, the minimum speed on a diesel boat is typically 4-5 knots. Because of that, in order to fish with live bait, you have to take the boat in and out of gear to maintain 1 knot. That's a noisy process. Think, clunk, clunk all day long. Fish can hear that. WIth the new trolling gear installed, we can put the boat in gear, and then turn a dial and it lets the tranny slip and we can maintain a steady 1 knot. This also relieves a lot of the strain the motor is under (with the tranny slipping) and makes the boat really really quiet, almost like the boat isn't even in gear. Add to that the big rubber mounts, 7 foot muffler, and a new above waterline exhaust, and the fish don't even know we are there! We've also been pulling some nice umbrella rigs inshore and I think that has been working for us as well! Anyway, here is a ROUGH video from out last botom trip, not much editing, just turned the fisheye camera on while we were bottom fishing. It started to fog, so the video isn't the best, but you can see how much reeling it takes to get a big snapper up! Also, remember the fish eye camera distorts size a little bit as you get away from it, the two fish caught in the video are over 30 pounds each. We also just hired a full time camera guy for high season, so expect more videos soon!!!

October, 2011

Haven't done much fishing in the last month, we've had the boat out of the water. We are putting just about every upgrade I have heard or read about that a person can do to a boat, if I made a list it would take an hour read, seriuosly. We are going to have the very best billfish season yet! Very happy about the "new boat" as the mate calls it, and we are super excited about the billfish season that starts next month! Today, I put together a video for a duck's unlimited auction in Florida, so I decided to throw it up here as well for you guys to enjoy!!! The auction is for a three day fishing trip, which explains the title (3 days fishing) and doesn't mean we shot the video on a three day trip. Enjoy!!!

Mid August, 2011

Had an awesome day out today! We went out in the morning and killed the bottom fishing getting a ton of Amberjack and then in the afternoon went out and snagged a nice black marlin. Was a great day out, lots of bent rods, a Marlin, and fish for dinner. Check out the picture of the father taking a picture of his son during a double Amberjack hookup :) We've had quite a bit of billfish action here lately, with lots of sailfish getting airborne right next to the boat. Mike was about to grab the bill of that guy and then it came straight out of the water and did a little tailwalking right next to the boat! I can't believe we got these pictures! Then, on another sailfish, we had a full 2 hour fight. Not tailwrapped or foulhooked, just a big sailfish that kept swimming down. What a workout for the whole family! And the fish swam away fine to fight another day!

Late July, 2011

Got to play with the camera a bit today. In October, we are adding a full time camera person to shoot High Def Videos, but for now, we only get to play with the camera when the mate isn't busy. This video is only about a minute long, but we captured a super nice jump of a really pretty fish! Fishing has been pretty good lately, tons of Snapper coming off of the bottom (Cubera and Yellow Tail), still some Amberjack out, seeing sailfish very often, and had a few Marlin bites as well. Enjoy the video!

July 19, 2011

Days like today are why I started fishing full time. We had a great day out today, lots of fun, and a double digit fish count. I guess the trophy catch of the day was an awesome and teethy snapper and a really nice big 20+ minute Amberjack. Great time with some great people and it was a ton of fun, as you can see in the pictures! Been a pretty good month, there have been some sailfish out, as seen in the pic below, but not really in numbers. There have been some Marlin out as well, we have gotten a few this month with the biggest being a 350 pound Blue. I also had another son this month, so now me and the wife are raising 3 little captains so it really has been an exciting month! I have some good video as well, hopefully I can get that up here as well. Another great day out on the water in Quepos Costa Rica!

 

June 18, 2011

Had some native Costa Ricans from Arizona today on the boat coming back for vacation looking to fill an ice chest, and they should have brought more ice chests! We had a great day on the bottom, hooking up with a ton of Amberjacks and a big Rainbow Trout. Here's a picture of the keepers. We also had a sailfish bite and found a big school of Tuna during our one hour of trolling! Great day out, and they had plenty of fish for the grill! Lately the fishing has been pretty good. We've been getting what we are after almost everytrip, whether that be billfish or meat fish, and the ocean has been nice to us. Yesterday we went out with a family from Houston, and we probably hooked ten fish each for their two young sons. See the proud father pic below! Here are some other pictures of some sailfish from this month as well. All around, great fishing as usual in Costa Rica!

 

 

 

May 19, 2011

Had an awesome day out today. We ended up with 6 fish to the boat including 3 nice sailfish! We also had a enormous fight with a really big bull dorado, spending over 30 minutes after hooking him up on a Tiagra 50 Wide! We got lucky today about 25 miles out, and found a nice weed line as well, and we were using little Yellow Fin Tunas as bait. That's a great sign, because I think pretty soon we'll start seeing the big schools of Yellow Fin Tuna coming through! Below is an also an email I received from a different trip this week. Enjoy the pictures!

"Thanks for the trip of a lifetime! My dad has spent years and tons of money to put my brother and I on a billfish. We have chased them off the Carolinas and throughout the Gulf of Mexico. When we heard that Costa Rica was a hot spot for billfish, and that there was an American captain, our expectations increased. Working with you, your wife and Jerry last week was a pleasure, from the arrangements with the hotel, recommendations for restaurants and food, and the first class seamanship, you guys more than exceeded our expectations, and you put us right on the fish. Catching and boating one sailfish would have been enough for us, but having both his sons boat a Pacific warrior was a true highlight and something he has not stopped talking about. Tobys rooster fish was an added bonus on the inshore trip. I tell everyone that I know, lots of them avid outdoorsmen and anglers, that Quepos and the Stress Reliever are the best value around. Here are our best pictures from the trip thanks very much for being a part of knocking this off the old mans bucket list.

- All the best to you, Mike, Jose, Jerry and Ernardo.

 

May 10, 2011

Had a crazy good inshore day today! We don't do many inshore days lately, as we usually like chasing the big fish offshore, but today was a nice change. We ended up with 6 Roosterfish to the boat (the biggest one in the picture above), 5 snappers (one was really really nice), 20 Jack Crevalles, 3 nice Spanish Mackerals, and a big bonita caught on really light tackle. It was a crazy busy day getting almost 40 fish to the boat! I should have some pictures of the Snapper coming soon so I'll be sure to post!

 

May 1, 2011

Had a bachelor party out today and they wanted to catch some fish to eat for the week. We have a bunch of great snapper holes about 30 miles offshore, so today snapper was on the menu! Had quite a few hookups, a few break offs, but ended up with 5 really nice snapper and a nice amberjack to the boat! Check out the pictures!

 

April 26, 2011

Marlin season is here! We are slowly seeing less and less sailfish and more of the "Big Ones"! We went out today and hit a nice Black Marlin. It was an awesome fight, took 2 hours and 5 minutes on a 50 wide. This is our third Marlin in the last 7 trips, and I expect and hope to start seeing more and more as we get closer to June-August. We are seeing some sailfish as well, we have been averaging a few per trip, and we have been getting some nice Dorado as well. It has started raining in the mountains at night and that is washing out some really nice logs. We are starting to find them offshore loaded with bait, and we all know live baiting produces big fish! On today's Marlin, we shot some video from in the water and it turned out pretty nice. Check out the ocean conditions as well. We could have went out in a Kayak today, and lately that's been the norm. Here's the clip:

April 6, 2011

Sorry, getting lazy on the stories, but this video is a nice mix of exciting, sexy, and funny. This pretty much sums up our mission statement of catching fish, but more importantly having a blast while doing so! Little background info, this video was shot about a week ago and it was a good day where we had somewhere around 10 sailfish hooked up and got 7 to the boat. Super exciting with lots of aerial action, and a bunch of happy and sore customers!!!

