The Offshore fishing during the latter part of February and going into March was unseasonably slow here in Quepos. We had some fantastic Tuna fishing which kept many of our Anglers busy but the Billfish proved to be fairly elusive for a few weeks. We were seeing a few Sailfish on every trip with a Marlin mixed in here and there but not nearly the volume of Sailfish that we would expect for the time of year. Thankfully, the bite turned on during the first week of March and we had a nice couple of weeks fishing right up to the time when we had to stop fishing due to the virus outbreak. There was a couple of days that we focused on Tuna but our friends on other boats a few miles further out got amongst some incredible Sailfish action releasing double digit Sailfish numbers and up to 20-30 Sails caught per boat on some days, just amazing fishing.
MARCH 2020 – CATCH REPORT:
1 March – Very tough day to start the month, raised 4 lazy Sails, got 1 bite which we missed & caught nothing apart from a Bonito which don’t count!
2 March – 2 Sailfish
3 March – 1 Blue Marlin, 2 Sailfish, 8 Tuna
4 March – 5 Tuna, 2 Sailfish
5 March – 4 Tuna & 1 Sailfish
6 March – 5 Sailfish, 2 Tuna
7 March – 5 Roosterfish to take 3rd place in Roosterfish Rodeo tournament
8 March – 3 Sailfish, 5 Tuna, missed a Marlin
9 March – 1 Blue Marlin, 2 Sailfish, 5 Tuna
10 March – 3 Roosterfish, 1 Red Snapper, 2 Jacks. Missed a BIG Snook & a Cubera Snapper on topwater
11 March – 7 Tuna
12 March – 1 Blue Marlin (caught on spinning rod!), 2 Sailfish, 1 Tuna
13 March – 2 Roosterfish, 1 Bluefin Trevally, 1 Jack
15 March – 14 Tuna, 2 Sailfish
17 March – 7 Tuna
18 March – 1 Blue Marlin, 2 Sailfish, 5 Tuna
Our last trip was 18th March but the few boats that ventured out for the odd day here and there for the reminder of March encountered a wide open Tuna bite, lots of Sails and more Blue Marlin than we would expect for March, basically experiencing some incredible fishing with hardly any other boats in sight!
In terms of what is going on here right now, Costa Rica closed its borders to tourists from the middle of March and travel restrictions are currently in place until 30th April, although we expect there to be a further extension beyond then. Our Government is handling the pandemic with the utmost of caution which is great and this is reflected by the low infection numbers here. As of today we have had 483 confirmed cases and 2 deaths, so very low numbers compared to many other countries and in fact only yesterday the World Health Organization recognized Costa Rica as one of the world leaders in efforts to contain the outbreak. Most people here have followed strict stay at home orders for the past 3 weeks, schools and most non-essential businesses have been closed and even tighter restrictions are in place for the Easter period to stop people travelling around the country which is normally a huge local holiday here. Lots of strong measures are in place which we fully support & hopefully will help get us back to some relative normalcy as soon as possible.
We are hoping that the situation will start to normalize in the coming months and we get the opportunity for some decent fishing June-September. June to September is a great time here for Blue Marlin, Tuna, Dorado, Wahoo and whilst it is not peak season for Sailfish we have had some excellent Sail fishing the past couple of seasons at this time, especially in the shallower water where there are big schools of resident Caballa baitfish (a cigar minnow/scad type baitfish), that the Sails congregate to feed on. Last year we caught 14 Sails one day in June, just excellent fishing by anyone’s standards! June-Sept is also peak time for a multi day Marlin Fishing trip to our Offshore FADS/Seamounts and should that interest you, we have some great friends with larger boats that would love to take you on this trip.
As soon as the borders re-open and it is deemed safe to travel again we will be ready and waiting to take our first overseas visitors fishing. Until that time, we have some fantastic local customers & friends that fish with us regularly and we hope they will help keep us fishing a little until things recover.
One thing is for sure, there are going to be some great hotel and flight deals available during those first few months when things re-open and we would love to see you in Costa Rica if you are able to make a trip happen.
Thank you to all our Anglers & followers for your support and we look forward to having you aboard GOOD DAY again soon