Roosterfish

The Ultimate Guide to Catching Roosterfish

Roosterfish are one of the most sought after species in Central America, and one of the most prized inshore species in the world.  The obvious defining characteristic of the roosterfish is their unique dorsal fin. Made up of seven spines, it resembles the comb of a rooster and is how they got their name in both languages (they are called ‘pez gallo’ in Spanish). The majority of the time the dorsal fin remains at rest in a deep groove along the top of the rooster’s back, but when excited it will raise it to appear larger and help herd bait fish they are after. Roosterfish feature four dark, wide stripes diagonally along their head and flanks. These bands range in color from dark blue to purple to black, which add to it’s beauty in pictures. Roosterfish are also very unique in that their swim bladder makes contact with their inner ear, which enhances their ability to hear. They are the only known fish to have this feature.

What Do Roosterfish Eat?

Roosterfish are an aggressive and predatory inshore species. They primarily feed on other small fish like sardines, anchovies, lookdowns, goggle eyes, and blue runners. They also love green jacks, which are more common when the rainy season starts in May/June. We’ve also seen them chase needle fish at the surface and swallow a live bonito, so essentially anything smaller than them is on the menu. Most local captains agree that lookdowns are their favorite meal and are the preferred live bait.

How Big are Roosterfish in Central America?

Most roosterfish in Central America are in the 15-30 lb range. A big rooster is considered 40 lbs or bigger, with a trophy rooster being anything over 50 lbs. Smaller roosterfish in the 5-15 lb range are often caught in big “wolf packs” as they swim and feed together for safety.

How to Catch Roosterfish

Roosterfish can be caught in a variety of different ways, which gives anglers options based on their preferred method and the conditions. While nearly every captain agrees that slow trolling live bait is the most effective way to catch roosterfish, they can also be caught on artificials and even on the fly. Few things are more exciting than seeing a rooster’s comb moving erratically behind your popper as it begins to hunt.  Roosterfish can also be caught on fly tackle, though saltwater fly anglers agree that landing roosterfish are one of the most challenging species to land on the fly. Roosterfish are not migratory, typically they travel less than 300 miles in their lifetime, so good catch-and-release practices will ensure their survival and a long-lasting bite for years to come.

Different Ways to Catch Roosterfish

Live Bait

Any captain here will tell you that the best way to catch roosterfish in Central America is with live bait. The tried-and-true method is slow trolling live bait like blue runners and their favorite – lookdowns – around rock piles and islands. When aiming for trophy roosterfish, small bonito slow trolled around the rocky islands and deepers reefs they patrol can elicit bites from the 50+ pounders.

Topwater Lures

For many anglers, catching a roosterfish on a topwater lure is a dream come true. Seeing their iconic comb-like dorsal fin appear behind your popper and their erratic behavior will get anyone’s heart pumping. Some of our favorite lures for catching roosterfish are Yo Zuri bull popper, Halco Roosta poppers, and Chug Norris poppers. Color patterns that mimic their natural prey of flying fish, blue runners, sardines, and bonito are good ideas. The popular spook lures can also tempt a rooster to leave the rocks and hit at the surface. One of our personal favorites is the ranger lure. Due to its erratic surface action and how it skips from wave to wave, on the right day we’ve seen it drive roosters absolutely berserk.

Swimbaits

If you don’t have live bait and the roosterfish aren’t hitting the surface lures, the next best option is to start working swimbaits. While everyone dreams of catching a rooster on a surface lure, there are days when it simply isn’t going to happen, so having a swimbait that can work a little deeper in the water column can make all the difference of you going home empty handed or with a huge smile on your face. Roosterfish are known to patrol their home reefs and rockpiles, so something like a Yo Zuri crystal minnow or hydro minnow can be the perfect lure on the right day. Blacks, blues, silvers, and Central America classic of white with a red head are always favorites.

Jigging

While most anglers don’t think of roosterfish as a species you jig for, we’ve seen too many caught on jigs in our twenty years in Central America to rule this out. To be fair, a lot of the roosterfish caught on jigs were wonderful surprises as opposed to a dialed in attack, but it can be the winning formula on slow days. Roosterfish are notorious for not liking green water, so sometimes during our rainy season the top of the water column will have green water sitting on top, but 30-50 ft down it may be clear blue water. In these conditions, the roosterfish may be patrolling right at the thermal cline and hunting more on vibrations versus sight. If you can work a well-placed jig in front of a hungry roosterfish, hold on tight.

Fly Fishing

Without a doubt, roosterfish are one of the hardest fish to catch on a fly rod – but that doesn’t stop anglers from trying! This is one of the most challenging and frustrating fish to catch because you are often blind casting to them from a moving boat. Another technique is to have one angler work a popper to try and lure them up to the surface, then the fly angler casts his fly to that same spot as a sort of “bait & switch” tactic.  You will almost never be able to cast to the same fish twice, so it’s really about having the stars align when they need to. Poppers and streamers can elicit bites. 

Recommended Roosterfish Tackle

Conventional & Spinning Tackle

Roosterfish can be caught just as easily on conventional as on spinning tackle. It’s most common to use bait casters and lighter 15-20 lb class conventional tackle when trolling live bait for roosterfish behind the boat, but spinning reels work well in this application too. When casting swimbaits and poppers, spinning reels are the best fit. Spinning reels in the 5000-8000 class are ideal to give you enough line to not get spooled and enough drag to tire the fish out. Light tackle inshore rods and reels spooled with 30-50 lb braid are ideal.

