Costa Rica Fishing Report – Feburary 2015

Costa Rica Fishing Report – February, 2015 by Todd Staley – Congratulations to an old friend Dr. Bruce Pratt who along with 23 friends and family passed his 88th birthday here at Crocodile Bay Resort. Bruce has been a fly fishing enthusiast for many years and set a goal to catch 150 sails on a fly. He is an “old school” type of fisherman and doesn’t chase the fish down with the boat just to get numbers.

I was lucky enough to accompany him when sailfish #149 came into the spread. The fish sat under the fly for what sailheadseemed like an eternity and he had to re-cast three times before the fish engulfed the fly. It was a huge sail, weighing an easy 120 lbs and took off like a greyhound after a stuffed rabbit.

It finally broke water 300 or so yards behind the boat and even at that distance it looked huge. For over an hour sweat poured from his brow, while he played the fish perfectly for the release. Number #150 eluded the Doc and he already made plans for his return trip.

Anne PizziGray Taxidermy tagging research
We have become part of the Gray team and began tagging fish for their research program. Different than most types of tagging programs, this one is interactive and anyone can go online and see what and where fish are being tagged. We have already captured a roosterfish that crossed the gulf after it was tagged and a fish that we tagged was recaptured by a neighboring operation. Ask about tagging your own fish and naming it while you are here.

sailfbestFishing hasn’t been so bad as of late. There are lots of fish out there although some days they are finicky. We have seen plenty of double digit days in the spread and other days, free jumpers that don’t care to play. The marlin have hung around all season so far. We don’t see big numbers of fish but we are still catching them. Inshore has been steady.

A 65 lb roosterfish has been the top dog of late caught by Bret and Duane Swanson. Snapper and amberjacks have come from the reefs and a few nice big African pompano have made some nice ceviche.

Update 2/26– We released two blue marlin yesterday, one at 500lbs.

Todd Staley,
Fishing Director
Crocodile Bay Resort, Costa Rica

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Sportfishing Calendar

January

Tuna, marlin and dorado taper off. Number of sailfish begins to increase.

February

Prime time for sailfish. Occassional marlin, tuna or dorado.

March

Prime time for sailfish.

April

Sailfish numbers drop mid-April and some marlin begin to appear.

May

Slower for billfish. Typically we start seeing schools of spinner dolphins with yellowfin tuna.

June

Slower for billfish. Spinner dolphins with yellowfin tuna.

July

Marlin begin to appear. A chance for black marlin as well as blues and striped marlin. A chance for tuna.

August

Marlin and tuna.

September

Slower for billfish. A chance for tuna and dorado.

October

Dorado begin to appear in numbers with marlin close behind.

November

A mixed bag of dorado, marlin and some big tuna.

December

Marlin, dorado, tuna and sailfish are all possibilities.