# Costa Rica Report



## bmckenney (Jul 14, 2015)

Sorry, no good pics or video yet. Will compile a video of the trip at a later date. Lots of data to go thru. And it's hard to find the best parts (jumps) from so much data.

I just got back from Costa Rica and three days of chartered Tarpon fishing. We went thru Captain Eddie for the second time in two years. This time we had 6 guys and 3 charter boats. Last year it was just me and my brother with Eddie.

Flew in on a private charter instead of Nature Air as it was a better deal with 6 guys.

Accommodation at Tortuga Lodge & Gardens which is within Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean and situated on the Tortuguero River about 1 KM from from the mouth of the river.
http://www.tortugalodge.com/
Nice lodge. Been there twice now. Fantastic service. Food is pretty decent. Grounds and buildings are very nice.

We brought some of our own gear to play with this time. A couple of Ugly Stik Tiger Lite rods and Lethal 80 reels. Lots of circle hooks. Mirrolures, Brad's Seahawk Coasthawk knock offs, DOA Baitbuster and Mullet bodies to be used like a breakaway jig.

Day 1, Monday Oct 19 was a bit of a bust. The boat I was on was skunked, which was very disappointing. The guide we had was not very personable for one thing, and seemed to less than enthusiastic about producing for us. The other two boats did only fair. Jumped a few, boated maybe 3 total. Artificials did not produce at all. Only dead drifting live and dead bait worked.

Day 2 we switched up the groups/guides. The boat I was on had a much better guide. We got in to Tarpon right away not far from the river mouth, and it was fast and furious including a couple of double headers. But we soon ran out of bait. We were pretty ****** that Captain Eddie didn't ensure his boats were well supplied with bait. I know he expected to catch live bait during the day, but there wasn't much bait to be had. So my brother and I asked the guide if we could get some in the local village, but there isn't any bait for sale there. So we asked about going up to Rio Colorado to get some bait and he was game for that. We headed up there and hooked up with a couple of village commercial fishing boats and scored a lot of bait. Then the guide suggested we fish the area before heading back. It was quite different fishing there. The river is much larger and there is a lot of chocolate milk colored discharge and very limited visibility. I wasn't expecting much when he started a drift in this water and was wondering why we didn't head to an area like a seam between clear and dirty water. But within seconds we had two tarpon on. We fished this area for a few hours and did very well. Almost had a triple. We noticed that the fish seemed larger and stronger compared to Tortuguero. I went 6 for 6 this day. Not one lost. My brother went 5 for about 10. He lost quite a few that day, I say because of a lack of technique, but he says it was just bad luck. Ironically, the guide we didn't like on day 1 did pretty well this day, almost like he wanted to rebound from being skunked.

Day 3 was a letdown for me after a great previous day. Switched up groups/guides again. But I got the same guide as Day 1. Asked him to head up to the Colorado again and he was reluctant to do it. Finally got him going, but he was going slow. Asked him to go faster, and I swear he throttled down a bit. We fished for about an hour and finally got a Tarpon on, and had a line tangle situation with the boat rods. The guide was talking on the phone and would not assist. Then the second line had one on and we're still crossed up and he's still talking on the phone. We managed to successfully get both of them to the boat. But the rod/reel I was on was undersized and it was an exhausting battle for a 70 pounder, which should not be the case. Spent a few more hours there but it was slow. There was a lot of rain the night before and might have been less ideal compared to the previous day. But there were Tarpon rolling around so we stayed longer than we should have. Another boat was further offshore from the Colorado and did well (clearer water). I wish the boats used their radios more and communicated about conditions etc. We had to use our own phones to ask how fishing was. I got one more at the end of the day right after we dumped all the leftover bait off the back. The guide I really like had an excellent day, and he did not go up to the Colorado. Sure wish I had him on this day. And I suspect he knew the conditions were not good by the Colorado, but the lack of communication between the guides didn't happen and nothing was explained to us about this. Quite a bummer really.

I went 8 for 8 which bettered my first trip. Doubled my numbers to the boat over the same three day period, and going 100% to the boat was pretty gratifying because I did some homework on tarpon technique before this trip and it showed results. I lost a lot of fish the first trip.

Overall the group of 6 went 38 for 74. And overall I love the Tarpon fishing there. Fantastic part of Costa Rica, great tarpon fishing with different areas to explore. And as always, there are good guides and not so good guides. And sometimes it's out of your control, especially when you need multiple boats.

Bryan


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## Bill C (May 23, 2004)

Great report. Thanks. Sounds like a pretty good time.


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## Goags (May 28, 2004)

Great report, Bryan! I know you did alot of planning for this trip. Eddie Brown doesn't run a boat anymore? 38 for 74 is a great ratio, IMO


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## bmckenney (Jul 14, 2015)

Jerry, Eddie was one of guides. He had two other boats come in for us. He is still going at it as much as possible from what I can tell. The CR national tarpon tourney was this past weekend and he was in it. He was good to work with and tried hard. As for the good ratio, 4 of the group were either Tarpon rookies or hadn't fished since they were kids, so that number is pretty respectable. They were very happy with the trip. That's the thing about Tarpon fishing. It can be very exciting, especially the first time.


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## Baffin Bay (Jul 26, 2011)

Sounds like fishing to me!!!!


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