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As many of you already know...We at Super Fly Charters have been recently blessed with an extended fishing trip that took us down the Pacific coast of Costa Rica fishing for the legendary Sailfish, Roosterfish and Snook that inhabit these storied waters...As one might expect...this trip did not disappoint!!! As a small boat charter captain off the coast of Maine, My goal was to only fish with small boat "Panga captains"...as that is basically what I consider myself.
Our first three days of fishing brought us to the small fishing village of Playa Herrudura and the "World Class" Los Suenos Resort & Marina. We did two days of offshore fishing for Sails and although the "bite was slow" we raised raised many sails into our spread of teasers and baits, boating several nice Sailfish over the course of two days
The third day was spent chasing the mystical Roosterfish that prowl the surfline of the rocky coast & reefs. We pursued the roosters using a variety of techniques that included fly-fishing, tossing huge poppers with spinning rods and the local standard...pitching livebaits. All methods proved to be successful and extremely exciting!!!
Day four had us out with a kayak fishing guide fishing a little to the north out of Punta Leona...this was an amazing way to view the incredible beauty of Costa Rica's jagged and mountainous coastline...While the fishing was not as productive, we were able to view massive Roosterfish as they prowled the reefs below us!!! Check out Kayak Jaco for more infoMoving our base to the South, we landed in the legendary sportfishing port of Quepos. Our goal here was to sample some of the amazing inshore fishing that takes place around the numerous river mouths that empty into the Pacific. After connecting with our fishing guide, Panga Capt. Jeffery Zappata, courtesy of the bartender of Los Pescadores...(the local watering hole)We arranged to meet early the next morning at a spot a stones throw from our hotel room. Admittedly we were a little skeptical about this trip and our skeptism grew after seeing our Captain and mate show up in a rickety pink panga powered by an obviously antique Johnson outboard. Our skeptism quickly evaporated as our mate made one throw of the castnet to secure a healthy supply of sardines...as we were culling out the baits the water all around us erupted with large fish that were gulping our wounded baitfish...
We looked to our capt for instructions on how to catch these monster fish that were crashing baits all around us...he simply fired up the outboard and headed north...at that moment we knew we were in for a treat if we were leaving the carnage unfolding behind us. A 20 min ride brought us to the Boca Rio Parritta(mouth of the parritta river). The very first cast here yielded explosive strikes from a pair of 30+ inch snook that grudgingly came to the boat...Next came a completely different yet familliar strike and line that just melted off the spool as the large Rooster headed for the horizon at warp speed...eventually we gained the line back and brought the rooster to hand for a quick photo...Next came another Rooster that made several drag smoking runs before coming into the boat for the first time, upon seeing the boat, the Rooster dove for the bottom with another scorching run....POW....the four piece Lamiglas rod explodes into shards of splintered graphite...amazingly we stay connected and bring the brute to the boat after several more line peeling runs...and so it would go for the rest of this amazing day trip. Roosters & Snook all day long!!!
Now back to Sailfish....Meeting our Captain at the Municipal fishing pier at the gentlemanly hour of 7:00 am we hopped aboard the 28' panga and headed offshore to where a hot sail bite had been the day before...45 miles offshore!!!
Within 5 minutes of setting the spread...the right rigger gets hit and it's game on as I feed the big Sailfish and drive home the circle hook as the Sail streaks away with an impressive tailwaking aerial display...15 minutes later the mate leaders the fish and we haul it up on the rail for a grab & grin photo op...we raised numerous more sails into our spread boating one more...the hightlight of the day was seeing an enormous Black Marlin crash repeatedly into our baits...although we did not hook this behomoth(thankfully) it was just amazing to see!!!
While we were in Costa Rica we got to test out Some TUFF STUFF flourocarbon leader material...While Tuff Stuff is not at all new to the world of Sportfishing, it was new to us at Super Fly Charters and we were very excited to test this product. We were able to test 40, 30 and 20 pound class leader. The first thing that I noticed was it's suppleness...which is very important when cinching knots down tight and allowing for a free swimming lure, fly or live bait. Now to the real world test...Fishing for Sailfish requires an incredibly strong and abrasion resistant leader....we pushed this envelope by starting out with 30# test flouro leader...The first bite came very quickly and we had a Sail engulf a naked ballyhoo that was rigged with a circle hook after a quick drop back we hung the sailfish and it was game on....a 30 minute battle ensued complete with many head shaking jumps that we were sure would chafe the through the leader...boy were we wrong!!! the sail came to the mates hand with very little leader abrasion....ok, this is cool we think....next we bump up to 40# leaders and wait for the next bite, which was slow in coming...bang, game on again!!! We're hooked up tight to another BIG Sail that makes a 200 yard line blistering run and then settles down for the slugfest...right away we can tell that this fight is different and the mate suspects that the fish is tail wrapped....ok, goodbye sailfish we think...wrong again...We get the big Sail close and the mats suspicions are confirmed...tailwrap indeed!!!Ok the leader comes into the rod tip and the mate gently leaders the fish, unwraps its tail and swings it around to grab the bill to pop the hook out...after reviving the fish we inspect the leader only to find minimal abrasion damage. I certainly would not reccomend that you fish for sails with such light leader, however I was VERY impressed on how well TUFF STUFF held up to the abuse...Inshore tests proved to be very similliar when fishing around rocks and surf for Roosterfish & Snook...We'd catch several raspy jawed Snook before even thinking about retying....To me this is the only kind of testing that will convince me of a products durabilty and quality. I'm happy to Report that TUFF STUFF easily passed the test!!!
Learn more about TUFF STUFF by clicking this link www.tuffstuffunlimited.comIn addition to the 8 amazing days of charter fishing we did while in Costa Rica...we were also able to travel around and sample some of the amazing local food and culture...meeting many interesting and hard working people...We also made a side trip to the carribean side for a whitewater rafting trip on the amazingly beautiful Pacuare river, one of the top five rivers in the world for whitewater rafting... visit Exploradores Outdoors for more info.
Please feel free to contact me for any info on all the local Panga Captains/Guides that we fished with.
Reservations continue to come in for this season and we hope to fish with you all again this year...please contact us to reserve your date!!!
Maine Flats Fishing Striper Guide
Capt. George Harris
207-691-0745
www.superfly-charters.com
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