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| This article first appeared in Fly Fishing in Salt Waters February 2000 Posted to internet on 09/25/00 A Costa Rican Fly-Fishing Odyssey By By Jon B. Cave .....While rods for line weights 13 and heavier are a decided advantage when trying to move a tarpon in deep water, they can be exhausting to cast with cumbersome sinking lines over extended periods of time, especially when trying to cover a lot of water while blind-casting. In my opinion, a 12-weight or strong 11 is a better choice. Furthermore, those same lighter rods are the standard for river fishing as well. Whenever water clarity improves in the Rio Colorado, some tarpon move back into the river and congregate in the deep holes, particularly those referred to as Banana Holes 1, 2 and 3. Unfortunately, those spots were unproductive due to recent rains that had roiled the water, but they can offer some outstanding action under the right conditions. Because the tarpon fishing was so good and the peak part of the snook season had already passed, Jim and I spent most of our time casting to the silver kings. However, we did spend a few hours skipping flies beneath overhanging trees, probing deep holes and casting long lines near the surf for snook. Both of us managed to catch a few small snook under 10 pounds, but the numbers of fish just weren't there like they are from September to January. During those months, this environment is home to a huge population of common snook (Centropornus unidecimalis) that average around 10 pounds and regularly exceed 20. Furthermore, between November and mid-December, the river has a run of fat snook, or calba, that commonly weigh from 6 to 8 pounds. The biggest snook generally hang out in the surf and at the mouth of the Rio Colorado where it joins the Atlantic. The most efficient way to fish these open waters is by prospecting with long casts that cover as much area as possible. A 9-weight outfit is ideal for this type of fishing, but a 10-weight will give a little added insurance in case a tarpon decides to grab a fly intended for snook, as sometimes happens. Regardless of the line weight, a shooting head system, incorporating an extra-fast-sinking head, is the ideal setup to use when probing for snook just outside the river mouth. The same tackle can also be used to fish for the slightly smaller snook in the river. Because of limited visibility in the river's murky waters, sparsely dressed Keys-style tarpon flies are practically useless. Instead, bulky flies that push water are more easily detected by the tarpon. Dan Blanton's heavily dressed Whistler flies were designed specifically for such conditions, and they are top producers of tarpon as well as snook. Yellow, black and white variations tied with a red collar on hook sizes 3/0 to 5/0 are the most popular. I prefer to use the bigger sizes for tarpon and reserve the smaller ones for snook. Big-game-style leaders should have a shock tippet of at least 80-pound test for the tarpon and 40-pound for the snook. At the end of our three days of fishing on the Rio Colorado, Jim and I were exhausted from long days of casting to and fighting the big fish of the Colorado. Our knowledgeable guides had kept us in fish throughout our stay, but it was time to fly back into San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, before moving on to the west coast for the second portion of our bi-coastal fly-fishing adventure. West Coast After a good night's rest in San Jose, Jim and I took a small plane into Palmar, a typically sleepy little Central American town surrounded by large banana plantations. From there, we made our way by boat along the scenic Sierpe River and across a portion of Drake Bay to Aguila de Osa, a jewel of an inn on the Osa Peninsula. National Geographic refers to the Osa Peninsula on Costa Rica's west coast as the most biologically intense place on earth. I would add that it is also one of the most beautiful places in the world. The peninsula is surrounded by towering waterfalls, a lush, tropical rain forest, dark jungle rivers and great rocky cliffs and hills that drop off into the unspoiled waters of Drake Bay at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. In comparison to other parts of Costa Rica, the fishery at Drake Bay remains relatively untapped. Sailfish are plentiful, and the roosterfish fishery ranks among the best, if not the best, in the world. If it sounds like I'm partial to the Osa peninsula and Drake Bay, it's because I am. The area's combination of natural beauty, solitude and outstanding fishing is difficult to beat in the angling world. We had arranged for accommodations at the Aguila de Osa, nestled in the rain forest of the Osa Peninsula at the edge of Drake Bay. The inn has 24- and 31-foot charter boats that are only a few minutes away from the area's outstanding offshore and inshore fishing. More important, the charter-boat crews are extremely cooperative and thoroughly familiar with the teamwork necessary to catch roosters and sails with a fly. The same tackle used for snook and tarpon on Costa Rica's east coast is also appropriate for west coast fish. Consequently, the 12-weight shooting-head system used for tarpon can double