The sailfish have been playing hard to get in 2018 and April was no different according to our Costa Rica Fishing Report – April 2018. March ended with a flurry of sailfish action, then it slowed back down again to just 2-3 sailfish a day the first two weeks of April. Costa Rica is ‘the billfish capital of world‘ for a reason, and fortunately the marlin bite has been able to pick up the slack as many captains say this has been the best marlin season in the past decade. Lots of marlin were caught in early April, no doubt held in the area by the very welcome presence of yellow-fin tuna & dorado that we’ve been enjoying since November. The sport fishing world focused it’s attention on Quepos, Costa Rica from April 15-20 as the Marina Pez Vela hosted the huge Offshore World Championship for the sixth year in a row.

The fishing proved to be a bit challenging, but the 51 boats did manage to release 328 sailfish and 24 marlin in the four days, which was up from 2017’s tournament. Of course as soon as all the teams and media outlets left the sailfish stopped being so shy and the third week of the month featured several double digit days, more marlin, and even a grand slam by a CAF father/son team out of Los Suenos. It’s been a feast or famine kind of year for the sailfish, but in Costa Rica even when the sailfishing is ‘a bit off‘ sport fishing still pretty spectacular thanks to the bountiful numbers of marlin, yellow-fin tuna, and dorado. Several CAF anglers got to enjoy fresh sashimi on the high seas, and many more were able cherish the memory of their first sailfish or marlin on their Costa Rica fishing vacation last month.

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The inshore fishing really picked up with lots of anglers from the Osa Peninsula to Quepos to Los Suenos releasing nice roosters. The bottom fishing at the various reefs & pinnacles was pretty spectacular as well. Our top inshore captain at Los Suenos, Carlos, had several days of 20+ snapper. The Kramkowski’s from MI landed two beastly groupers fishing from the all inclusive Westin Conchal as well. Over on the Caribbean Coast the tarpon fishing was as bit tricky as all these late-seasons winter storms made things rougher than normal, but early in the month the Daniell’s were able to hook into several big silver kings on their Coast-2-Coast trip.

Below is our full day-by-day Costa Rica Fishing Report – April 2018.

April 1 – Sea Fly – 3 sailfish, 2 dorado
April 2 – Constellation – SLAM 1 black marlin, 4 blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 1 dorado
April 3 – Spanish Fly – 3 blue marlin and 1 sailfish
April 3 – Good Day Too – 2/4 on blue marlin and 2/3 on sailfish
April 4 – Constellation – 2/3 on sails and 5 yellow-fin tuna
April 6 – Good Day Too – Released 4 Sailfish
April 7 – Reel Escape – 1 blue marlin, 4 tuna, 1 bull dorado
April 8 – Geaux Fly – 1 blue marlin and 7 tuna
April 9 – Super Fly – 4 sailfish released
April 9 – Stress Reeliever II – 1 black marlin, 4 tuna, 2 dorado
April 11 – Capullo – 1 blue marlin and 6 dorado
April 12 – Sea Fly – 1 blue marlin, 1 sail, 3 dorado
April 13 – Geaux Fly – 2 blue marlin & 2 dorado
April 14 – Epic – 2 for 2 on blue marlin and 2 for 5 on sailfish
April 16 – Epic – Released 6 sailfish
April 18 – Super Fly – 1 blue marlin, 6 sailfish, 1 dorado
April 18 – Epic – 1 blue marlin, 7 sails, 55 lb dorado
April 19 – Mako – 1 blue marlin and 4 sailfish
April 20 – Spanish Fly – 6 for 8 on sails and 8 tuna
April 21 – Good Day – 3 blue marlin and 3 tuna
April 22 – Captain Tom – 4 for 8 on sails and 1 dorado
April 23 – Spanish Fly – released 10 sailfish
April 23 – Permit III – 2 for 3 on blue marlin and 6 for 9 on sailfish
April 24 – Spanish Fly – 1 blue marlin and 9 sailfish
April 25 – Good Day Too – 0/2 on marlin and 7 tunas
April 26 – Super Fly – 1 sailfish, 5 tuna, 2 dorado
April 28 – Epic – SLAM – 1 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin, 1-3 on sailfish
April 29 – Gamefisher II – 0/1 on striped marlin, 5/6 on sails, 1 dorado, 2 roosters
April 30 – Circle Hook – 1/2 on marlin and 3 tuna

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Speaking of the Offshore World Championship, a special shout out to our good buddy Captain Mike Alligood who won it for the second time! Mike finished as the top captain in 2013, second in 2015, fourth in 2017 and first again in 2018, so talks are they will rename the Offshore World Championship to the ‘Mike Alligood Invitational’ next year. I’ve set up many of you to fish with him on his 34′ Epic out of the Los Suenos Resort & Marina, and nearly all of you have had an incredible time as he and Mariano are my favorite crew for good reason. The Brazilians dominated this year as they swept the medal podium finishing 1-2-3.

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