March 30, 2011

March 28, 2011

Had a great day out hitting this nice large Black Marlin. Took four guys to get it up for the picture, and just barely. Great story as well, will post soon....Lot of work today, heading to bed :)

 

March 6, 2011

Had an awesome day out onthe water today! We had a nice couple from California out, and man were the sailfish and Marlin thick. We started the day off with a really big sailfish, seen below, and another mid sized sailfish. Good start, but we had no idea what was next.

About 10 in the morning, we had a really nice blue Marlin, around 300 pounds,come up behind our right diasy chain teaser. We just made a new daisy chain out of 6 green squids, 1 pink one, and then Islander large jet head pink chaser with a ballyhoo stuffed up inside of it. The Marlin fell completely in love with the Daisy Chain and chased it all the way to the boat. We are running the outriggers a little bit lower as the water has been flat calm, and because of that the daisy chain can't be taken out of the water without lifting up the outrigger. So here I am reeling desperately to get the teaser away from the fish, Marlin biting the tail of the chaser, eating the ballyhoo in the process. As the clip hits the rigger and I quickly grab the rigger and pull it up. The angry Marlin is right next to the boat, about three feet away, as Mike tosses out an islander and hits the marlin in the head with the pitch bait. He's not interested. As he goes down, he must have seen the short teaser on the other side which is another daisy chain, this one pink, with a black islander chaser. He decides that would work for him as well, so he nails it before I can get it out of the way. After taking off half the spool from the teaser reel, and again eating the ballyhoo in the chaser, he lets go for a second as he turns for another hit. I pull and pull and pull and then jerk up the outrigger and he is right there under it again, looking up at it, and me, mad I took away what he wanted! It was an awesome sight, 300 pounds of pure excitment, big fins lit up bright blue and that big eye looking up at you! Again, mike hits him with a naked ballyhoo but he's not interested in that pitchbait either. He aparently only wanted those teasers and so he swims away. On the way out through the back of the spread, he slashes one of the naked ballyhoo's on the long rigger, taking about 10 yards of line and leaving a just the head.

Here's a pic from the double sailfish hookup:

We are a little disappointed at the loss, but like anything else, you have to keep trying if you want to get the big one! We put the lures back out in the water, and about 30 minutes goes by. I am mesmerized, just watching the teasers ducking, bubbling, popping up for some more air, when I see a purple shadow below the right daisy chain again. I scream out to Mike, but notice he already has the long left bait pole in his hand and is giving somebody freespool so they can eat. Then it comes, bam the big Marlin under my teaser pops up his head and slams the teaser. I pull and pull and I'm screaming Mike, get a pitch bait out now!!! I see Mike's brother, our mate in training, running and throwing out the pitchbait, and I scream, "Where's Mike?!?!?"! Looking over at the other side of the boat, I see Mike with a bent pole and he's yelling "Stop, stop!!!". Not wanting to give up the Marlin, I let Jose throw out the pitch bait but the Marlin lit up blue goes for the other side. Seeing the pole that Mike had getting about half way down through the spool, I give Jose one last chance. He throws out the pitchbait on the other side, as I pull the teaser in to the boat, i see the pole he has get bent all the way down and bang, pops back up. No hook up, we stop and then have a sailfish dancing about 400 yards behind the boat. Nice, big sailfish, but we all have got the Marlin fever bad at this point.

I call out to another boat over the radio, Jerry with the Cowboy, to let him know our saga, and he starts harassing me saying I had a spinner dolphin behind the teaser or maybe it was a sailfish. The usual ribbing you get from another captain after seeing a huge blue but not having it bite. By 2 oclock, we had a great day, we had released 5 sailfish, including the double above but were going for a little more to beat Jerry. Jerry, the captain of the Cowboy, had 6 releases to our 5, and I don't like coming in second! So we are trolling along about 100 yards apart, he's harassing me on the radio, letting me know he's up one and then, to my horror, I see his mate run to the back of his boat and throw out the pitch bait! Oh no, I think, he's going to be two up! Sure enough, Jerry works his teaser magic, and soon I see a happy customer, reel in hand, and another dancing sailfish behind the Cowboy! Here it comes I think, as I hear his voice over the radio, "Gringo, 7 to 5, I win!" I'm thinking, "dang, no way", but I remember that it's not over yet. About that time, I saw a big shadow under that right daisy chain teaser. Knowing that the Marlin have been in love with that all day, I start yelling to throw out the pitchbait and I pull that teaser up as fast as I can! Mike throws out the blue / yellow islander ballyhoo combo pitchbait and CRASH!!!?!

We have a huge hookup on the 50 wide, line whirring, I'm pulling up the right outrigger and latching it in as fast as I can. I look down and see the spool half empty! Only 450 yards left I think to myself. Mike's yelling, "Go!!! Go!!!" as I turn the boat hard right, and hit the gas full throttle. I look down and now we are to the backing on the reel, only 200 yards left! I notice on the other side of Jerry's boat, about 600 yards away, there is a huge blue marlin, tailwalking as fast as he can away from my boat. I go down on him full speed, right past Jerry (sweet victory:) ), and finally, the boat gets up to the same speed as the fish, and although we don't gain line, we finally quit losing it! Talk about a rush, this is every angler's dream! Everybody is yelling, Jerry's screaming over the radio, "faster faster, Gringo, go get him!" customer is yelling, "Reel's almost out!" the Cummins is roaring at redline and maybe (probably) a bit more, everybody doing their part to catch up with that fish!!! With about 100 yards to spare, reel smoking hot, we finally start gaining line, customer reeling as fast as he can, making up tons of distance and the fight is on! Mostly the fish wins the next couple of battles, but every once in a while, we get a little back. After a while, I start noticing one by one, the Quepos fleet all headed my way, everyone circling, jealous! :) With one proud angler on the reel out back, and tons of other envious anglers in other boats snapping pictures, waiting for the next jump, we finally get the fish up to the leader and the fish is officially released. Wanting to get it in closer for the picture, Mike goes to bring it up to the side of the boat, but the 13 foot long Blue Marlin was having none of that as he slashed his head left and right, right next to the boat. The line goes limp and we all watch as he slowly goes back down into the deep crystal clear blue water. Officially released, but never surrendering, he goes back down to get ready to fight another day. What a great time, what a day!

February 20, 2011

Had an awesome day out today! We released 8 out of the 15 sailfish we had behind the boat. It was a action packed day and we got back in with some tired fisherman! Check out the awesome photos! Great day of fishing out of Quepos Costa Rica!

 

February 15, 2011

Check out this nice wahoo! We don't see very many wahoo out here, so it is a special day when we hook up with one this size. This guy hit just like a Marlin and pulled out quite a bit of line! He actually stole two of my ballyhoos before he finally hit a Marlin lure with heavier leader! We were trying to figure out what was back there as something kept hiting the ballyhoo's and just leaving half of the leader! Had a ton of fun out today, getting this guy and a couple of sailfish to the boat. I finally got a new camera so hopefully i can start sticking more pictures up here! Here's the pics from today:

February 5, 2011

Had a great day out today getting 3 nice sailfish hookups with about double that in the spread and then ending the day with 4 really nice YF Tuna, one over 60 pounds! There have been quite a few sailfish out lately, and less Marlin. We are also starting to see the schools of Tuna again, so that usually we finish each day with billfish pictures and food! These are some pictures from January, I don't have a camera so if you went out with us lately send in your photos and we'll put 'em up here! Here's an email I got today about an awesome trip we had January:

John,

 Thanks again for the wonderful trip on 01-28-2011 to get me my first Billfish, a beautiful Pacific Sailfish.  You helped fulfill a lifetime dream of mine, truly the peak achievement of my fishing life.  Hope you are continuing to help others achieve their dreams as well on a daily basis.  I have fished with a lot of guides and captains and you outshine them all.  You are a great fisherman and captain, and made our day a wonderful experience.  I would not hesitate to recommend you to anyone going to Costa Rica to experience the wonderful fishing opportunities there and hope to be able to one day make it down there again to go out with you in pursuit of another trophy.   Michael also did a great job and I know without him we never would have hooked sailfish.  The Dorado that we took to the Gran Escape restaurant was fabulous.  They fixed it three different ways, fried, blackened, and grilled with garlic.  Thanks for the recommendation to go there.

