Now 4/5 of the way through Costa Rica’s peak billfish season, it’s safe to say that the 2018 season has been very stop and go.  Each month we experience slow weeks where 2-3 sailfish might be the norm, then we get weeks where our boats experience double digit sailfish raises and multiple marlin releases. I keep looking for a pattern but there is none.  I keep hoping that maybe this will be the week that it the sailfish bite finally turns the corner and gets red hot for the rest of the season, but it doesn’t happen. This year it seems that every time the bite gets up to speed it slows right back down to a bumper-to-bumper crawl. It’s not at all to say that 2018 has been a disappointment as it’s been one of the best years in the past decade for marlin and dorado and the for the second year in a row the tuna bite has been fantastic, but the gaudy sailfish numbers that we’ve become accustomed to have been very much feast or famine. There have been some great days and we had plenty of anglers catch their first sailfish last month, we just want more!  Read on for our full Costa Rica Fishing Report – March 2018.

The first half of March provided some of the most consistent sailfishing that we’ve seen this year with most top boats finishing with 6-12 bites a day.  Also in the mix were daily hauls of tuna and dorado, and to everyone’s delight quite a few blue marlin were still around.  Mid-month the sailfish hit the brakes again, just in time for our repeat groups the Wick’s and Vonderschmidt’s who suffered through some slow days out there fishing in Quepos. There were a few boats that would get 4-6 sails a day, but the majority of boats that week were seeing just 1-2 fish and plenty came home empty handed.  The last week of the month the bite picked back up again with more marlin – including a big 700 lb black marlin Captain Carlos caught on the reef inshore fishing – and an increase in sails and dorado. The 2018 season has been feast or famine for a lot of boats and a lot of anglers, and the day that our good buddy Captain Mike Alligood had on March 27th is the perfect example of this. He trolled from 7:00 AM to 1:30 PM without seeing a single fish, then from 1:30 PM to 4:00 PM they went 11 for 20 on sailfish…

 
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Below is our day-by-day Costa Rica Fishing Report – March 2018

March 1 – Sea Fly – 18 yellow-fin tuna
March 2 – Dream Girl – 8 sailfish and 2 dorado
March 3 – Open Fly – 9 sails and 2 dorado
March 4 – Spanish Fly – 7 sailfish
March 4 – Open Fly – 1 Blue Marlin, 8 Sailfish and 1 Dorado
March 5 – Good Day Too – 1/2 on blue marlin, 5 sailfish, 1 dorado
March 5 – Circle Hook – 10 for 13 on sails
March 6 – Super Fly – 1 blue marlin and 11 sailfish
March 7 – Good Day Too – 2 blue marlin, 4 sails, 2 dorado
March 9 – Constellation – 4 for 8 on sails
March 10 – Circle Hook – 2/4 on sails and 1 yellow-fin tuna
March 11 – Good Day Too – 1 blue marlin, 11 sailfish, 1 dorado
March 11 – Pescadora – 1 blue marlin, 3 sails, 3 tuna
March 11 – Straight Up with a Twist – 8 for 12 on sails and 1 dorado
March 12 – Pescadora – 1/2 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 2 tuna, 1 dorado
March 12 – Captain Tom – 5 sailfish, 2 tuna, 1 dorado
March 13 – Sea Fly – 3 sailfish & 5 yellow-fin tuna
March 13 – Circle Hook – 6 for 11 on sails
March 13 – Epic – 2 for 2 on blue marlin and 2 for 6 on sails
March 14 – Circle Hook – 3/5 sails and two tunas
March 15 – Good Day Too – 2/4 on marlin and 6 sails
March 16 – Open Fly – 2 sailfish, 6 tuna, 1 dorado
March 16 – Spanish Fly – 1 striped marlin & 6 sailfish
March 17 – Gamefisher II – 2 for 2 on sails, 4 yellow-fin tuna, 2 dorado
March 18 – Dream Girl – 1 blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 3 tuna
March 19 – Tuna Bite – 0 for 1 on blue marlin and 5 for 7 on sailfish
March 20 – Super Fly – 1 blue marlin, 2 sails, 5 tuna, 1 dorado
March 21 – Super Fly – 7 sailfish and 1 dorado
March 22 – Gamefisher II – 6 or 8 on sails, 2 dorado, 1 tuna
March 25 – Epic – 3/4 on sailfish and several snowy grouper bottom fishing
March 26 – Good Day Too – 3 sailfish and 3 dorado (one 70 lbs!)
March 27 – Epic – No bites until 1:30 PM, then went 11 for 20 on sails in two hours
March 30 – Super Fly – 4 sailfish + 1 dorado
March 31 – Open Fly – 3 blue marlin and 4/7 on sailfish
March 31 – Good Day Too – 1 blue marlin, 3 sailfish, 10 dorado