CM: First trip of the season to Costa Rica (deep jigging mainly)

[BostonTangler]

Great to start the Central American fishing season, the daily rain has just about stopped and the weather is pleasant not too humid. We arrived in San Jose late last Wednesday night. Our friends 'on campus' did us the favor of grocery shopping and we arrived to a fully stocked refrigerator. It was very nice of them and saved us about an hour of shopping. Got to the condo at Los Suenos, the A/C was already at 72, we unlocked the closets and readied our gear.






Its really nice to not have to travel with tackle but at the same time have the confidence to fish your own gear. OTI (Ocean Tackle International) and Daiwa have been very supportive of our trips to Costa Rica and were generous to give us some new gear on loan for the season. I also have about 100 pounds of jigs there and over 60 poppers in 3 Popperstores, so we are not lacking in the tackle department.





Day One (Thursday):
Fished with Capt Peter on his Grady Release center twin 250’s, it’s a nice boat but the weather prove to spoil our day. It’s ashame Peter really went all out and even though we where wet all day, we ate like kings. Pasta with Sausage, Shrimps, Torillias, fruit, home made deserts. Manged to catch two gaffer Mahi and a Mackeral which provided to be good eating unlike back East.

Group had had enough by 2PM we called it and ran for a hot shower and drinks. Rained so much the camera stayed in the console no pictures today.



Day Two (Friday)
Fished Edwardo’s boat the Fladango with Luis. We always catch fish with Luis but today they provided to all be big Horse Eye Jacks. The Jacks can be more aggressive and faster than their cousins the Roosterfish and Capt felt that and poor water clarity made it hard to get a Rooster. The big Jacks loved the Salas and poppers equally and we had a lot of fun testing the new OTI rods. Often the Jacks would smash the popper as soon as it landed and they do not give up. Ashame they don’t eat, all where released in good shape, very hardy fish.












Day Three (Saturday)

Rain again – group voted to take a day off from fishing and visit the famous Maniel Antonio Parq. To get there from Los Suenos you leave and go past Jaco, past and through Quepos and then up in the mountains a bit. The area surrounding the park is heavily developed and there does not seem to be room to squeeze another hotel, hostel or inn. We stop for a big breakfast before entering the park to hike and sight see.





of course side of rice and beans







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[BostonTangler]

Day 4: Deep Jigging on the Busy Hooker with Capts Jeff and Matty

Sunday - fishing and weather finally improved for us. This was our most fun day yet weather was perfect, flat, hot and sunny.

We fished 100% jigs from 155 ft to 415 ft all day.

This was one crazy Mahi. Bernie caught him on a prototype jig which was really an Amberjack type long jig. The fish shook it loose got off, I cast the jig back out for Bernie and we caught the Mahi again. Captain missed the gaff but found my line and fish escaped with the Jig! We quickly threw out a pitch bait and caught him a third time. Unf. the one jig of that type was lost but here's dinner.



Then the next fish was a Corvina (Sea Bass) which is very unusual to get on a jig but here she is



We caught about 12 of these small snappers I forgot the name already something about the brown spot near the tail. This was a small one, but he had them cooked up and where excellent eating!



Day Five:

Went out again with Captains Matty and Jeff on the very comfortable custom center for some Grouper jigging.

The current was stiff but Captain Jeff knows the boat and kept us in the zone. I Managed a very respectable Beeliner (Silk Snapper). Capt Jeff does not give praise easily but he was impressed with this fish. I looked up IGFA record is 18 lbs. this one is about 11 lbs.

This was the start of the day jigging in approximately 180 feet of water, current was pretty strong, so I tried the Metallic Sardines with a CM Glow Skirt on the leader. Water clarity was not outstanding, I had a lot more hits once I added the glow skirt.





Snowy groupers a bit deeper 378 feet of water, CM320, CM420 Jigs where used with Jigging Master Powerspell 300g rods, OTI Fathom Blade 300g






Capt Matty nailed this very nice Cubera on a 4.5 oz Glow jig, this spot is much shallower.



A Cubera Snapper on a Jig (no bait) is the whole grail as far as I'm concerned. Cubera Snappers (as seen when diving) are somewhat curious creatures but for how well armed they are in the tooth department they are also very shy and wary. It takes a very good fisherman to take on on a jig - not too many can honestly say they got it on Jig. Popper is much more common - we have a guide, Peter "Pargo Chino" Kim, who took 5 Cubera Snapper on top water in 2.5 hrs span in Panama circa 2010.



Here is the OTI bendo pic of that Silk Snapper, it fought crazy like an AJ trying to get away