- Andrew (shown in picutre below, behind big fish)

Enjoy the pictures!
Great day of fishing in Quepos Costa Rica.

Jan 2011

Finally got back out on the water today, we've been doing some work on the boat but we're running again and the fish have been out! In the earlier part of this month and today, we've had lots of marlin and a few sailfish. We are finally seeing bait out on the ridges so we're finally fishing with live bait which will start producing some big Marlins! Camera got wet, but here's a couple of pictures before it went in the drip!

 

Dec 31, 2010

Great day of fishing today! We've been getting Marlins all week and there have been quite a few sailfish out as well. There have been lots of Tuna schools to be found, finding almost one per trip, but there haven't been tons of Tuna coming out of the schools. We still usually come up with a couple of Yellow Fin Tuna's per trip though! Well, enough from me, I'll let the customers finish this report:

We can’t begin to tell you what a thrill today was for us! It has been such a pleasure meeting you – and now Lindsey and the boys – and just want to say thank you so much for the excellent sportfishing opportunity you provided. Can’t wait to get the picture you took – and are so glad we got a good one ourselves! I assure you we will never forget this day and the happiness it brought to
us. Also our gratitude to Michael for the obvious skill he brought to the happy day, the delicious fish grilled on board – the day was just awesome. Our sincere appreciation. Happy New Year!
- Steve & Lynda

Just wanted to thank you, Jerry, and Michael for three fantastic days of fishing! This was virtually everything one could ask for: My e-mails answered within nanoseconds, a friendly, experienced crew, all the food, drink, bait and tackle needed.....and fantastic fishing! I will be back and I will recommend you to every fishing enthusiast from here to the North Cape.....!
- Christian

Enjoy the pictures!
Great day of fishing in Quepos Costa Rica.

 

Dec 26 2010

 

Here's some pictures from today. Was a fun day, anytime you get Marlin and eating fish in the same day it's exciting!

Mid Dec

Awesome day out today and we have a video! Check it out:

Warning! Apply Sunscreen before pushing play!

Dec 4, 2010

Today we went out and released a Nice Marlin, a Sailfish, and lots of YF Tuna. It started out a bit slow today, we went to where the action was yesterday (around 30 miles), and there was nothing going on. I just put the autopilot on and pointed it away from Quepos and got on the Binoculars. I kept seeing all the birds heading away from Quepos, and I remember a good friend and fellow captain say 'always follow the birds'. After about 10 minutes of looking through the binoculars, I started to see what I thought were clouds of birds on the horizon. The waves also looked a bit different so we picked up and ran to see what was going on. I kept using the binoculars while we were running and started seeing more and more birds, and then the doolphins. We finally got to the school, and it was 37 miles out, meaning the binoculars were spotting the birds 6 miles away! As soon as we set up, we were hooked into a double tuna, maybe 30 pounders, and then we kept getting YF Tuna until the customers decided they wanted to setup for Marlin. Pretty quickly we were hooked into this nice Marlin, and he put up a great battle! He was too tired to take out for the pictures, but we got a nice release shot. I also really like the picture of the sailfish, on the left, when Mike was letting him go so I added it as well. Great day out, billfish and tuna in the same day is a blast! Quepos, Costa Rica Fishing Report!

Dec 3

Great day of fishing today! We had two nice big Blue Marlins. That makes 6 Marlin in the last 11 trips. Notice that the eye on this fish is almost the size as Mike's hand! We lost one of the two when another boat ran over our line, but we quickly hooked into the next one and after a gruelling fight, got him to the boat. What an awesome fish and what a great fight! We also got tons of YF Tuna. Here's some pictures of the YF schools from today. We actually spotted this one from about 4 miles with the Gryo Binoculars. It was super exciting at one point when the running dolphins changed to straight 100 pound YF Tunas jumping at one point. They were zipping past at top speed chasing flying fish and we almost had a 120 pound YF jump into the boat. In the first picture, you can see the dolphins on the left and the straight Tuna school on the right. Enjoy the pictures!

Great day of fishing in Quepos Costa Rica.

Dec 1, 2010

 

Had a great time fishing today, fishing has been hot. We went out today and found multiple schools of Spinner Dolphin with Tuna. Since we filled up on Tuna the day before with the same guys, we were going from school to school looking for the big one on live bait. As we were travelling between schools, we threw out the Marlin gear as those have been around as well. Well it paid off as we hooked up with this nice Striped Marlin! It put up a pretty good fight, as they always do, and we finished the day with some good Tuna and the Marlin. Fishing has been really good here lately, in the past 10 trips we have caught 4 Marlin (3 striped and a blue), 150 YF Tuna (not a misprint) , 30 Amberjacks, and some sailfish and dorado as well. Really looking forward to December as the numbers should keep getting better! Check out the awesome pictures!

End Nov

This week has seen lots of different action each day. We have been spending a little time each day fishing on the bottom and that has been producing good numbers everyday. Mostly Amberjacks, lots of double and triple hookups, as you can see from the bottom picture, and a few nice snapper. We have been spending to afternoons on top and we have had some sails, a 300 pound Blue Marlin, lots of YF Tuna, and quite a few Dorado as well. Everyday has been totally different, but there always seems to be something to catch. I should have some Marlin photos up here soon, in the mean time, here's some of the sails. There was also some awesome film shot, especially of the big Marlin, and hopefully I can add some youtube up here when everybody gets home and uploads the videos. The photo below was actually how I spent my Thanksgiving so this year I'm thankful for sailfish! Great day of fishing in Quepos Costa Rica.

 

Nov 10, 2010

Anytime you get two Marlin to the boat in the same day, it is a good day! Anytime you get 17 YF Tuna to the boat, it is a great day. Today we got 2 Marlin and 17 YF Tuna to the boat, so it was an awesome day! We went way out this morning to the same place we fished yesterday because we had a good billfish and Tuna bite out around 30+ miles. Man was it worth the extra drive. We had a couple of slow hours in the morning, we had missed one sailfish, but then I saw a nice fish come up to the teaser. I started yelling down at Mike, "Teaser, Teaser!", but he was already down there throwing out the pitchbait. We recently got some ridiculously large ballyhoo that look like small barraudas, and when the Marlin saw lunch, he took it and bent the rod way down! The first fight was a full hour, using the boat to help out as to not wear out the fish too much. There were some awesome jumps, and I imagine in a couple of days the customers will send me the pictures so I can put them up. It's hard to shoot pictures when your up in the tower making sure the fish doesn't spool that customers! We got the fish to the boat in an hour flat, which is great timewise, and after a quick picture, he was on his way. I always like to try to use the boat to get the Marlin in quick. Long fights can kill the fish, but both of these guys were 100 percent ready to grow bigger and come back to see me later! In the afternoon, we used the Stabilized binoculars to go from Tuna school to Tuna school. I think we found 3 different schools in 3 hours. The first two weren't that great, but at the last Dolphin Pod, which was ridiculously huge, we pulled out 17 YF Tuna, most of which we released, but we couldn't help keeping some for Sushi and Dinner. All in all, an awesome day out on the water with some happy fisherman sportfishing in Quepos Costa Rica!