Fly Fishing

For most roosters, an 8 wt or 9 wt rod with a large arbor reel is needed. If you are specifically targetting larger fish, a 10 wt rod will be fine as you don’t want to be undergunned during the fish of a lifetime. If you are casting streamers, an intermediate sinking line is preferred. For poppers, a floating line is best. You will want a 30-40 lb mono leader.

Fish the Tides

Catching a roosterfish is often very tidal-dependent, so knowing the tides when fishing for roosterfish is key. Like many inshore species, roosterfish will be most active feeding on rising and falling tides. Fishing a full 8-9 hour day can sometimes come down to a flurry of action that lasts 30-60 minutes, so make sure you are in the right spot at the right time!

Fighting Your Fish

When hooked, roosterfish usually don’t take to the air but prefer long, powerful runs. Often times when you think you have this inshore bruiser beat, it will see the boat for the first time and take off on another scorching run, peeling off all that hard-fought line you just gained. Juvenile roosterfish will jump and flip when hooked, but it’s rare that the larger, mature fish leave the water.

Releasing Your Fish

Like any fish, you need to be very careful not to touch the gills when holding your roosterfish for a picture. They aren’t as hardy as some other fish out of the water, like cubera snapper, so try to get your picture as quickly as possibly. If needed, dunk the roosterfish in the live well to let it breath and to keep it wet. When you release it, try to gently hold it’s tail and support it’s body by the boat until it has the strength to swim out of your hand.

Where is the Best Place to Catch Roosterfish?

Roosterfish are unique in that they are only found in the warm Eastern Pacific waters. Their range is from southern California to Peru, but their numbers are most prevalent here in Central America. Roosterfish are caught behind the surf over sandy bottoms, but they really seem to love rocky islands and reefs the most. Central America’s volcanic, rocky coastline provides the perfect habitat for this prized inshore trophy.  They can also be caught near river mouths if bait is present, though they are not typically seen in brackish water like snook or snapper.

Without any doubt, the two the best countries in the world to catch roosterfish are Costa Rica and Panama thanks to the combination of rocky islands and reefs, river mouths, and plentiful baitfish. While our boats in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua do catch roosterfish, their numbers are not as consistently productive as Costa Rica or Panama and the captains not as experienced as our dedicated inshore guides in each country. Colombia is gaining a reputation as a great place to target big roosterfish as well, but the accommodation and charter options are more limited there. Our map below shows the best places to catch roosterfish in Central America from north to south. 

When is the Best Time to Catch Roosterfish?

The best months to catch roosterfish in Central America are December through July, but we do catch them twelve months a year. Unlike pelagic species that are migratory and more seasonal, we catch roosterfish year round, but the conditions are better during specific months at each destination. The time of year you visit will determine where you should go for the best chance at catching a roosterfish. Our table below lists our top destinations for roosterfish and when to target them:

The dry season along the Pacific Coast of Central America is December through April, and that offers the best roosterfish conditions. The coastal water is clear blue, calm and there are plenty of baitfish. As the sardines and anchovies return, the juvenile roosters travel in wolf packs and can be caught by the dozen near the surf line on sandy beaches. It’s not uncommon to catch 10-20 roosterfish in a day in December and January, but many of those fish will be under twenty pounds. The all-time CAF record was set by the Johnson family who caught 34 roosterfish in one day in January 2024 fishing in Quepos, Costa Rica.

As we move into February though April, the overall numbers may drop a bit, but we start to see bigger, mature fish. The roosterfish bite is so good that that Marina Pez Vela in Quepos, Costa Rica hosts an annual roosterfish tournament every February called the Rooster Rodeo. Big trophy roosters over 50 lbs can be caught any time of year, but that seems to happen more from Feb to July.  Once the rainy season starts in May, the green jack numbers increase, especially around river mouths, and roosterfish are close behind to devour them. During these months it’s more common to catch a lone wolf or a pair of roosters, which tend to be mature adult fish.

The months of September and October can be much slower for roosterfish because that is the peak of the rainy season in Central America, but they are still available. During this time of year, the rivers are dumping out tons of freshwater so the coastal waters turn green and are much cooler, which usually drives most of the roosterfish away. My personal best roosterfish was caught in September however, and one of the biggest roosterfish caught at Crocodile Bay was in October.

Are Roosterfish Edible?

Roosterfish are not protected by law, so they are technically an edible fish. That said, they are one of the most prized gamefish we have in Central America, so the vast majority of them are released so they can grow and be caught again. Those conservation efforts are certainly aided by the fact that roosterfish have a dark, red meat so they don’t taste very good to begin with. Typically, the only roosterfish that are harvested are the ones who died in the fight, otherwise we go to great lengths to revive them and release them.

How Many Roosterfish Can I Expect to Catch?

As with any type of fishing, there is never a guarantee you’ll catch a roosterfish, so any day you catch one is considered a successful day. Unfortunately, there are days and even weeks when we simply can not find them. There are other weeks where every boat in the fleet catches multiple roosterfish each day. The complex formula of the presence of baitfish, water quality and temperature, currents, and tides is ever changing. If you are in the right location during the right time of year, your odds of catching a roosterfish can be 50% or better.

The CAF record is 34 roosterfish in one day, set by the Johnson family in January 2024. They accomplished this with our top inshore guide in Quepos, Costa Rica.

CAF’s marketing manager, Dakota, used to be a fishing guide in Panama before joining our team. His record in the Azuero Peninsula is 22 roosterfish in a day.