Beach Fishing Costa Rica

[Bronzie]

Hi All

 

Looking for a new beach destinaion so we have chosen Costa Rica. Any of you fished the beaches there either Pacific or Carribean? Plenty of info on the Boat Fishing but very little on the beaches.

 

Any info on fishing methods lures etc would be appreciated.

We do have a local angler as "Guide" so not totally on our own.

We do have room for 1 more to make a group of 6 if anyones interested. Costs unknown as its our first visit but a ball park figure of £1400 for the 2 week trip.

Report will be posted on our return in August.

[Matt Baldwin]

i'm off out to Costa Rica in July for a month,

 

hope to get a few trips in then

[Bronzie]

Were heading out 17th July starting in North West area and headimg wherever we hear fish are. Have rods will travel!!!

[Matt Baldwin]

im flying out on the 23rd July and coming back on the 25th August.

 

starting at San Jose. there for a few days then down to the Panama canal then to the caribean and an island for a week.

[Kieran Hanrahan]

Hi All

 

Looking for a new beach destinaion so we have chosen Costa Rica. Any of you fished the beaches there either Pacific or Carribean? Plenty of info on the Boat Fishing but very little on the beaches.

 

Any info on fishing methods lures etc would be appreciated.

We do have a local angler as "Guide" so not totally on our own.

We do have room for 1 more to make a group of 6 if anyones interested. Costs unknown as its our first visit but a ball park figure of £1400 for the 2 week trip.

Report will be posted on our return in August.

 

The key is fishing early or late, i.e. from or into darkness. Once the sun is up you will need very long distance casting or deep water off rocks to hit fish properly... I fished the Guanacaste coast many moons ago and it can be excellent. There is a step caused by the tide on many of these beaches, often no more than a few metres from the edge, and at dusk and particularly at dawn the big predators, rays and sharks, move in and swim laterally along this checking for small fish and flotsam caught around this, also turtles heading to / from the beach. We camped on the beach - probably illegal then, almost certainly illegal now - and got up in darkness. Saw tuna breaking the waves but very far offshore, had one really good run from a big ray (very big, bugger came right out of the water at me) and lost it right at the end.

 

Locals informed me that wire is essential (was using very heavy mono) and that they use wire even for the smaller fish - even things in the 1-4 lb range will bite through mono. They also never swim in the sea at or around dawn - enough said. Strongly recommend a guide or excellent book as there are lots of scorpion like fish especially in the rocky marks - we got through around 15 species over about a week, half were flats... some nice flounder like species that grew to 5-6 lbs, wow! We were convinced they were ray until we saw them... Lost tons of fish to bitten off snoods, didn't have a clue of what we were doing to be honest!

 

I'm deeply envious, enjoy!

[Bronzie]

The key is fishing early or late, i.e. from or into darkness. Once the sun is up you will need very long distance casting or deep water off rocks to hit fish properly... I fished the Guanacaste coast many moons ago and it can be excellent. There is a step caused by the tide on many of these beaches, often no more than a few metres from the edge, and at dusk and particularly at dawn the big predators, rays and sharks, move in and swim laterally along this checking for small fish and flotsam caught around this, also turtles heading to / from the beach. We camped on the beach - probably illegal then, almost certainly illegal now - and got up in darkness. Saw tuna breaking the waves but very far offshore, had one really good run from a big ray (very big, bugger came right out of the water at me) and lost it right at the end.

 

Locals informed me that wire is essential (was using very heavy mono) and that they use wire even for the smaller fish - even things in the 1-4 lb range will bite through mono. They also never swim in the sea at or around dawn - enough said. Strongly recommend a guide or excellent book as there are lots of scorpion like fish especially in the rocky marks - we got through around 15 species over about a week, half were flats... some nice flounder like species that grew to 5-6 lbs, wow! We were convinced they were ray until we saw them... Lost tons of fish to bitten off snoods, didn't have a clue of what we were doing to be honest!

 

I'm deeply envious, enjoy!

 

 

 

Hi Keiran

 

Thanksfor the info. Wire on order and fortunately we have a local beach angler guiding us. I have also ordered a species book from Amazon. So everything nicely covered i hope. look forward to tackling the rays / sharks got just the gear for them South African 14 ft Assassin and a Saltiga 50. But i really want Rooster Fish and Snook from the shore. But i`ll take whatever bites.

 

Thanks again

regards Bronzie

[Norm B]

Hi Keiran

 

Thanksfor the info. Wire on order and fortunately we have a local beach angler guiding us. I have also ordered a species book from Amazon. So everything nicely covered i hope. look forward to tackling the rays / sharks got just the gear for them South African 14 ft Assassin and a Saltiga 50. But i really want Rooster Fish and Snook from the shore. But i`ll take whatever bites.

 

Thanks again

regards Bronzie

Hi Mate, have a good time, I'm jealous already. The locals get roosters and snook in their nets set just offshore, plus grouper, snapper etc. Prawn is a very good bait too. Don't forget the factor 25 and insect repellant, oh! and the shades man. Get some pictures and maybe we can do a feature on your expedition.

I'd be with you but it's smack bang in the middle of putting the paper together.

[taimen]

Hi All

 

Looking for a new beach destinaion so we have chosen Costa Rica. Any of you fished the beaches there either Pacific or Carribean? Plenty of info on the Boat Fishing but very little on the beaches.

 

Any info on fishing methods lures etc would be appreciated.

We do have a local angler as "Guide" so not totally on our own.

We do have room for 1 more to make a group of 6 if anyones interested. Costs unknown as its our first visit but a ball park figure of £1400 for the 2 week trip.

Report will be posted on our return in August.

 

Used - but this was 20 years ago - do a bit of surf fishing in CR as a break from the tarpon on the Atlantic side, around the mouth of the Rio Colorado. Plugging for snook from the beach - if you could locate them - great , and now and then you might run into a tarpon though unlikely you'd beach it. January probably best month. Bait fishing could be OK but sting rays a nuisance.

[monkeymafia]

Hi there, dont know how much use this is but i took a carp type set up out to the Yucatan in Mexico a few years ago. Was having difficulty getting bait. As luck would have it a small fish grabbed the bare (silver) hook on the way back in whch gave me an idea.

 

Grabbed my girfriends favourite sparkly top, robbed all the sequins and threaded 5 of so of them on the line just above the hook and 1 on the bend (size 1 aberdeen), i then used this on a 5 ft trace above a 1 oz drilled bullet which i lobbed out past any 'fishy' looking areas and dragged it back through close to the bottom, little tricky to find good spots as it was miles of sandy beach but there were sand bars and eddies and patches of washed up weed etc.

 

To cut a long story short caught numerous silver predatory bass-type and other fish from 6 inches up to 3/4lb culminating an 8/9lb Snook caught over some washed up weed no more than 10ft off a sandy otherwise featureless beach.