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Fishing Costa Rica: Record Tarpon Reported; Northern Pacific Good

What is believed to be the largest tarpon ever recorded in Costa Rican waters was caught last weekend at Río Colorado Lodge by John Lauranzano from Wayne, New Jersey, on 15-pound line, according to lodge owner Dan Wise.

Using the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) mathematical formula of computing the weight of a fish by taking girth and length measurements prior to releasing it, the monster would have weighed in at 250 pounds.

The current record for tarpon in Costa Rica is a 207-pound fish caught in 1994. This is the third caught and released at the lodge since last November that would have gone over that weight.

Guide Wendy Hodgson, who was born in the area and has been fishing there all his life, said it was by far the largest he had ever seen or heard of, and was too big to even jump as tarpon normally do when hooked, instead skimming the surface, rolling and diving.

One fish like that was enough for the angler in one day, so Lauranzano went surf-fishing for snook at Agua Dulce in the afternoon, and lost three snook estimated at around 15 pounds when they straightened the hook.

That's a good omen, as we are coming into the peak snook season in that area. Three IGFA world-record Atlantic snook have been caught on the northern Caribbean, all in early October. They include the all-tackle record of 53 pounds, 10 ounces, the women's eight-pound line test record of 27 pounds, eight ounces, and the women's 20-pound line test of 49 pounds.

According to Wise, Texan Billy Bostic caught and released an 80-pound tarpon, while Eric Point from Michigan last weekend jumped two and boated a 100-pound fish on the first morning of a six-day trip.

Judging from reports coming in from the other coast, the hot spot on the Pacific continues to be from Carrillo north. Veteran Costa Rica skipper Danny Arnold, who sold his boat White Magic several months ago, is back in the country for an extended visit. New owner Forrest Zielke let him take a couple of friends out for two days, and they raised 22 sailfish and one marlin, with 11 sails and a 450-pound blue marlin to the boat for release.

Zielke took the boat out the following two days, and, fishing a father-and-son team out of the Four Seasons Hotel, had a dozen sails to the teasers, got four to the boat and jumped off two others.

Zielke said they are finding the fish well offshore, running as far as 35 miles.

Our most recent report from Quepos, on the central Pacific coast, was from the Wild Lady out of J.P. Sportfishing, which released 12 sailfish, two tuna and a wahoo in three days of fishing in late August.

No word from any boats out of Los Sueños near Jaco, north of Quepos, or the Golfito region, on the southern Pacific coast, this past week or two.

If you want to combine some fishing with whale watching on the Pacific coast, or even skip the fishing and take pictures of whales, the next month or two is a good time to do it, with the heaviest migrations reported on the southern coast, off Dominical and Drake Bay. One company running turtle expeditions can be contacted at 787-0100, or visit southernexpeditionscr.com.

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