The last two months have marked the return of yet another Central America summer – aka dry season – and better yet another Costa Rica peak fishing season. November is officially the transition month from the end of the rainy season to the start of the dry season, so every year the weather and the fishing can be slightly different. Our Costa Rica Fishing Report – December 2018 starts off with 4x repeat anglers the Weston’s kicked the season off in grand fashion (pun intended) with an incredible day out of the Los Suenos Resort as they easily completed a Grand Slam on November 1st by going 3 for 5 on blue marlin, 3 for 3 on and striped marlin, one sailfish AND they landed 9 mahi for dinner.

The rest of the month featured lots of blue and striped marlin on a daily basis, including a five marlin day from Good Day Too and an 8 marlin day on the Super Fly, and for the second year in a row the dorado were caught in droves. Most days boats out of Quepos & Los Suenos were able to secure dinner for their anglers, and there were some 15-20 fish days where the dorado was being released they were catching so many. I was able to get in on the action myself fishing with Captain Luis Carlos out of Quepos as we boated 8 gaffer dorado in just 5 hours and decided that was more than enough to eat.

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December officially put us in the start of the 2019 peak fishing season and the good vibes from November continued with great weather and a strong marlin bite.  The first half of the month picked up where November left off with boats getting a marlin or two a day, several dorado, and some days yellow-fin tuna (including a nice 108 pounder from CAF angler Jack Shemroske).  The best news of all is that in the second half of the month the sailfish finally returned to levels we are accustomed to here in the “billfish capital of the world“.  As some of you can attest to, the sailfish bite in 2017 and 2018 was far from what we are used to with boats struggling to release more than five sailfish a day. 

Thankfully the marlin bite has been epic the last two years (three including this one!) and the rebounding yellow-fin tuna population was able to make up for it and keep anglers happy, but it was still odd not to see sailfish everywhere. We knew it wouldn’t last, and this year it looks like they are back as the second half of December the top boats were getting 10-15 bites a day.  I expect this to continue, or even improve, as we move into February and March.  So far it’s been a great mix of marlin, sails, and meatfish so the 2019 season is looking like another gem.  Below is our day-by-day Costa Rica Fishing Report – December 2018.

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Dec 1 – Epic – 3/4 on blue marlin and 2 for 3 on sailfish
Dec 2 – Super Fly – 2 marlin, 2 sails, 6 dorado
Dec 3 – Open Fly – 3 blue marlin, 2 sails, 7 dorado
Dec 4 – Double Nickle – 1 blue marlin, 3 sailfish, 7 dorado
Dec 5 – Constellation – SLAM! – 1 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin, 4 for 6 on sailfish
Dec 6 – Good Day Too – 1 blue marlin, 3 sails, 3 dorado
Dec 7 – Super Fly – 1 marlin & 5 sailfish
Dec 8 – Epic – 1 marlin, 1 sail, 3 dorado, and 100 lb tuna
Dec 9 – Good Day Too – 1 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 3 dorado
Dec 10 – Stress Reeliever II – 2 marlin, 5 dorado, 5 tuna
Dec 12 – Fire Fly – 2 for 5 on marlin, 1 sailfish, 3 dorado
Dec 13 – Epic – 1 for 3 on blue marlin, 1 striped marlin, missed two sailfish for the grand slam
Dec 14 – Geaux Fly – 1 blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 10 mahi
Dec 15 – Captain Toms – 8 for 10 on sailfish and a blue marlin
Dec 16 – Reel Escape – 1 marlin, 1 sailfish, 7 tuna 3 dorados
Dec 17 – Spanish Fly – 3 striped marlin, 10 sails, 2 dorado
Dec 18 – Big Eye II – 1 sailfish and 9 dorado, all within 7 miles of Quepos!
Dec 19 – Open Fly – 8 sails & 1 dorado
Dec 21 – Geaux Fly – 2 sailfish, 6 yellow-fin tuna, 1 mahi
Dec 22 – Epic – 6 sailfish. 5 mahi, and 1 tuna
Dec 23 – Spanish Fly – 8 sailfish released and 3 mahi
Dec 24 – Good Day Too – 9 sailfish and 2 dorado
Dec 26 – Wing Man – 7 sailfish and 11 dorado
Dec 27 – Spanish Fly – 8 sails and 3 dorado
Dec 28 – Good Day Too – 1 blue marlin, 8 sails, 7 mahi
Dec 29 – Constellation – 2 blue marlin and 8 for 10 on sailfish
Dec 30 – Epic – 1 blue marlin, 9 for 14 on sails, 3 mahi for dinner
Dec 31 – Constellation – 9/13 on sails and 3 mahi