Inshore brought a 46 lb cubera snapper on 15 lb test. We
usually catch a couple of roosters every week over 50 lbs.
We had a couple of anglers from England who took six over
50 lbs in one day with the largest going 65 lbs. Our summertime
is finally upon us and the water temp is almost ideal. The
water is clean with dorado and wahoo hitting just outside
the gulf. Looking forward to a good month ahead
Our good friend Tim Rahn shows of a nice rooster
Todd
Staley,
Fishing Director
Crocodile Bay Lodge
Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica
Costa
Rica Fishing Report, November 2005
By Fishing Director Todd Staley
The
first week after the season started November 1st was really
slow. Don't know the reason. Maybe nobody told the fish
we started fishing. Maybe Wilma and Beta dumped tons of
rain on us and dropped the water temperature. Whatever it
was, it was tough to produce good numbers. On the 7th I
had a little chat with the local witchdoctor and he gave
me a potion to drop in the ocean. The last three days has
been a complete turn around. Dorado in good numbers, lots
of football tuna, and the lady in the blue dress has been
dancing once again. Big lady so far has been a tad over
400 lbs, but a half dozen or more marlin are up in the teasers
each day. Day by day is getting better and in a week or
so I'll update this. Who doesn't believe in magic???
Todd
Staley
Fishing Director
Crocodile Bay Resort
Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica
Read
the current costa rica fishing report
Costa
Rica Fishing Report, May 2005
By Fishing Director Todd Staley
We
have had several large groups pass through here in the last
few weeks. Boston Whaler Boats, Pacific Fire and Safety,
Dave Galleoti’s floor covering group, and Mercury
Motors all had groups of 30 or more anglers. The fish cooperated
enough to bend some rods and everyone left with a sail under
their belt. Boston Whaler had a Calcutta going that raised
over $1700 dollars for the first grade class at Puerto Jimenez’s
elementary school. Thanks.
Boston Whaler puts smiles on the kids faces with
a $1700 donation to the first grade class of Puerto Jimenez,
Costa Rica.
Offshore has been steady as of late with most boats getting
shots at 8 to 10 sails a day. A few marlin have been popping
up every day as of late. Top boats raised 31 fish this week.
Inshore the roosters haven’t been crowing as much
as usual, but the snapper fishing has been good with yellow,
mullet and cubera snapper taking live and dead bait as well
as jigs. A 20lb cubera fell victim to a jig and a 25lb grouper
hit a top water plug over a shallow reef. Top inshore catch
this week was a 33 lb African pompano.
Todd
Staley,
Fishing Director
Crocodile Bay Lodge
Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica
CBL
Fishing Report, June 2005
By Fishing Director Todd Staley
“The Rock”, is generally a very good place to
fish. Anyone familiar with this area knows about it. It
is not quite as famous as “The Rock” that sits
in the middle of San Francisco Bay but Matapalo Rock has
it’s own local fame. Captains use it as a reference
point when reporting where the fish are. “Sixty degrees,
fifteen miles,” might report a captain. That would
be sixty degees, fifteen miles from the rock. Folks that
have braved diving around the rock call it an underwater
Jurasik Park.
The Rock sits a couple hundred yards off the beach at Cabo
Matapalo. It is known for it’s giant roosterfish,
man size cubera snapper, amberjack and big sharks.
But not offshore species!
Bill Pittman and Phil Shuyler were down from Cabela’s
filming a show for their outdoor television show. Pittman
was on the rod and Shuyler on the camera. They got a late
start the first morning and started offshore, but decided
to stop at the rock and do a little deep jigging and call
the boats offshore to see how the action was offshore.
They started jigging and at the same time free-lined a bluerunner
behind the boat for roosterfish. In no time they had an
amberjack and a few bonita in the boat when all of a sudden
a 120 lb sailfish picks up the bluerunner and starts doing
a tailwalk 30 feet off the stern. Pretty freaky we all thought,
hooking a sail this close to shore.
Seeing the sail fired us up for more so we headed offshore.
To make a dull story short we trolled for 4 hours and saw
nothing but water so we headed back to the rock to finish
the day jigging. This time a nice dorado took the free-line.
Hmmm, another offshore species inshore.
We talked about it over dinner that night and decided the
next morning we would go to the rock and start trolling
as if we were offshore.
The other boats in the area looked at us like we were nuts
but within fifteen minutes we hooked up to a wahoo and while
we were clearing the teasers a sail popped up. Pittman pitched
it a bait and it slurped it up. The fish put on an Oscar
winning performance while Shuyler caught it’s every
move. The day brought more wahoo, yellowfin tuna and a total
of nine species. If a marlin would of popped up, we would
have had an offshore grand slam and it all happened within
200 yards of the beach.
The hurricane that blew through El Salvador to the north
last week screwed things up offshore as of late. Inshore
a few roosters, snapper, and jacks have been stretching
enough string to make it interesting but the numbers haven’t
fully recovered since the big waves rolled in from the storm.
Larry Burns from Atlanta and his Georgia buddy’s,
who like to beat up on this ole Florida boy and Florida’s
last couple of years of mediocre football, were down again
last week. They managed to find a sail offshore but spent
most of their time tearing it up with roosters,jacks and
they kept the lodge’s dinner plates full of snapper.
Todd
Staley,
Fishing Director
Crocodile Bay Lodge
Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica
CBL
Fishing Report, July 2005
Rapala
Winners more than Lucky
Every time I have been somewhere that had
a box to drop in an entry form I thought, there is no chance
of winning. So did Bob Walker when he dropped his entry
form in to a Rapala sponsored trip to Crocodile Bay Lodge.
He nearly fell over when they called to tell him he was
on his way to Costa Rica.
So he grabbed fishing buddy Stephen Haynes and headed south.
The
pair who never dreamed of a chance to fish Costa Rican waters
couldn’t have found it better. They started the trip
by out fishing the whole lodge on roosterfish and decied
to give offshore a try. I can still seeing them grinning
as they returned to the dock with stories of the battle
with a big blue marlin.
Maybe next time I won’t walk by one of those entry
boxes.
Marlin was the mainstay for June with one-day four boats
out raised 19 and landed 6. Most ran 200 to 400 lbs. Things
started to slow a little as the moon got bigger but we are
hoping the action will return.
The Stanenoughts travel all the way from England to get
here and enjoyed tussles with sailfish roosters and his
and hers 160 lb tuna. Harry Gualco’s annual family
trip got into the action with tuna running 130 to 150 lbs.
Inshore is normal with roosters, jacks, and snapper taking
baits if they can beat the barracuda to them.
Todd
Staley,
Fishing Director
Crocodile Bay Lodge
Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica
CBL
Fishing Report, September 13th 2005
Full
House at Crocodile Bay Lodge
By Fishing Director Todd Staley
Fishing
has been a little tough lately but for those with a little
patience the pay day has come. Jeff Carpenter had a slow
day out of box and scored a big rooster on day two. On day
three he invited his lady luck in the form of wife Donna
along for the ride.A couple sails had come unbuttoned and
got away and a third didn't care for the bait when the saw
some small tuna working. They caught a couple for sushi
and put one on for bait and in no time a 300 pound blue
marlin gulped it up
and turned the ocean into a dance floor. "It's just
like you see on TV," Jeff repeated at the bar several
times as he re-lived the fight.The sails have moved back
in with most angler getting four to six shots a day with
a marlin popping up here and there. Little tuna are in rat
packs and a couple roosters over 50 lbs hit the rails this
week.
Todd
Staley,
Fishing Director
Crocodile Bay Lodge
Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica
Costa
Rica Fishing Archives - 2004
