Costa Rica Fishing Report from FishingNosara
Costa Rica Fishing Report Archive | FishingNosara
The perfect way to kick off the season was with General Manager Javier Hernandez and his friends joining Captain David on the Explorer for a harvest of the fertile reefs just outside of Garza Bay. In just two hours they boated a handful of Yellowfin Tunas, Jack Crevalles, Cerro Mackerals, and Amberjacks.
Nice warm up lap! The fish are biting and we are fired up for a great year of fishing.
The Explorer is back in the water and she is primed for another season of rocking and rolling on the Costa Rican blue water. This year she has a new trick up her sleeve: a beautiful new bow rail which converts the prow of the Super Panga into a full-fledged casting platform.
As if the Explorer wasn’t scary enough for the reef dwellers, now Captain David has a new arrow in the quiver. Keep an eye right here on the FishingNosara blog as the season gets fired up this week.
After a great day of fishing with Kurt Stecken, Captain David noticed the clear weather was sticking around and decided to squeeze in a quick family trip this morning. Joined by Nosara Paradise Rentals GM Javier Hernandez, Captain David and Betsy had a very fruitful 3 hour morning trip.
Nice roosterfish! Estimated to weigh 25lbs, this rooster was released. Later in the morning these locals put some dinner on the table in the form of three nice Yellowfin Tunas and a Yellowtail snapper.
It’s always great with our staff gets some time on the water. When one considers the effort to launched and recover both boats in a single morning it is clear that Javier and Captain David deserved some fun fishing. Awesome work!
With boat repair going faster than anticipated and a two-day break in the rains approaching, the Captains and crew of FishingNosara dared to ask the question “What off-season?”
Both the Explorer and Wanderer were in action today with client Kurt Stecken separating his group between the two boats. Launching and recovering two big boats at a time on the beach is no easy feat, but Cumi and Javier are pros and got the vessels floating with minimal troubles. Even better is both groups of clients reported excellent catches.
On the Explorer the action was consistent and fruitful to the tune of nine Yella fellas and a pair of 20lbs. Amberjacks. They also had a curious Sailfish knocking around behind the teasers but he wasn’t hungry.
Check out the water behind this client and his Amberjack…the Wanderer had some big action going on as well!
Sure enough the big blue beauty was busy packing the fishbox. They started a little slow with a small Jack and a quartet of Bonitas, then the lines started popping off with some big fish.
The Wanderer scorecard for the day shows six nice Yellowfin Tuna and a massive 60lbs.+ Amberjack. Clearly, they caught enough fish for the party tonight. Big fish, full bellies and happy clients…it’s what FishingNosara is all about!
The unstoppable Captain David has mastered the maneuverable 26-foot Explorer and has her dialed in. He got her back in the water just in time to score some nice ‘off-season’ trips.
With calm seas and sunny skies proving to much to resist, Duane Stanley and his wife decided in the morning to go first for a billfish and come back to shore to catch something to eat on September 19.
Captain David was up for the challenge and brought along First Mate Alex from the Wanderer to do battle with the big boys!
About 8 o’clock they had their first hit and it was a nice Sailfish. The fight was short and fierce with Mrs. Stanley on the reel.
They released this acrobatic species a few minutes later, then came inshore had a field day on multiple species.
First, two nice Yellowfins came up the water column to David’s cloud of irresistible Bonita chunks. Duane made quick work of them and put them on ice. Then a line popped off a little stronger, and everyone thought that a big fish had hit the popper.
When most people think of a ‘double strike’ it is when two lines go off at once…not two fish on the same lure! It’s almost as if the fish missed seeing the Explorer. This Big-Eye Jack and his little Yellowfin companion could not help but throw themselves in the boat.
All of that surface commotion woke up the slumbering reef beasts, and Duane followed up this oddball double catch with a true Hall of Fame monster.
This Cubera Snapper fought like a panther and Duane Stanley earned his Hall of Fame enshrinement by digging his heels into the deck and holding on for dear life. A sweat-drenched, knock-down, drag-out, bareknuckle fish fight ensued with Duane and the Explorer emerging victorious.