as tackle for sails, and the 9-weight shooting-head outfit needed for snook is ideal for casting to roosterfish. The leaders used for tarpon and snook are also applicable for their Pacific counterparts. Because they are hard-fighting, extremely wary and highly selective when it comes to flies, roosterfish have become one of saltwater fly fishing's most sought-after prizes. While several Central American countries have outstanding roosterfishing, few areas can compare with the consistent action that the Osa Peninsula has to offer. In the clean water of a rising tide, great numbers of the fish congregate around the countless submerged rocks that lay only a few hundred feet from the Osa's beaches. There, marauding bands of roosters feed on the various prey ushered in by the incoming water. Fly fishers can use three methods to catch roosterfish. When fish are near the surface and their distinctive comb-like dorsal fin protrudes above the surface, sight-casting is a viable, albeit relatively ineffectual, option. Blind-casting around likely-looking spots also yields minimal results and is tiring. The most effective technique by far is trolling with hookless teaser baits and employing a bait-and-switch approach, where a fly is cast only after the boat has been put in neutral and the teaser yanked away from a hot roosterfish. Using the bait-and-switch technique and, to a lesser extent, blind-casting and sight-fishing, Jim and I raised close to 100 roosters and landed almost 20 in our three days of fishing. It was the best fly fishing for roosters either of us had ever experienced. I have experimented with various stripping techniques for roosterfish and found that a rapid retrieve is essential. A one-handed stripping technique, no matter how proficient, is just too slow to consistently entice fish into striking. Instead, a two-handed retrieve with the rod tucked under the casting arm will result in more hookups. Sometimes, when a fish follows a fly without striking, a sideways sweep of the rod may speed up the retrieve just enough to elicit a response. Furthermore, a long cast provides additional time for a rooster to follow a fly, which, I turn, increases an angler's opportunity to hook the fish. More often than not, however, the curious but reluctant roosterfish will refuse the feathered presentation even when the whole procedure is performed to perfection. But that's part of the attraction of fly fishing for roosterfish. Having tried many different flies over the years, I have come to the conclusion that roosterfish will usually show a decided preference for one fly over another. That preference is based more on size and the rate of retrieve than on any other factors. But to my knowledge, there is still no one definitive pattern for roosters. I have had a good deal of success using a relatively plain-looking 6-inch-long no-name streamer tied with blue, green and white synthetic hair such as fish hair or polar hair. Because the fish are reluctant feeders and often hit the rear of a fly, a double-hook setup will significantly increase the number of fish landed. Making long casts to the spooky roosters is much easier if the fly is sparsely tied. While Quepos and Flamingo get most of the publicity for Costa Rica's outstanding sailfishing, the relatively untapped fishery at Drake Bay is every bit as good and quite possibly better. During the peak period, from December until the beginning of May, anglers frequently land five or more sails per day. Most of the fish top 90 pounds, and specimens weighing in excess of 120 pounds are caught with regularity. Crews use the classic bait-and-switch technique to get the sailfish to strike a fly. Typically large and bulky double-hooked billfish flies are ideal fo' the sailfish. While I don't believe color is a highly significant factor in getting a hotly teased sailfish to strike, a variety of colors will give anglers the option to change flies if they choose. White, blue-and-white, green-and-yellow and pink-and-white are among the most popular colors. I've found that sailfish flies tied with Owner hooks give superior' penetration into the fish's extremely hard mouth. Because of the outstanding rooster fishing, Jim and I waited until the last few hours of our stay before testing the offshore waters for sailfish, but that was all we needed. Bait was plentiful and the water had the kind of slight chop that so often precedes good sailfishing. It took only a few minutes for us to raise, tease and hook our first sailfish of about 100 pounds. In less than three hours, we raised four sails, hooked tree and landed two of them a fitting close to an outstanding week of fishing! Regardless of whether a fly fisher is in pursuit of tarpon, sailfish, snook or roosterfish, few countries can match Costa Rica's outstanding opportunities to catch each of these fish. But far too many anglers visit only one coast to target just one or two species. With the Pacific and Caribbean shores within such close proximity of each other, anglers should consider a bi-coastal odyssey of their own to pursue the very best of Costa Rica's inshore and offshore fly fishing. © 2003 World Publications, LLC February 2000 |
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