# Tarpon fishing in Costa Rica



## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

I visited Silver King Lodge booth at New England Fishing Show and booked a trip on April 27 - 30 for tarpon. 
I heard great tarpon fishing near the mouth of Rio Colorado over three decades and I wanted to fish there for long. Finally it becomes reality.
They say average size of tarpon there is around 120 lb and it is not uncommon to see 200 plus lb tarpon.

I am thinking about bringing Black Hole Magic Eye rods for them. 
I am very excited to go where I wanted to go for a long time.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

This trip is mainly for testing Black Hole rods. I have 9 different Black Hole rods to be tested.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

*April 26*

The nonstop flight from Newark Airport, NJ to San Jose Airport, Costa Rica took 4 1/2 hours. Tour guide Jose wast waiting for me and drove me to Sleepy Hotel in the downtown of San Jose.







The highway to San Jose is very similar to Panana's.


downtown of San Jose






The Spleepy Inn has steel gates.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

After resting a few hours at the hotel, I took a walk nearby.
There were lots of fast food restaurants.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

The best dinner with the food I brought from NJ with Tecante beer.


Tour guide will pick me up at 5:30 am today for a flight to the lodge.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

When you have overseas fishing trips, you are easily get disappointed because you have great expectation. However this tarpon trip at Silver King Lodge in Costa Rica is beyond my expectation. I expected to catch a few decent tarpon in 60 - 150 lb tarpon a day at most before the trip as I know I have to be at the right place at the right time based on my past experience.

*April 27*

They picked me up along with two other fishermen from Sleepy Inn at 5:30 am and went to a small airport nearby. the flight took about 30 minutes. Lodge staff waited us at the airport. It was only 5 minutes boat ride from the airport to the Silver King Lodge.
We could leave the dock for fishing at 8:00 am after breakfast. My regular guide is Marvin, but I hired another Capt named Guinder for taking pictures and videos.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

When you have overseas fishing trips, you are easily get disappointed because you have great expectation. However this tarpon trip at Silver King Lodge in Costa Rica is beyond my expectation. I expected to catch a few decent tarpon in 60 - 150 lb tarpon a day at most before the trip as I know I have to be at the right place at the right time based on my past experience.

*April 27*

They picked me up along with two other fishermen from Sleepy Inn at 5:30 am and went to a small airport nearby. the flight took about 30 minutes. Lodge staff waited us at the airport. It was only 5 minutes boat ride from the airport to the Silver King Lodge.
We could leave the dock for fishing at 8:00 am after breakfast. My regular guide is Marvin, but I hired another Capt named Guinder for taking pictures and videos.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

* 7'5" Black Hole Magic Eye 753S*

I got the first tarpon on the trip with Yozuri X-rap. The reason I used the lure first is 
I got the confidence with the lure because I landed 100 lb tarpon with the lure in Florida last Dec. I was curious whether the light 8.3 oz popping rod could handle a big tarpon. 
The light rod is designed for seabass (suzuki) or small yellowtail. 
To my surprise the rod with Shimano Stella 5000 handled 80 lb tarpon beautifully.
I am not a guy who use very light drag and fight forever.  I fought with 15 - 18 lb drag.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

*8' Black Hole Magic Eye 804 conventional rod*

We put baits on 9' Black Hole Magic Eye 804 spinning rod and conventional rod to test heavier rods first and the line of Magic Eye 804 conventional rod/JM PE5 took off. 
I knew this fish is a nice tarpon immediately. But I gave good pressure using heavier drag as I know the rod can handle any size tarpon. Most fish gave up after they come up to the surface, but tarpon seems different. They look to regain power after they breathe. 
This tarpon turned out to be the biggest tarpon I caught on this trip. The estimated weight is around 140 lb.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

Slow pitch jigging is very popular in Japan and Korea nowadays.
Black Hole Pioneer rod and some Hurricane rods are designed for slow pitch jigging rods and I had an opportunity to feel the Pioneer rods while fighting tarpon. 

The Pioneer 635 rods I tested is good for line rating upto PE4 or PE5.
It is heavier action rod than Magic Eye 632 jigging rod, but I felt the mid section of
the rod has more flex than Magic Eye 632 or 571 jigging rods though tip section is stiffer.

The Pioneer Spinning rods can be a good candidate for light jigging and popping as the length is about 6'5".


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

action of Pioneer spinning


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

action of Pioneer conventional (spiral ) rod


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

I am asked many times how the action of Black Hole Cape Cod Special 80g and 150g are.
But I couldn't answer except those rods are a little moderate fast action rods unlike BH 250g/350g/450g which are fully parabolic because the rods are new and I haven't tested them. 
After fighting tarpon with those rods, I feel the rods can take beating with bigger fish.

*action of BH 80g (spinning)*


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

*BH 150g (conventional)*


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Awesome report! Very detailed and I love the pictures, sounds like a great time over there!


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

They mostly catch tarpon with bait. You catch bait on sabiki rig. 


However, jigging is working great. We must hooked up at least 10 tarpon on jigs a day on last two days. We even gave up bait fishing and used jigs and surface plugs in the afternoon on last day. 
These are jig local guides use. They are extremely effective.










I tried Black Hole Taifun jig and Calypso Monster Pencil and they worked great too.
Guide Marvin liked Calypso Monster Pencil as you can use it for casting as well as jigging. 
I observed that we lost many tarpon because of small treble hooks. I suggest to use strong single hooks for tarpon jigging.

We had 5 - 6 hookups with this jig. But you have to replace the small hooks with a big hook.


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## ksong (Jun 30, 2004)

I had a few hookups with surface plugs and I feel tarpon would hit surface plug very well when condition is right. I had at least three hit on Calypso Monster Pencil while casting.
Not many fishermen use plugs here, but I strongly believe plugs including poppers should work.



There are tons of yellowfin jack. We teased them with poppers without hooks and it was a blast to see they attack our poppers continuously. It is fun to play with light tackle and poppers. And you always have opportunities that 100 pIus lb tarpon hit your popper.


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## cabolew (Aug 12, 2005)

How was the lodge? Great report!


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## SharkBait >*)\\\><( (May 16, 2012)

this is just awesome, i want to do a trip like this


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Very nice report. It looks like you were in a substantial boat? ...not the average panga that has had problems in the past managing the crossing into the open Caribbean. By the way, that jack looks to me like the same jack crevalle we have here on the Texas coast.


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