Late October

 

Great day out on the water today. We had tons of Dorado and boated at least 7 big ones and some smaller ones as well. We also boated a sailfish and it was the customer's first, so that is always a blast! More important than the report are the pictures which were absolutely awesome. Great cameramen on board today as all these came from the customers! I really like the aerial shots of the Dorados.

Enjoy the Aerial Dorado photos!

 

 

October 19

Had a great day out on the water today with not only great fishermen but great camera men as well. And in light of that, I thought I would add more pictures than usual. We had some guys today that were mainly after billfish. We decided that the farther out we go, the better the chance in October, so we tried our luck at 40-45 miles out. Well, our gamble paid off. We had an awesome day with releasing 2 sailfish along with getting 3 YF Tuna and 6 Dorado to the boat. We still haven't really gotten to our high season yet either, which official starts early November. If this is low season fishing, I can't wait for the high season! We also went out a few of other times this week and had two nice Marlin hookups. We hooked a 450 pound Blue and 300 Blue on two different days. We lost both the fights, but we got to see them come all the way out of the water when they hit the bait! Man they can rip line off when they hit, it really gets the heart pumping! Also, as you can see from the pictures, the weather this October has been great. The ocean was pretty much flat all day and made it easy to spot the Tuna Schools. We actually found 5 different groups of spinner dolphins in the morning before lunchtime. The bottom picture seems to sum up our days recently, with me and Jerry looking ahead for stuff and Mike getting a better angle to see when the sailfish come into the spread. Another great day of fishing in Quepos, Costa Rica!

John, 
Just wanted to thank you, Michael, and Jerry for a great fishing experience.  You guys were terrific.  Attached are the photos of Dirk catching his sail fish last Thursday. -Frank

 

October 9

Fishing has been great. Although I haven't been trolling for them, we are starting to see the sailfish come back in and this November - April is going to be great for catching billfish! Right now, we have been doing some botom fishing most mornings and getting between 10-30 nice sized Amberjacks, or as they are called in Florida, "Reef Donkeys". In the afternoons we have been using the stabilized binoculars to find schools of Yellow Fin Tuna. On our last three trips, we have found spinner dolphins feeding all three times and 2 times we caught over 10 nice sized 15-40 pounders! There have also been lots of snapper coming off the bottom, and we're getting a few on almost every trip. Today we actually went out and had a great day as well, scoring 30+Amberjacks and 10 big Yellow Fin Tunas. We were hooked up pretty much for 8 hours straight, usually with more than one fish. The customers went home today with lots dinner and muscle aches! With the new sonar installed on the boat, we now have litrally hundreds of bottom fishing spots, and if anybody is a big bottom fishing fan, or just want to spend all day hooked up, I believe we can find a great bottom fish bite pretty much all year. Great day out, and I can't wait until November gets here and I can start posting billfish pictures again!

August 26

Had a super exciting day offshore today and we caught an enourmous amount of fish. We started the day off fishing on the bottom and scored more than 10 Amberjacks and a couple of Snappers. By about 11 everybody had had enough reeling so we went out in search of something on top. We caught a Dorado as we were leaving the Furuno banks and then about 5 miles off the Furuno banks, we came across a floating tree. These floating "reefs" are going to be the main theme for the next couple of months. I actually just imported an expensive pair of stabilized binoculars to help us find these and when you do the results are great! We ended up pulling 5 nice wahoos out from under this tree and another 10ish Dorados! After calling the position out to the other captains in the area, we moved off the stick and had a double sailfish bite, but they were just playing with the teasers. An awesome day where we put 30 fish in the boat of quite a few different species!

Here is what a customer said about us this August:

August 15

We went out for a couple of hours today on the bottom, and had pretty good results. We usually let most of our fish go, but today is mother's day here in Costa Rica and the mates wanted some fish to cook up for mom! We probably caught about twice as many amberjacks, and spent about 2.5 hours fishing. We went back in early, but I think if we had stayed out all day we would have gotten a billfish in the afternoon. Another great day fishing in Quepos, Costa Rica!

August 6, 2010

Sailfish, Amberjacks and Snapers are the story of August so far. Usually in August there aren't that many sailfish around, as our season in November through May. I can only imagine how good the season will be this year having so many billfish in the off season! In addition to the unusually great billfishing, the bottom has been really hot! It has made trips super interesting because we have been bottom fishing in the mornings while we collect live bait, and then have been trolling in the afternoons for billfish. It has been pretty successful, and we have been averaging at least a sailfish per day, with tons and tons of other nice fish while we fish on the bottom.We had had many days of over 20 nice fish to the boat! We have also been seeing tons and tons of little Dorado coming through. That should mean by mid October, we will start having the bulls come in and everybody knows how great Dorado season is here! We've got the spinning reels all oiled up waiting for Dorado, and we are looking for people who like to hook one and then see how many we can have on at the same time. Last year, we had five on multiple times so this year we need to have a 6 at once! It's going to be an awesome winter here, I can't wait!

 

 

August 1, 2010

 

Been great fishing so far. The bottom fishing has been really good, and there have been lots of Sails, Tuna and Dorado out. We have been spending the first half of our days hitting the bottom and racking up on reel time. There are a couple of spots that no matter what you drop down, you are hooked up to something. Lots of Amberjacks, quite a few Cuberas, and quite a few big red Snappers as well. We have been averaging 15-20 fish to the boat in the morning. In the afternoons, we have been filling up the tuna tubes with live bait and sail hunting. We are hooking at least one per trip, and there have been some Dorado out as well. We had a trip on the 2nd where instead of doing the bottom we went out looking for tuna and ended up with 20 YF in the 25-40 pound range. We ended that day with a sailfish as well. Not as many Marlin out as I thought, but plenty of everything else. Much better than the typical August, and I expect September to be good as well. Here's some pictures!

July 8, 2010

This report is dedicated to all the PETA members out there! Here is a before and after 6 year old Joel Michael's Wahoo's. It was both him and his dad's first time in the Pacific and it was an awesome trip. I always love fishing with kids, something about how excited they get after the catch. We went out for a half day today and ended up with a pair of Wahoo's, pair of Yellow Fin Tuna's, and some bonita. Not bad for about 3.5 hours of fishing.

June 22, 2010

Sorry for the lack of reports. I pulled my boat out of the water to do some quick repairs and keep finding things I want to do. We've got her all polished up inside and out, new bottom paint, fixed some breaks in the tower, and freshened up the motor. I probably have about a week left, and man I miss the water! Since I have run over with the b.o.a.t. updates (Bring Out Another Thousand), I have been sending trips to different friends and the fishing has been pretty good. Lots of Marlin out, including the one caught above. Out on the 26 banks, there have been quite a few Wahoo. There have also been schools of Yellow fin that run through the area and about 3-4 times a week they have been coming across big schools. On some of the trips I sent out this week, they had a day this last week with 4 sails, and they also had a double Marlin day. Inshore has been slow, but should come back soon. I think it would be better if I had been out there, as I really enjoy hunting for Roosters! If you went out in the last couple of weeks with a boat from Quepos, from me or otherwise, email me your pictures and I'll stick em up here. Hopefully, I'll get this boat back in the water and I can get the camera going again! Overall fishing offshore has been good though, so if you're coming in on vacation and want to reel in something big for dinner, now's the time!

