Costa Rica Fishing Report – Summer 2022

One of my worst kept secrets is that the fishing is oftentimes BETTER in the summer months of June through August than in the traditional peak fishing season, which runs from December through April. The peak season is when all the major billfish tournaments are hosted here and when the majority of foreign tourists visit Costa Rica to escape North American winter.  When the calendar turns to May it starts the “Green Season”, or rainy season in Costa Rica, and too many people assume that the rainy season equates to bad weather and slow fishing. Yes, afternoon rain showers are common and occasionally there can be a storm system that makes things wet for a few days at a time, but for those who are willing to shrug off those minor risks they are often rewarded with incredible fishing. This Costa Rica Fishing Report – Summer 2022 is more proof that the fishing in the summer months outproduced our traditional peak winter months.

This year the weather wasn’t quite ready to cooperate thanks to the presence of La Niña, which generates above average rainfall here in Central America. June usually kicks off the hot summer action with a great marlin bite, but thanks to a wetter-than-normal May there was green water everywhere to start the month. Most boats from the Los Suenos Marina and the Marina Pez Vela in Quepos were running 35-40 miles and still couldn’t find any good water the first half of the month.  Some boats got lucky by coming across a school of yellowfin tuna to save the day, but the billfish were few and far between. By mid June that all changed as the blue water and the pelagic game fish returned. Sailfish and tuna were plentiful, and thanks to those same heavy rains from May that washed out all the debris from the coastal rivers, there were plenty of garbage lines and big trees floating around which in turn attracted the dorado in large numbers. CAF anglers, Brian & Randy released 17 sailfish from 26 bites in their three days fishing out of the Los Suenos Resort. The boats up in Guanacaste were still battling red tide both inshore and offshore, so anglers had the best action fishing in Quepos or Los Suenos in June.

June 3rd – Captain Tom – 7 mahi 5 yellowfin tuna and 1 for 2 blue marlin
June 14 – Good Day – 3 sails and 5 dorado
June 15 – Gamefisher II – 2 marlin and 5 tuna
June 16 – Good Day – 15 dorado, 1 sailfish 1 wahoo
June 16 – Gamefisher II – 1/3 on marlin, 3/4 on sails, 1 mahi
June 18 – Good Day – 2/2 on sails and 10 dorado
June 20 – Good Day Too – 5 for 8 on sails
June 21 – Geaux Fly – 1 blue marlin and 5 sailfish
June 22 – Captain Tom – 5 for 9 sailfish, 2 yellowfin tuna and raised 2 marlin
June 22 – Good Day Too – 9 for 13 on sails
June 23 – Geaux Fly – 1 blue marlin, 10 sailfish, 4 dorado
June 23 – Big Eye II – 4 sailfish and 9 mahi
June 24 – Captain Tom – 6 for 8 sailfish 12 yellowfin tuna and a mahi
June 25 – Tiger Fly – 3 sails, 3 yellowfin tuna, and several dorado
June 26 – Captain Tom – 11 for 13 sailfish

July is one of the secret gems of Costa Rica’s tourism industry because despite being in the middle of the rainy season, it always offers beautiful sunny weather. Here they call it the “Veranillo de San Juan”, or little summer, which basically means we enjoy a two or three week stretch of dry season weather thanks to the trade winds and massive clouds of dust from the Sahara Desert that dry things out for us. Before we could enjoy that however we had to endure a very rare early-season storm, Tropical Storm Bonnie. Bonnie sloshed over Central America the first week of July and caused a fair amount of local flooding, but it wasn’t a catastrophe.  Once she moved off into the Pacific and headed north towards Mexico she was no longer our problem and it was game on. Our charter boats up and down the entire Pacific Coast experienced great weather and fantastic offshore fishing for the final three weeks of July. The sailfish were still around in good numbers, mahi and tuna were daily occurrences, and the marlin bite returned. Carl planned his 70th birthday trip a year in advance hoping to catch his first billfish – he caught 8! The marlin bite is so good from June through August we refer to it as our “second season”, and by mid-July that was coming to fruition.