Duane wrote us the following email:
“The day was amazing, we had such a good time and those guys down there are great! What are the chances that Snapper makes it on the Hall of Fame?”
It was a great day of ‘off-season’ fishing for the Explorer and clearly the clients, crew and Captain were all pumped to be on the water. Hall of Fame fishing for sure!
With the rains coming and the season almost over, Captain David welcomed client Marc Carson for North Carolina for a five-hour fishing trip and he came away with some excellent Yellowfin Tuna and a nice Sailfish release.
Great work by Captain David to squeeze every drop out of the Explorer‘s maiden season.ย Look our for this legendary boat to raise the bar even higher in 2012.
It’s been raining for the last few days but yesterday the weather finally lifted and client Mark Carson took to the Explorer for a half-day fishing with Captain David. They got a few Bonitas for use as strip bait then headed offshore to where the swarms of Sailfish were before the rains (see August 8-12).
Though not as thick as before, Mr. Carson still caught and released a nice Sailfish. It’s good to see that the rain didn’t impact the fishing too much and we think that the next few days may provide one of the last weather windows for a few months. Good perseverance by the Explorer.
It has been ‘Sailfish City’ ever since the rain cleared up two weeks ago, and August 10 will go down in history has one of the best days in FishingNosara history. Both the Wanderer and Explorer released big sails today, plus Captain William delivered some of the best fish-fighting photos this report has ever seen.
Martin Epstein from Florida has four trips scheduled this week and his first day on the Wanderer got his acclimated to the fantastic fishing we have in Nosara. Things got started quickly with a nice 35lbs. Dorado in the fishbox and sushi on the plate.
Later Captain William expertly found the blue water / green water break and First Mate Alex switched over to brightly colored lures to take advantage of the clear water. The Sailfish were thick and came swarming through the spread in waves.
After the first five releases and with First Mate Alex’ arms about to fall off, Captain William masterfully billed and released the final Sailfish. The Wanderer’s scorecard shows 6 Sailfish, all released.
Marty and his posse have two more days on the Wanderer and a trip with Captain David on the Explorer booked for this week, so look out for Mr. Epstein to continue his assault on the blue water.
Speaking of the Explorer, client Tyler Malmstrom from New Jersey caught the fish of a lifetime with Captain David very close to when the Wanderer was fishing. So close that Captain William snapped this amazing sequence of the entire fight all the way from the hook to the capture/photo to the safe release. Amazing photos of an amazing fish!
Here is the email we got from Manuel:
I have to tell you man. Tyler had one of the best trip he ever had in his life. He released 4 sails and lost 2. He never caught big fish before.
When he booked with me he said, “Manuel, I want to catch big fish.” I said, “Let’s do it man”. This guy was totally crazy this afternoon.
Regular readers of this blog always inquire as to the authorship of this thing…basically “Who writes the blog?” The fact is that it is a communal effort between Craig and Matty in the US office, the Captains/crew taking the photographs, and Concierge #1 Manuel passing the information between these two elements separated by 1500 miles and a language barrier.
Great work by the Captains, Clients, and crews…and especially great work by Manuel #1. Pura Vida!
After several trips on the Wanderer, Rick Egan made his final lap around our fishery on August 5 hoping to cap off his trip that has already included great bottom fishing action and numerous Sailfish releases.
He chose Captain David and the Explorer for a morning half-day and they got off to a quick start with three Bonitas and a two Jacks (20lbs. and 35lbs.)
Mr. Egan also lost a big Roosterfish on a topwater Williamson Jet Popper close to the boat. It was a monster and it hurt Rick’s heart to not get him into the boat for the picture, but even though he still had a great time. Plus they got a smaller Roosterfish:
Decent fishing today with both the Explorer and the Wanderer reporting filets in the box. In the morning Captain David was joined by Judith Ricci for a 3 hour morning session on the reefs and had some nice early strikes from Bonitas on the Planer/Spoon rig. Then they drifted some bait chucks over the reef and caught this beautiful Yellowfin Tuna.
