Costa Rica Tarpon Fishing

Costa Rica is home to a lot of prized game fish, but tarpon remain at the top of angler’s wish lists year after year. Their combination of size, strength, and their incredible acrobatic jumps when hooked is something that few fish can match. With their boney mouths and rock hard jaws, setting a hook is merely the first step, it’s once they start jumping that the true battle begins. Most tarpon will jump out of the water two to three times as soon as they they feel the hook in an effort to dislodge it, and oftentimes they are successful. If they don’t simply spit the hook, their bony gill plates can cut right through a sturdy leader. For that reason, when tarpon fishing we refer to how many tarpon you “jumped” moreso than how man you released. When you consider that we fish from small center console boats, sometimes even sight-casting to the fish, it’s an intimate and exciting battle that feels like hand-to-hand combat versus just reeling in a hooked fish.

Tarpon posses large black eyes, hence their Latin name ‘megalops atlanticus.‘ These big eyes allow them to hunt in low-light conditions, such as at night and in the murkey waters around rivers mouths and along the coast. They often swim in big schools, which aids in hunting as well as protection from predators like sharks. The lush mangroves and rainforest growth in Central America serve as perfect habitate for juvenile tarpon to use as nurseries until they are ready to fend for themselves in the open ocean. A sturdy fish that can actually breath air, tarpon are the ultimate catch-and-release game fish that can give you a good fight, pose for a nice picture, and you can put your hands in their mouth when you gently revive and release them in water since they don’t have teeth.  Like all fish, especially the large ones, tarpon should be kept in the water during the release and for pictures so that their body weight is supported and so internal organs aren’t damaged when bringing them into the boat. While not protected by law, tarpon aren’t considered table fare so we do practice catch-and-release on all tarpon in Costa Rica.

Unlike a lot of other destnations that offer tarpon fishing in Central America, Costa Rica is home to a large resident population of fish that provides a year-round bite from big, mature tarpon. Tarpon in Costa Rica are typically in the 80-100 lb range, and every year we catch a several in the 150-200 lb range (and lose many more!). Most of the tarpon fishing in Costa Rica is done in and around the large river mouths found along the Northeast Caribbean Coast. The main target zone is from the Rio Parismina just south of the Tortuguero National Park to the Rio Colorado, which is an offshoot of the Rio San Juan that forms the northern border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Depending on which river mouth has the best conditions and where the fish are, run times can be anywhere from ten minutes to one hour if you run all the way north to Rio Colorado.

Take a few minutes to watch our YouTube video below about tarpon fishing in Costa Rica and you’ll see why we love so much!

There are two main seasons for tarpon fishing in Costa Rica: spring and fall. The spring tarpon season is from mid-Jan through mid-May and then the fall season is September & October. Here in Costa Rica the tarpon population is mostly resident, mature fish. We don’t catch a lot of juvenile tarpon and the tarpon fishing in Costa Rica is not based on migratory seasons like it is throughout much of the rest of the Caribbean and the Southern US. The large river mouths and the abundance of bait keeps the tarpon here year round, so our tarpon seasons are based more on weather and sea conditions rather than migratory patterns. Our Caribbean Coast can receive 250 inches of rain per year, so knowing when to visit is of the utmost importance for an enjoyable and successful trip.

Spring Season

The spring season mirrors what is traditionally Costa Rica’s high season for travel. During these months it will typically be hot and sunny, though since it’s the Caribbean it can rain at any time.

January & February – These months mark the start of a new tarpon season so they are filled with excitement for anglers and guides alike. The weather can be unpredictable during these months however as we see cold fronts caused from the North American winter. When this happens, strong winds blow through the Caribbean into the coast, which can make things gray, rainy and blustery for 3-4 days at a time. When it gets like this, the river mouths can be too dangerous to pass out of so we get stuck fishing inside the river mouths.

March – While cold fronts and winds are still possible, it becomes less common in March.

April – This is the hottest & driest month in Costa Rica on both coasts, so the whether and sea conditions are usually ideal.

May – The first week or two of May generally offer the same weather as April – hot, sunny, and calm seas. Once we get to mid-May we start to see the rainy season begin, and the conditions on the Caribbean can vary from one week to the next. By June we recommend our anglers stop fishing the Caribbean coast.