July 9 – Wet Ass II – 3/5 on sails and 3 tuna
July 10 – Big Eye II – 4/7 on sails and 16 dorado
July 13 – Wet Ass II – 3/4 on sails plus 2 mahi and 5 tuna
July 14 – Captain Tom – 11 mahi, 3 wahoo, 2 sailfish and 1 blue marlin
July 15 – Captain Tom – 3 for 3 sailfish and 1 for 3 blue marlin and a 50lb mahi
July 18 – Tiger Fly – 3/7 on blue marlin plus a sailfish
July 19 – Geaux Fly – Released 5 marlin
July 20 – Big Eye II – 5 for 6 on sails
July 20 – Captain Tom – 2 for 3 sailfish and 3 yellowfin tuna and a blue marlin
July 20 – Tiger Fly – 4/5 on marlin plus three tuna
July 21 – Big Eye II – 4 blue marlin, 1 mahi, 2 tuna
July 22 – Captain Tom – 2 mahi 1 bull shark 1 sailfish and 1 blue marlin
July 24 – Big Eye II – 2 sailfish and 9 tuna
July 25 – Good Day – 3 for 5 on sails and 7 dorado
July 27 – Big Eye II – 5 mahi and 8 tuna
July 27 – Rhino Charger – 3 for 9 on blue marlin and a mahi
July 28 – Bushwacker – 1 marlin, 4 tuna, 3 dorado
July 29 – Big Eye II – 4 sailfish, 3 wahoo, 1 mahi, 3 tuna
July 30 – Geaux Fly – 3 blue marlin released and 5 tuna
July 31 – Good Day – 3 sailfish and 3 dorado

Many years, August is the month were the red hot fishing starts to taper off as the peak rainy season months of September and October approach. Kids are going back to school, football season is starting, and fishing in August here in Costa Rica can feel like someone turned the lights up and the music down as the party is ending. But not this year. August offered some of the best fishing of the year, including an insane marlin bite. Boats from Los Suenos to Guanacaste were reporting as many as five, six up to seven marlin bites in a day. In what was predicted to be a very active hurricane season due to La Niña, August 2022 turned out to be the first time in 25 years that there were no named storms throughout the month. For the CAF anglers that took a risk on a late season billfish trip, nearly all of them were rewarded with blue marlin releases.  Brian and his son Russel raised 15 marlin in three days the final week of July fishing out of Tamarindo! Below are the best fishing reports from the month of August 2022:

August 1 – Geaux Fly – 7 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 2 tuna
August 1 – Good Day – released 4 blue marlin + 5 yellowfin tunas
August 2 – Tiger Fly – 4/12 on marlin, 1 tuna, 3 tuna
August 6 – Gamefisher II – 3/4 on blue marlin, 3/4 on sails, 3 dorado 2 tuna
August 8 – Big Eye II – 3 blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 3 tuna, and 3 dorado
August 10 – Geaux Fly – 5 blue marlin, 2 sails, dorado
August 11 – West Ass II – 3/4 on sails and several tuna
August 12 – Tiger Fly – 3/3 on blue marlin
August 13 – Good Day – 9 dorado and 2/2 on sails
August 14 – Geaux Fly – 1 blue marlin, 3/4 on sails, 2 tuna
August 16 – Geaux Fly – 3 blue marlin, 4 sails, 1 tuna and a 64″ dorado
August 18 – Wet Ass II – 4/5 on sails
August 19 – Captain Tom – 11 mahi and 6 tuna
August 19 – Gamefisher II – 9/11 on sails and 1 blue marlin
August 23 – Tiger Fly – 2/3 on marlin, 1 sailfish, and 2 tuna
August 24 – Rhino Charger – 1/3 on blue marlin + 2 sailfish
August 25 – Geaux Fly – 1 blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 3 mahi, 5 tuna
August 25 – Big Eye II – 9 yellowfin tuna
August 29 – Geaux Fly – 2 marlin, 4 tuna, 5 mahi

Last but not least, our Costa Rica Fishing Report – Summer 2022 wouldn’t be complete without talking about marlin fishing at the FADs. Our summer months are the best months to fish the offshore seamounts, and 2022 didn’t disappoint. If you haven’t already heard of this, it is likely the best marlin bite you’ll ever experience anywhere in the world.

The Hooker – Fishing June 10-11-12: 28 raises, 24 bites & 15 blue marlin releases
The Hooker – Fishing June 18-19-20: 33 raises, 28 bites & 20 blue marlin releases
Geaux Fly – July 5 – 9 blues, 1 sail, 1 mahi and tuna in 2 days
Bubba Carter – July 19 – 35 marlin in 3 days plus a sailfish and 60 lb dorado
Tiger Fly – July 24 – 11/20 on blues and 4 dorado in 2 days
The Hooker – Fishing July 25-26-27: 51 raises, 40 bites & 28 blue marlin releases
Sea Fly – Aug 8 – 1 black, 8 blues, 1 sail in 2 days
The Hooker – Fishing August 5-6-7: 18 raises, 9 bites & 8 blue marlin release
Bubba Carter – Aug 12 – 59 for 77 in 4 days
Geaux Fly – Aug 13 – 15 blues, 4 sails, 1 dorado
Satis Fly – Aug 15 – 15 blues, 1 black, 1 striped and 1 sail
Bubba Carter – Aug 24 – 34 for 54 in 3 days. All pitch bait and 30 lb tackle