FISHING

Central Pacific  - Puntarenas to Dominical

Puntarenas, Punta Leona, Jaco Beach, and Dominical all have small fishing operations on the central west coast of Costa Rica but the nucleus of the fishing action is Quepos. In the height of the season it is possible that over fifty boats of all sizes will be charter ready ranging from $450 to $1,200 a day.

This may seem like a large number of boats but in January and February it is difficult to find an available boat. Several of the more popular captains are booked more than 100 days in a row.

The National Park at Manuel Antonio  - makes Quepos a premier destination. Many families with non fishing members enjoy the park, rafting or horseback riding while the fishing members test their skills against the blue water species that roam the waters just offshore. Manuel Antonio offers four different beaches with hiking trails along the beach as well as a trail that runs along the cliffs with a spectacular view of the Pacific and nearby islands. It is common to see white face monkeys, iguanas and other types of wildlife while walking through the park.

Billfish is the main attraction out of Quepos. The best fishing is from December through April which makes many American anglers happy to escape the "great white north" for a hot tropical climate with some of the best fishing in the world. On a typical day trolling out of Quepos, anglers can expect to have 10 to 20 sailfish up in the baits and possibly a marlin. Depending on the experience of who is setting the hook, releasing 10 or more in a day is more on the common side than something spectacular.

In late September of last year, six weeks before the normal season begins, boats were seeing 15 or more billfish everyday. In the prime season, numbers were way down and anglers were lucky to see 10 fish a day. In late April, boats were raising 20 to 30 fish a day, which is unusual for that time of year.

Although the target for most anglers are the billfish, Quepos waters hold good numbers of dorado and tuna also. Some tuna caught are up over 200 pounds and the dorado sometimes reach 60 pounds.

Inshore fishing can be very good around the rock formations and at the river mouths. Roosterfish and cubera snapper are the main attraction but snook are also abundant in the area. In fact they had a run of snook in 1999 that hasn't been seen in years.

Forty pounds were common and the numbers caught were phenomenal. The world record black snook came from these waters (57 lbs. 12 oz.) and bigger fish are there to be had by record seekers. Every river mouth in the central Pacific region holds snook and many can be fished by surf casting.

Fishing Season Information

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