May 25, 2010

Ok, I wish I had some pictures, but I've been sick for the last two weeks and I have had a good friend Jerry driving the boat. May has been full of Marlin. We have had a Marlin behind the boat each trip for the last 4 trips. Two came hungry and got hooked, and the one today and the other one, just came up to show us they were there. The best was a 400 pound Blue and took 3 hours and 10 minutes to get it to the boat. There have been quite a few on the sonar as well. Apart from the Marlin today, we got quite a few YellowFin and Dorado today. Today was the first day we didn't hook any sails this week, but we were after "eating fish". I'm going to go after some pictures, I'll see if Jerry or the customers took any and I'll get them up here as soon as possible. Another great day of fishing in Quepos Costa Rica!

May 10, 2010

Wow, the fishing is Super Hot right now. We went out today for 1 hour of fishing and we had a big Sailfish and a monster Dorado. We had 55 minutes of fish fighting and 5 minutes of trolling. Everytime the line touched the water, there were fish behind it. We also found this awesome crate floating around in the water at 20 miles and below it there was a huge school of bait. And like every good fisherman knows, where there is bait, there are gamefish! It's funny, usually the fishing is the hottest in February and March, but it looks like this year, May-August are going to be full of Sails, Yellow Fin, and Dorado. Today is the only day so far this month were we haven't seen the a big Yellow Fin Tuna School as well. I thnk I could have put some YF Tuna numbers up today if we had been out more than an hour. May has been great so far, we have had only about 2-3 hours of daylight rain all this week. I think we'll keep seeing high numbers and clear days until August. Anyway, here are the pictures, and hopefully I'll post some more soon!

May 6, 2010

Had a half day inshore today, and it was a blast. It's interesting, it has started raining in the mountains and it rains here everynight now, and it has changed the nature of our inshore fishing. We used to go to river mouths and throw up in there looking for some Roosters and if we didn't hook up, we would just move. I just bought a brand new sonar, my dream machine, a Furuno 585 with the biggest transducer they make. I thought today I would try using the sonar to get the Roosterfish instead of just hitting the normal holes and hoping for the best. So today, we went out looking for big fish with the sonar. It took a while to find what we were looking for, but man when we got on the fish, we hooked a monster. I was following a rock ledge trying to find what depth these massive sea creatures were hiding at, and I found a thermocline at around 40 feet that was showing lots of fish. For those of you not familiar with new generation fish finders, they not only tell you where the fish are, but measure the fish and give you the size. So if I am seeing lots of 4-6 inch fish I know they aren't the ones I am after. Also, they are super sensitive to temperature breaks (themoclines), and everytime there is a water temperature change, you get some fuzz at that depth. Well this particular thermocline was showing 20-30 inch fish outside a ball of bait (I think they were bonitas). That's about right for a monster Rooster. So knowing where they are at is half the battle, and we got right after them setting up the downrigger and the biggest lookdown bait I could find. Bam, monster Rooster. I'm talking full hour and change fighting him. After an exhausted but elated customer got the fish up and had the photo sesson, the hunt was back on. I'm still learning how to use the fish finder, but one thing I did figure out was the target lock. You can pick a big concentration of fish and mark them on the sonar. The sonar then sends the point to the GPS and you get a mark on your map. Transfer that to the autopilot and after you release the fish, the boat turns and drives right back over the group. Works great fishing inshore with structure because the fish don't move a whole lot. And with long fights, it was hard to keep track of where the fish were at before, but now all we had trouble with was getting the rods set up before the boat put us on target again. Well we let the Rooster go, and hit go on the fishfinder and we were hooked up within 2 minutes of fishing. Well anyway, that's the story of how the day went, too bad it wasn't a full day, or we would have caught an insane amount of fish. I expect my inshore trips to be filled more with big fish and maybe not the same number, but more fighting time. We'll see, it was the first day out inshore with the new equipment and I'd consider it a success. I'll keep you guys updated on how this goes down. Offshore the bite has been great and there are lots of Sails, Dorado, and Tuna going around. Definitely not the normal May in Costa Rica. We have been getting no waves, little rain during the day, sun and lots of fish. I'm looking forward to a great June, July and August. The bottom two pictures are from earlier this week offshore, and as always, are of different fish.

April 27, 2010

Great day fishing inshore today! I love when I get to take the younger anglers out! We went out inshore today and got some Roosterfish, a really large Jack and a really nice Spanish Mackeral. We also had about 20 other bites, but didn't get those all the way into the boat. When the tide was low in the afternoon, we were getting a hit every 10 minutes, it was really exciting! The most fun was watching our younger angler rell in the Roosterfish above. He was very wore out, but acomplished something which gives trouble to many more experienced anglers! Offshore has been great as well, with lots of sails and Marlin out. Last trip out, although we didn't get them all to the boat, we hooked 6 sails and a Marlin. Lots of billfish acrobatics. I kinda expected this year to get more sails later in the season, and I am hoping the sails come out all summer. Either way, there will be an awesome Marlin bite, so anybody wanting to hook into the big one, come visit me this June-August!

 

April 11

Sorry this took so long to post, but I have had a big problem trying to get Costa Rican government run internet to mesh with video files and You Tube. But this was an aweomse day of fishing. We had heard of Tuna in the area, so we went way out and we found this huge school of Dolphins and Tuna and had it all to ourselves! At first, as you can see in the first video, the school was really moving as the Dolphins were chasing huge schools of small Sardines. It was neat because the Sardines were only 2 inches long at most and it just looked like a dark black cloud moving through the water. at high speeds. Finally the Dolphins got them in a big dark ball and that's when we started pulling out the Tuna. We hooked up with 7 in all and they were all pretty nice sized ones, no footballs! We finally left there in search of a sailfish and ended up hooking one (but it escaped before we got it all the in) and a 300 pound Manta before going towards the house. It was the first Manta I have ever hooked, and the way it hit the bait and fought I was sure it was a Marlin. He pulled out part of his body when he took the bait that looked like a giant Dorsal Fin and then started ripping away at line. I had to turn the boat and chase him just to keep from getting spooled! Well, anyway, I'm sure people will ask why i put videos of Dolphins up on the site. Well guys, here's your chance to sell the Costa Rica trip to your wives! All women love Dolphins! And the whales is just icing on the cake! Below are two of the Tuna, and some sails from this week. Great day fishing, I'll keep those Quepos Fishing Reports coming!

 

April 7, 2010

We've been off the last week putting in a new sonar, and steering system, so it was nice to get back out on the water. We had a pretty good day today, releasing 5 Roosterfish, a monster Barracuda and a Big Eye Jack. We hooked up about 100 times but today the Roosters were tricky! Luckily there were so many shots we got quite a few to the boat. We had a great day cruising around the tropical islands right near the beach. I think the customers had more fun today seeing the exotic scenery than hooking in to the fish! There are a couple of islands we fish on that have the caves near the water, and blow holes that violently shoot water up in the air as you pass by. It makes for some awesome scenery and I am truly blessed to call this my office! Another great day fishing in beautiful and sunny Costa Rica!

March 27, 2010

Had a great day fishing offshore. The fishing was really far out, but well worth the trip. Today we released 6 Sailfish and a Dorado. The problem with today is I forgot my camera! So the pictures are from yesterday when we hooked 4 out of 5 sailfish that got behind the boat, and also got a really nice Dorado. The highlight of the two days was when we had a younger girl, about 13, reel in her first sailfish. And once again, with her dad and Rudy coaching her, she got it all the way into the boat by herself, just like a seasoned veteran! The first picture is of her, her proud father and of course Rudy! Another couple of great days on the water, looking forward to April and May. Here's some pictures from our day sportfishing in sunny Quepos Costa Rica!