Fall Season

On the Pacific Coast the months of September & October are the wettest and slowest time of year, but that is actually the dry season on the Caribbean Coast. During these two months, the seas are often glassy calm and the weather hot and sunny, which makes spotting rolling tarpon that much easier. It’s also the time of year when the baby sea turtles are hatching, so there is usually no shortage of bait around. Costa Rica is generally too far south for hurricanes, so while the rest of Central America and the Caribbean may be on hurricane watch, September & October are what we consider to be our peak tarpon season.

Most years we can sneak out good fishing days into the first week or two of November, but late November, December and early January can offer some of the worst weather conditions on the Caribbean.

Tarpon Fishing and the Tides

When tarpon fishing in Costa Rica, we are essentially inshore fishing as we are targeting the fish along the shallow coastline and in the river mouths where they feed. As with any type of inshore fishing, that means that is can be very tidal dependent. During high tide, the tarpon move into the river mouths and can access the mangroves and shallow lagoons where baitfish like sardines may be hiding. This is a good time to be in the river mouth as they will be moving in and out of there as they feed. During low tide, the larger river mouths still have enough water for the fish to move around in, but that does tend to push the tarpon out into the ocean. On good days you can spot tarpon trying to corral bait along the sand beaches, so low tide is great for patrolling the shallow waters alonge the coast.

Tarpon Fishing and the Moon Phases

Most anglers believe that the moon phases have an impact on sport fishing, whether it’s positive or negative. When we fish for sailfish and marlin on the Pacific Coast, we tend to avoid the full moon as the theory is that the fish can use that light to feed all night long and won’t be as aggressive during daytime hours. The tarpon fishing in Costa Rica doesn’t seem to be affected by the moon one way or another. Our good friend, and Costa Rica’s most legendary tarpon guide, the legendary Eddie Brown, told us “The moon phase don’t really affect the tarpon like it does the billfish. The water they are swimming in is so murky and dirty, they can’t see very far anyway.” A full moon and a new moon will produce bigger tidal swings, but overall the tarpon bite will be affected by the presence of bait, not a particular moon phase.

When you fish on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, you’ll find boats ranging from 26′ super pangas to 60′ luxury yachts. The most common boat there is the 30′-40′ sport fisher with a tower, cabin, and a large cockpit. You won’t find anything close to that on the Caribbean Coast as the ideal boat for tarpon fishing in these waters is a small, deep v-hull center console.  The hull design allows the boats to punch through waves in the river mouth and handle the sweels out on the open ocean, while the center console design allows two anglers to be casting to and fighting fish at the same time. These types of boats are set up with a fighting chair either at the bow or at the helm so that you don’t need to fight the tarpon standing up all day long.

Local fishing guides, and a few budget-friendly operations that outsource their fishing charters to these local guides, can be seen fishing in simple pangas. On good days, it is certainly possible to fish from a panga, but if there is any sort of weather you won’t be able to do much near the river mouths and won’t have enough speed to check out other spots. From our 20 yrs experience tarpon fishing in Costa Rica, these waters are not the kind that you want to be swimming in, so skimping on your boat selection could be a very big mistake. You’ll have a much more productive, and safer, tarpon fishing experience in a center console with dual outboards. Our best tarpon guides, whom have been fishing here for 35-50 years, as well as the legendary 40 year old tarpon lodges, all use 26′ center consoles with dual outobards.

Tarpon fishing in Costa Rica can be done in various different ways based on sea conditions, what they are feeding on, and the angler’s preference. Natural prey for tarpon in this part of the country includes shrimp, langostinos (prawns), sardines, mullet fish, and even baby turtles as this is one of the world’s most importante sea turtle nesting sites. Outside of the river mouths and along the coast where the tarpon are found the water is usually 40 ft – 100 ft deep, so much of the tarpon fishing is done in deeper, dirty water as opposed to stalking fish in clear, shallow water like we do in other parts of the Caribbean.

Most often we use heavy spinning gear when fishing for tarpon. A quality 10,000-18,000 reel spooled with 65 lb or 80 lb braid is ideal so that you have enough stopping power for these big fish, and enough line if they simply don’t want to stop! The braided line is typically tied to a 100-200 lb mono leader, which is more resistent to the tarpon’s bony mouth and sharp scales. One of the best parts of tarpon fishing is seeing them launch themselves into the air – sometimes over six feet out of the water! They also feature sharp gill plates so as they thrash their heads from side to side trying to throw the hook they have been known to cut through leaders up to 100 lbs. It’s here where “bowing to the king” comes into play – lowering your rod to the water when the tarpon jumps to provide a bit of slack in the line so the hook isn’t ripped out and so the line stays out of reach of those gill plates.

All tarpon in Costa Rica are catch and release.