Costa Rica Fishing Trip 2011

[Robja]

Costa Rica Fishing trip 2011

We flew into San Jose on Friday afternoon and hopped the puddle jumper down to Puerto Jimenez. Saturday was a lay day so we stimulated the local economy some. It was different because it was overcast and cloudy with rain all day which has never happened. We were fishing with Bobby McGuinness. http://www.fishcostarica.com/bobby_mcguinness.html . WE fished on Bobby’s 37 ft Merritt Express Cazador. I have fished on a lot of boats with a lot of different Captains and mates in that part of the world and I must say Bobby and his mate Gabriel are first class. Day one fishing was a little slow. We had a pulley problem with one of the engines and while the Captain and mate were working on the motor my friend Doug took over as Captain and I filled in the pit job. I was really hoping we would get something while they were busy but all we got was a cut off on the long line from a dorado. We trolled thru a bunch of spinner dolphin but never found a tuna so we headed further out. Our newbie to bill fishing Gordon got his first sail. Our next fish was a 40+ lb. Dorado followed up with a 50+ lb. Dorado. We finished the day with a sail I caught. We ended up raising 4 sails and hooking 3 and catching 2. I thought the fishing was slow till we got back and found out we were the only boat that caught any billfish.


Day 2 we decided to head further off in search of Marlin to Bobby’s secret spot. A seamount that comes up from 5000 ft to 1500 ft. We put out 2 large sabiki rigs right off the back and loaded up with small skipjacks. The mate bridled them up and out they went. Within 10 minutes we had a Marlin shopping in the spread but he wasn’t interested in breakfast. About 15 min. later he came back and hit the long line. George took the rod but lost the fish after 5 minutes while screwing around with a cigarette. Shortly after a Stripy came up and decided he liked the pitch bait we dropped back but he came unbuttoned after a short display of aerial maneuvers. My turn was next to so I was really hoping for a Marlin since I had never caught one and I got lucky. I was expecting a long drawn out fight but I managed to get her to the boat pretty quickly. She was still pretty green when Gabriel released the fish. Bobby estimated the Blue to be around 450 lbs. Gordon followed that with a 350 lb. Blue a short time later. For the day we raised 6 Marlin, hooked 4 and released 2. On Sails we raised 5, hooked 4, and released 4.


Day 3 we decided to do some bottom fishing and Rooster fishing. We headed out of Golfo Dolce and headed up the beach paste Carate. The bottom dwellers didn’t seem hungry as we only caught 2 red snappers. One on a jig and one on a live bait. We hooked more Rockfish than anything else and seeing that we didn’t have a winch and cable they did not want to come off the bottom. Bobby got a radio call about a floater in the vicinity so we got the lines in and headed back toward Carate to search. After 20 minutes a coast guard boat joined the search. We spent an hour and a half looking but never located the body. I found out later a German tourist got pulled out from the beach with a rip current and drowned. We caught a few Jacks slow trolling live baits and then headed to Cabo Matapalo and caught a few small bottom critters which we released.


Day 4 was a day I will never forget. The worst seas I have ever fished in down in Central or South America in the Pacific was 2 ft but when we got to the end of Golfo Dolce the ocean quickly turned to 4 to 5 ft seas. We took a pounding on the way out so it was almost like fishing back in North Carolina. The further out we went the worse it got. By the time we got out to the seamount the seas were every bit 8 to 9 ft. We trolled ballyhoo till we started getting skipjacks on the sabiki rigs then we switched bait. We had one Blue come by to window shop. We finished going 5 for 5 on sails. The boat we fished on last year came out there and went 4 for 6 on Marlin and 3 for 4 on sails. On the way in I thought the ride would not be as bad as it was going out and it was a little better except for when a big wave would hit the port bow and tilt the boat starboard. I had just finished my Imperial Cerveza and was standing behind Bobby holding onto the rocket launcher with my left hand. As I leaned ever so slightly to the right to drop the can into a box we got hit again. The next thing I knew I was heading over the side. The water coming off the bow hit me in the side of the head and neck and yanked my fat *** off and flipped me away from the boat. When I came up to the top I saw the boat going away. After a quick 2 to 1 vote from my friends they came back and got me. It scared the crap out of me and pissed me off that my new Costa Del Mars were headed to the bottom. I am just thankful I didn’t hit the boat on the way out.


Even though we did not catch as many fish as we did last year we still had a successful trip. Like one other poster on here said earlier you can really see how bad the economy is in the States because I saw a lot of idle boats all week. In four days I would only see 2 or 3 boats from Crocodile Bay and one day 5 going out fishing when last year almost all of their 31 boats were going out.

[scattered_grass]

Great story and pics! Congrats on your Merlin

[Squidnation]

Awesome report. Bobby is a super nice guy and a hell of a fisherman. I really want to try and fish out of Puerto Jimenz one day. Haven't been in years. thanks for the pics!

[gottaflylee]

Sweet report and pictures, I would say that you guys had a blast...

[Agitated88]

Awesome report and pictures Jay...looks like one heck of a good time!!!

[Tenacious]

Jaybird, great post! I can't believe the camera wasn't rolling when you went over *** over tin cups! Your getting pretty good with that Nikon! Congrats on a nice trip!!!

[tunabite]

love seein the pics of the ol CAZADOR !!!! she doesnt ride very good in rough seas for sure!! been there and done that with mike when he owned her. greats pics!

[clt_capt]

Great Pics Jay. Looks like you had a great escape from all of this crappy weather.

Thanks for sharing.

[SeaBiscuit]

The live bait marlin fishing sounds definitely world class, Jay. Congrats on your blue and thank God you did not get hurt going over.
Great report and pictures!
SeaBiscuit