March 19 2010

Been sick for the last week, but it was nice getting back out on the water today. We hosted a bachelor fishing party today, and man were the fish biting! Had a great day inshore, probably hooked about 20 Roosterfish, and we released 8 Roosterfish, 1 Snapper, and a Snook. I can't wait to get back offshore so i can put some more sailfish photos up here for you guys. I have been talking to some of he other boat captains, and they say there are lots of sails to be caught. Well, here's a picture of one of the Roosterfish. Sorry i'm still groggy from the antibotics so i didn't come down to shoot more pictures. But more to come soon!

March 10 2010

Had a great day out today! We spent all morning fighting a truly big Marlin. What a monster hookup. We went out 40 miles today, and got straight to the bait hunting. Not a moment after we had the lines all full lively small bonitas, did Rudy see one of our newly placed baits flying through the air. He lowered the drag on the pole waiting for the bite, and then I hear the reel start whirring like a small electric motor. He raised the break up and hooked the fish and we saw a huge splash behind the boat as the fish jumped out of the water. Then about half a second later the fish jumped again next to the boat and then anohter half a second later and the fish jumped 100 yards IN FRONT of the boat. He was moving so fast that he was still dragging off line towards the back of the boat as he was running forward. I got the boat in gear and throttled up and the fight was on! We chased him down only after he pulled off about 600 yards of line. The customers took turns fighting him all morning, until everyone finally wore out, and then they handed if off to Rudy. Rudy, like a kid in a candy store, starts reeling and pulling and about 20 minutes later we have the fish within 15 feet of the boat. It is huge, at least 12 feet long, and was an awesome sight. We made it all the way to the shock leader until the fish went crazy and the leader just couldn't take any more and gave out. I have to admit, this is the first time I've had a leader break since I started using Yo Zuri Floro Carbon. I'd say the fish jumped about 25 times though, so overall the leader did ok. Not the happiest ending, but we got through all the fight. This week has been amazing for fishing. The last two weeks of February were a bit slow (really strange for this time of the year), so we were super excited the fish started biting again! We hooked up with 5 sailfish yesterday, 4 monster big tunas the day before. We had an inshore day this week with 35 fish and one with 25 fish. It's been really great fishing and I'm looking forward to a super busy April through May. Well, here's some pictures, sorry, no Marlin pictures, I was only 10 feet from getting him to the boat so I didn't think to take pictures. Check out the big tuna though. Great times here on the water in Quepos!

February 2010

What a great time we had overall.
For me, I had waited/planned/envisioned for years to be able to see my son bring in
his first BILLFISH!!! It was a dream fulfilled!!! -David

Ok, first I have to apologize, we have been 100% booked and I haven't had the energy to tap away at the keyboard after fishing/fueling/cleaning. So here is a recap of the last part of February. February was an awesome month, and with it came a lot of great times! A few stick out. One was this snook that we caught that might have been a world record if I had it weighed. I promise, the only photoshop used on the fish was to shrink it down for the web. That thing was huge! At the dock after the trip, all the mates were holding it up to have their picture taken with it, and I can't wait to see the mount! Another fun story was 12 year David who reeled in this sailfish all by himself. He was super attentive and listened to everything Rudy said. The sailfish didn't come in easy either, but was jumping and doing everything it could to spit the hook or pop the leader. But thanks to a little bit of Yo-Zuri Floro leader (pink of course), and a great listener on the reel, we won the battle and the picture got taken! Offshore has been great with lots of double sails, usually one on the spinning rod per trip! Inshore has been especially insane as well, with between 15-35 fish a day. Inshore we averaged 4-8 Snook and 5-10 Roosters and at least one Dog Faced Snapper per day. And as you can see from the photos, the fish here are HUGE!

 

February 11

Lots of sails out today! I had a young couple out today and we really wore them out today with sails. On a side note, we have gotten at least one double sailfish hookup and at least one spinning reel sailfish hookup per trip now for the last 7 trips! Well, instead of me telling the story, I'll just show you some pictures and let you read the email I recieved after the trip!

" Cant thank you enough for the best fishing trip we have ever been on!!!!!!!!! I am going to email you all of our pics from the trip and will be happy to recommend you to anyone I hear that is headed that way. We are seriously looking into moving down there, thanks again man.! "

Best Regards,
Capt. Ryan

February 5

Great day out, sailfish were everywhere! I lost count but we got either 6 or 7 to the boat, with literally hundreds of sails jumping around and swimming by the boat. And these weren't baby sails, they were monsters! The best was a double with one on the spinning. There is nothing more fun and challenging than reeling in a 125 pound billfish on a spinning reel spooled with 30 pound Mono! So we hit the first sail, he was wanting to eat the teaser. After a little bait and switch, we had the spinning reel screaming and the fight was on! As the sail was getting close, we saw that it was bringing up another one so we hooked that one too on the Tigra 30. It was some great fishing! Here's some awesome pictures! And yes they are enormous, and the pictures are of different fish!

February 3

Great day fishing. I fished with these guys yesterday & today and the sails were thick. We hooked 6 sails yesterday and 3 Dorado. Some of those were on small spinning reels as well, and I think overall we probably spent more time reeling than trolling. As a result of that some of the guys were a bit worn out today when we started out early! So about 12 O'clock today, we had already boated 3 sails and 3 nice Dorado, and the guys decided they couldn't handle anymore action! On a side note, it has been 4 days since a sail has come behind the boat and not gotten hooked. Many times you hear people say we went 2 for 7 on sails. Not on the Sterss Reeliever. Every fish gets a hook, and then the battle is between the customer and the fish. Even if we are reeling in another fish, fish beware ... as happened today ... So we had hooked this sail on the spinning and once again it was almost to the boat. Rudy was holding the leader on the sail and a Dorado just leisurely swims past. Customers are shooting photos and I hear, " Hey look at that Dorado". I couldn't let a fish come that close to the boat and get away!!! So without a word to Rudy, who is trying to get ahold of the sailfish, I throw out a bait on the 30, run up the tower and throw the boat in gear. Then I fly down the ladder and hook the fish while the boat is on Autopilot (figuratively, not literaly) and then run back up the tower and take it out of gear! Poor Rudy was halfway in the water with the sail and was yelling, "Who's driving the boat!" and "What the heck are you doing?" but he figured it out when I got the hook!!! Afterwards we had a good laugh though and he said I earned my third stripe(whatever that means)! And then we took the pictures of the sail while the Dordo fight was on! Today was all reeling and no breaks! Another great day out in the beautiful and warm Quepos Costa Rica Blue Waters!

Where Did Rudy Come From?

I get alot of questions about where I got Rudy and how he knows so much about fish. So I thought I would let the secret out of the bag and show you guys the photos of where I discovered him! Apparently, he drifted out to sea at a young age and was raised by sailfish! Neat story. It may be true, but that's not really where these pictures came from. Actually this was a tired sailfish after a battle with our spinning rod. It wasn't sure if it could go on with life, and Rudy, loving fish and never having hurt a sailfish in his life, jumped out to give the fish swimming lessons and whisper in its ear! :) I would have backed the boat up to the fish, but that just wasn't fast enough for Rudy! Ahh, I guess you can't hate him for his enthusiam! I'm planning on going back sometime mid-February to check on him and see how old Rudy is making out!

