Fishing Guanacaste Costa Rica. Stayed at the Riu Guanacaste for 2 weeks. Great people and incredible scenery and wildlife. It wasn’t a fishing holiday but did of course manage to do a bit, mainly with the lures. Plenty of Jacks and other small fish on the beach on the Noeby shallow diving lures and one hit from a nice Roosterfish. Skipping the lures along the top or just under the surface on a quick retrieve worked best. Good fun on the light tackle for an hour in the mornings. Fished best over the early morning High tides. Where I fell in love with the place was on 2 shore fishing trips with local Esteban Blanco (who holds ISFA World records). We had plenty of sport with decent size Jack Crevalles and Roosterfish to 20lb on the GT Icecream. Several chases and hits from some huge Roosterfish possibly 50lb, 30lb+ Jacks and massive needle fish, which was really exciting to see from the shore. We also caught tuna, needle fish and puffer fish. I managed one 4hour inshore boat trip. Right at the very last minute before heading to shore the rod screamed off and I had a brilliant battle with a hard fighting 30lb Rooster. Beautiful country and would be a fantastic place to go for a fishing holiday. The shore fishing was awesome, using surface lures and seeing the chases and hits was so exciting, plus watching big shoals of fish breaking the surface and moving into casting range, so much action. I hope to go back some day for the big Roosterfish from the shore and for a mix of inshore, offshore and to fish for rainbow bass in the river. So much variety and potential.
Best Lures of the trip:-
GT Icecream Needlenose (surface)– Lots of action on a rapid retrieve along the surface and the 2oz and 3oz lures caught all the big fish. Top lure for big Jacks and Roosters. Can give it a big cast which can make the difference and allow you to get the lure out there even if the wind picks up.
Noeby shallow NBL9049 (shallow diver) – The go to lure of the trip if the big fish weren’t around or struggling to catch, especially off the beach outside the hotel. It casts well into the wind and fished well jerking/twitching on a quick retrieve, which makes it skip along the surface and go briefly sub surface. This method caught a lot of fish. Also worked on a mid to fast straight retrieve which had a take from a decent size Rooster.
Also caught on small metals and surface lures. Most of the action happened on the surface.
For more information on my experience and for any knowledge I picked up please check out our facebook page or contact me on leigh.mullins@fishtackled.com
- Leigh Mullins
