Costa Rica Tarpon Fishing

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Costa Rica Tarpon

Tarpon in Costa Rica can be taken in any month of the year. The king of game fish journeys from saltwater into freshwater at will. They roam the warm inshore waters of the Caribbean Sea along the entire Eastern seaboard of Costa Rica as well as venture up the many rivers that flow to the coast. Costa Rica Tarpon commonly travel up the Rio Colorado into the Rio San Juan all the way to Lake Nicaragua. Fishing is more apt to change day to day rather than season to season.

The fish are always present and current local weather conditions will play the major factor in what its feeding habits will be on any given day. Tico Travel's Costa Rica former representative and ten year resident of the country, Todd Staley lived in the jungle rainforest of Barra del Colorado nearly five years and we consider him somewhat of an authority on the habits of the Costa Rican tarpon.

He caught his first tarpon in Florida at the age of 10 and more than a thousand silver kings later they are still his favorite game fish. When asked by an angler what kind of a day they can expect for fishing tarpon in Costa Rica, Todd always gives the same reply. "On my worst day fishing tarpon here I hooked zero, but on my very best day I jumped sixty. I think I can safely say that you will fall somewhere in between those two numbers.

The best advice he can give is to listen to your guides and fish with the lures and techniques they suggest. Especially if you are an experienced tarpon fishermen and Fishing Costa Rica for the first time, leave that knowledge in your suitcase. The techniques for fighting a tarpon in Costa Rica are universal; the techniques used to fool the tarpon into taking your offering vary from location to location. The locals call them Asabalo.

Costa Rica River Fishing

Tarpon in Costa Rica are always present in the Caribbean and in the river and lagoon systems. The Tarpon travel in huge schools on the ocean and in small pods or singles once they enter the fresh water, although in February, March, and April they occasionally school up in the lagoons. Large groups of tarpon begin entering the rivers in December and travel upstream for several months until they return to the ocean in May.

There are also a few resident fish that for some reason choose to stay inside year round in the rivers and lagoons. Fishing is done on the main river in the holes behind the sandbars formed by the current changes near the river bends. Boats anchor in front of the dropoffs and work floating Rapalas or flies back in the holes.

If you are lucky enough to find the tarpon schooled up in a lagoon, casting a 65M MirrOlure or working a fly produces some adrenalin pumping acrobatics when in the shallow water the fish have nowhere to go but up. During the fat snook run from late November to early February, light tackle anglers are often surprised when an eighty pound tarpon takes in a jig intended for a five pound fish.

FISHING THE COSTA RICA RIVER MOUTHS
The nutrients flowing out of the rivers compliment the entire food chain right up to the tarpon, snook, giant jack crevalle, and the assortment of pelagics that pass through seasonally. On a very calm day, one can sneak up behind the sand bars and fool big snook and tarpon laying in ambush.

If there is a swell, the drift is begun just behind the breakers and the lures are worked while drifting out until reaching about a 40 foot depth, then the boats move back in and the process is repeated. When the conditions are right and the fish hungry, it is common to have at least one strike on every drift.

FISHING THE OUTSIDE

It is an awesome sight to see an acre of tarpon rolling in unison. Tarpon school up off the beaches and just offshore and move up and down the coast and hang in certain areas like the horseshoe shaped tide rip offshore as the blue Caribbean bucks against the dark river water.

Most ocean fishing is done by jigging in 55 to 65 feet of water, which is less than a mile off the beach and fishing rarely is done much deeper. If you've heard stories of jumping two or three tarpon on a single cast it was probably done in this area as one fish throws the lure and another takes it as it hits the water.

WHERE TO TARPON FISH IN COSTA RICA

Barra del Colorado Barra has the largest watershed on the Eastern seaboard. There are endless miles of creeks and lagoons and three river mouths within a twenty minute run in a boat.

Also the Rio Colorado has the bulk of the water running out of Lake Nicaragua and is a highway for tarpon moving inside.

The last pueblo before the Nicaraguan border, it has also less traffic than the areas near the canal that runs inside from Limon to the Barra.

Parismina When the ocean is calm and fishing is done outside, Parismina is equally as good as Barra del Colorado or probably anywhere in the world to fish tarpon.

On the days the breakers in the river mouth don't allow a safe passage outside, the fishing can be tough.

The smaller area to fish and the boat traffic headed to the nature lodges in Tortugero play into the fish count taken inside the river mouth.

Tortuguero Although primarily visited by nature groups and known as a prime nesting sight for the green turtle, Tortuguero does have lodge operators that offer fishing.

Most boats fishing tarpon out of Tortuguero generally head north towards Barra del Colorado looking for tarpon. The rocky bottom outside the Tortuguero river mouth makes it a good area for snook and cubera snapper as well as for holding king mackerel during the bi-annual migration.

Again, the lack of water area to fish inside as well as boat traffic doesn't make it our 1st or 2nd choice.

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