End of January

January ended with a bang, or should I say splash! We have been seeing more and more sails, and we are typically getting one for everybody on board! I guess a day that stood out in particular was the 31st. We had two guys on the boat, Andy and Roger, and neither had caught a Pacific Sailfish before. Well as you can see from the photo above, not only did they catch a sailfish, but we got them both one at the same time! Interesting story... Sailfish came to the teaser and we teased him up to the boat and Rudy threw out the spinning reel as a pitch bait and perfectly set the hook. So we are hooked up with the spinning reel, and Roger is doing a great job keeping the line tight and the fish is almost in the boat. That's quite a task on a spinning rod and I imagine he was a little bit tired. Right then, we see there is another Sail coming up out of the water about 30 feet behind the boat. Next thing I know, Rudy starts yelling to put the boat back in gear and he casts out a ballyhoo connected to the Tiagra 30! For you not familiar with reel types, a Tiagra is a big heavy gold trolling reel that wasn't made for casting! Well, with his usual pinpoint accuracy he hits the second sail on the head and as soon as the boat was up to speed, Rudy got the circle hook perfectly placed in the mouth! But, since the spinning reel was still hooked up during the second hookup, poor Roger had to start all over reeling in his sailfish! Needless to say, the one on the Tiagra came in much quicker! But hey, we got the double! I think between the sails and the Dordo, we ended up with about 5-6 six fish to the boat that day. They had so much fun that on the ride home all they were talking about was how they were coming back next year! Here's some photos from that trip and some others in the last week af January!

January 24

Wow, January is super busy and we barely get a break to write these! But the emails have been coming in demanding a report with pictures, so here it is! Today I had a half day offshore, and man was it busy! We got 4 fish in 4 hours including the first photo above. It was a blast, and customers and me had a great time! January has been good to us. We are still getting lots and lots of sails behind the boat each trip and hooking quite a few as well. Dorado have been pretty easy to find as well, just by watching the birds and debris. I will never understand why a 8 ounce bird dives at a 35 pound Dorado, but I'm sure glad they do! I think we have brought home at least one Dorado each trip so far this month, with lots of doubles and giants! Sails are a blast, I have been waiting all year for the sails to come in and man is this fun fishing! Anyway, here are some pictures we took since our last post, enjoy!

January 12 - 16

Sails are really starting to pick up. We are seeing lots and lots of sails and hooking quite a few as well. We are also getting into some Dorado offshore. Inshore has been lots of fun as well, with us seeing quite a few more Red Snappers than usual. Live bait just came back for our inshore trips (there is a two week transition period, now over, in January where there is no bait) so I expect to once again start getting at least 10 Roosterfish a trip. Also, the blue water is creeping closer to shore and soon I should have some nice Snook photos up as well! Also check out the cool shot I got of an unhooked sailfish looking up to at my boat. I guess she just makes that right sound that brings up the fish!!! Here's some recent pictures!

January 2

Good day offshore today. We got 3 Sailfish, a Dorado, and 5 YellowFin Tunas. Pretty exciting day to say the least. We also had a bunch of bites so all day was nonstop action. We also got a chance to break out our spinning reels today, which made for some awesome fish fights! I got some awesome video of Rudy grabbing one of the bills I ran out of memory card, but the results are in the photos:

December 24

Went inshore today and boy were the fish out. The day started out slow with only a barracuda, jack and a Roosterfish before 11. Good for some guys, but we like action. So we packed up and went to one of our "secret spots"! There is a place near a river mouth here, where with the right moon and right tide, there is a pool full of RoosterFish. Not small ones either, but big one after big one! So, we went out there and for the rest of the day reeled in Roosterfish after Roosterfish. I think we finished with 13 nice Roosterfish. We would have gotten more, but we only had one customer reeling so it was an action packed and aweomse day. Here's some pictures! Also, just a quick update on the rest of the month we've been having. I don't get to write these after every trip because I am the captain, boat administrator, and website guy, so here is the recap... Offshore the Dorado have been crazy with lots of days in the double digits. We are getting almost a sailfish per trip, and by the end of the month we should be in 3-4 sails per trip. Expect more exciting fishing January and February where we often get double digit sails per day. If you are wanting to book in January or February, you have to act fast as we are already 90 percent full!

December 22

Great day fishing offshore today. We got 12 nice Dorado in the boat today and had many more bites and nibbles. Almost every hook up was a double also, as we had Rudy standing on the transom of the boat after every hook up casting on the Dorado's friends! I think he has a laser sight on the reel, he hit three or four of the Dorado directly in the head with bait at 20-40 yards, so they weren't even biting it out of hunger but anger! It is also a ton of fun hitting the Dorado on the smaller saltwater spinning rod that Rudy uses. There is nothing better to an angler than a huge fish on a small reel! Big Big battles!

Capt. John,

Thank you so much for a great day of fishing. That having been my wife's first time deep sea fishing it could not have gone any better. The fact that she was too tired to reel in any more fish after the first two worked out great for me, although my arms were a little sore after as well. It couldn't have been easier to walk onto your boat from the dock without breaking stride and to be fishing within the hour.
It was a blast fishing with you and Rudy, especially seeing Rudy get just as excited about a bite as I was. We would happy to recommend you to anyone visiting the area.
Great fishing, good food, a comfortable ride, and fantastic day on the water. Thanks again and we'll be calling as soon as we book our next trip.
Sincerely, Tommy and Allison

Rudy, the mate, has been a super addition to the team here, he misses almost no fish, can hit a fish with bait at 50 yards with a spinning reel, and has mad bait net casting skills. While other boats are using bait reels to pull out one bait at a time while their clients are waiting (usually hoping for 15), we net 50 in two throws and head out to get some fish. That extra 30 minutes almost always gets us another big fish! With bait to spare, we only use very fresh lively baits and use the rest for chum!

December 19

Super exciting inshore trip today! We ended up with 20 RoosterFish and 3 Jacks! All the pictures above are different fish! With the rain finally subsiding here, and the dry season beginning, we are getting the nice blue water right up to Quepos! We just reeled in fish after fish. We even had to take a 30 minute break at 1pm to let everybody recover. The best was the last though. It was 4 in the afternoon, so we went into one more fish mode. Then we hooked the biggest meanest toughest fish of the day. The reel went off and we had no idea what it was but the fight was on! After a full 35 minutes we finally pulled up this medium sized Jack! We all had a little laugh because we were thinking something bigger and better, but figured that we might as well get a picture of it after all that fight. So we pull it in the boat, and thinking the fish is ready to have his picture taken, Kyle holds the fish up while his girlfriend starts shooting the picture. Right at that very moment, the fish rears his head back and head butts Kyle right in the chin! After we were sure he was alright, we all had a serious laugh. Talk about a fish who doesn't like to lose a fight! The best part is she shot the picture right after the headbutt so below you can find the action shot! You can see he is about to say "family" but don't worry, the fish pops him again before he can finish!

December 9-18

Fishing has been great, but I've been too busy to post! I'm trying to do catch up now. Offshore we have been getting lots of Dorado, with doubles and triples being very common and ten per trip not uncommon. Above is a picture of four at a time! We have also been getting at least 3 Yellow Fin Tunas per trip, often more. Also, the sails are finally here. We are getting quite a few sail bites per day. It is so exciting seeing the sails dance around after a hookup. Today (18th), we actually teased the sailfish all the way up until it touched the boat and then Harrold (Rudy is on Christmas break until the 20th) put the bait in its mouth from the pitch pole and then the fight was on! It was quite an exciting day! Here's some pictures. My camera was out of batteries for the last couple of trips, but these are some of the pictures I got before it shut off!

December 4-7

Fishing is definitely heating up as we are finally getting into our prime fishing season! We have been averaging 7+ Dorado and usually a sail each trip offshore! Inshore has been great too, with us getting three roosterfish and a small grouper in just a half day! Look at this Rooster, it is enormous! As we get closer to January, we will start seeing more and more sails until we finally get into the 10+ sails a day by mid-January! Here are some pictures from today and the last couple of days.

December 1

Sorry, it's been a while. We've been swamped and I don't have the energy to write these things! Today we went out and did pretty good. We decided to go with light tackle today, so we broke in the new Spinning reels we just bought. We got 11 Dorado in the boat today, and we got one sail but he escaped! It was a ton of fun. We would find the Dorado trolling around with Ballyhoo, then bring them close to the boat and hit them with the live bait on the spinning reel. On splinning reels it takes a very long time to get them to the boat, but it is enormously fun. Here are the pictures. On bottom I have a triple hookup, all on the spinning reels! Note that there are three Dorado in the boat and three on the lines! On the top are two good Dorado that were a huge battle on the spinning. The second half of November was great. We hit a ton of Roosterfish, and ton of Dorado and some pretty good Barracudas and Snappers! Been a lot of fun!

November 16

Had a really good offshore day today. Our customers wanted to catch meat to bring home, so we went out looking for a nice blue water trash line. We quickly found a good current and then just started pulling out the fish. We had a couple double hook ups, a couple triple hook ups, and then finaly a 5 hook up. Since there were only two customers, they would just reel until the fish was near the boat and then the mate would hand them another reel and they would go again. We had Rudy casting out near the fish that were coming in when there was only one fish on and that alost guaranteed an additional hook up everytime. At the end of the day, we hit this huge bull Dorado and even though we got him on a Tiagra 50, it still took 51 minutes with an experienced angler to get him on board! Ended up being a great day. Since we fished two more days with the same guys, we also got them some more Dorado, Yellow fin Tuna, Spanish mackeral, Makeral Tuna, and Wahoo. They got a great taste of all the fish we offer here in Costa Rica! Take note that all the fish in the picutres are different fish and if there are five fish in the picture or three, they were all caught at the same time!

November 10

I think the picture accurately describes our trip. The gentleman on the left said it was his lifelong dream to catch a big sail, and it was his birthday so we got him hooked up! The sails were almost the same size, but the one on the left was turned for the photo. A pair of really nice sails! We are so excited that the sailfish have finally come back into season. From now till March we will be loading up on there every trip! Also, you know it was a good trip when everybody went home with some Dorado to cook. Great day fishing out of beautiful Quepos Costa Rica!

November 11

Had two inshore days, one full and one half day. Overall we caught 18 Roosterfish, and a really nice Mackeral. Many of the Roosterfish were a bit smaller but there were some good ones in the group as well. Here's some Roosterfish pictures and a nice Spanish Mackeral. There is no better place in the world to catch a Roosterfish than here in beautiful Quepos Costa Rica!

November 3

Finally, November is here and the fish are biting! We had scheduled a Full Day Inshore trip today, but at 10:30 we had worn out the customer. We got a really nice barracuda and a big snapper. The snapper fight took around 30 minutes and was the fish that sealed the deal! We were trolling out in the "Bajos de Foro" pretty close to the dock and first we hit the big barracuda. This is actually one of the larger barracudas as Pacific barracudas are smaller than those found in Florida. After a pretty decent fight, we got it in the boat and we set off for another fish. This guy was staying with a chef from the states, so he wanted something really big and good to eat. We went ahead and picked up and moved over to where we know there are some big snapper caves. Within a couple of sweeps of the area, we nailed a big one and the line was running. Unfortunately, like snappers usually do, the snapper went straight down into a cave and the line broke off. Never the type to give up, we went back around and dropped down on top of the caves again and we got another nice hit. This time we were able to use the boat to pull the snapper into deeper water and the fight was on! 30 minutes later, this snapper was finally in the boat! Another happy customer fishing here in Quepos Costa Rica aboard the Stress Reeliever!

QUEPOS FISHING FORECAST

February-April 2011-2012

Billfish season is here! January through April is when all the sailfish and Marlin come out and we are so looking forward to some awesome billfish action! This year we have tons of new tricks in addition to the old ones so we should have some great numbers! In addition to the Top of the line Furuno Sonar, and all new Penn Reels, I just got some High Powered stabilized binoculars. These are the ones that can spot birds at 5-6 miles, and if you shake them, the picture in them doesn't move. They look like something out of a Star Wars Movie and I expect to find lots of birds, floating debris and most importantly FINS! We also installed about 8000 dollars in sound and vibration reducing equipment and this should be our best year yet! We should really start seeing some good Dorado action from October to January, landing quite a few of the big bulls. We'll have the spinning gear ready for those fisherman who are really looking for a crazy fight. For those of you who like pulling up big fish from way down below, the bottom fishing should stay really awesome as well with quite a few Amberjacks and Snapper coming out each trip. With the new gear, we should also be able to spot Yellow Fins from way off, so I expect to be getting quite a bit more Tuna Action! Inshore we now will use a smaller boat with captain Jerry. last year in high season, Jerry really cleaned up the Roosterfish with his largest being 80 pounds and his most released were 11 large ones. In addition, we have quite a few areas that will be great to throw poppers to hit those snappes on top! Inshore should also come with the occasional Jack, Spanish Mackeral and Barracuda bite. High season is finally here, and we are already 50% booked so make sure to reserve your days quick before we fill up!

Quepos & Manuel Anotnio Hotels

Let us help you find the best deal on a nice hotel here on the water. We have something for everyone, include budget but clean hotels, all the the way to the Mariposa sitting up on the cliff overlooking the ocean. We can do luxury cliff top house rentals as well, just let us know! For more pictures go to our Hotel page!

View from La Mariposa Hotel of the Park:

 

Fish We Catch

 

Costa Rica Travel

Thinking about doing something tropical but don't know where to start? I'd love to get everything setup for you! I have stayed at almost every hotel here, I know which ones you will like and which ones are prettier on their webpages :) Let me handle all the details like hotel reservations and transport, so you can focus on just relaxing. Costa Rica is the most stable and safe country in Latin America as well. We love questions, just ask us anything and we'll be glad to guide you to all the highlights that this beautiful country has to offer! One of the most diverse places on Earth, Costa Rica has much more than just the awesome beaches which are 5 minutes from the docks. If you have the time, it's worth a trip to the Volcano Arenal, a very active Volcano with a slew of Hot Water Parks at the base. And for the hiking and adreniline type, check out MonteVerde. High up in the mountains, it's a cool climate. They have built crazy trails with suspension bridges and long ziplines to check out. Also, MonteVerde Boasts some of the best ATV and Horseback trails in the world!We can take care of all the details so you can just a have a great trip. I have been to every place I reccommend and I only send my customers to the best locations. After my first trip here, I moved here, so I'm sending you to all the same spots that made me fall in love with Costa Rica!

 

About Us:

Providing a personal touch to the World Class charter boat offshore and inshore sportfishing in Quepos Costa Rica. We are very centrally located in the Manuel Anotnio / Quepos area of Puntarenas Costa Rica, only 45 minutes South of the Los Suenos sportfishing marina in Herradura / Jaco. We are also a short 30 minute drive from most of the Exquisite Vacation Homes located in the Dominical, Uvita, and Whale's Tale areas. Our main focus is sportfishing for large billfish including Sailfish, Black Marlin, Blue Marlin, and Striped Marlin. Other fish we like to go after are Dorado, (aka dolphin, Mahi Mahi) yellowfin tuna, amberjack, snapper, and rooster fish (inshore).