Reprinted with permission by Sr. Frogs Tropical Adentures

Bob Schroeder, an old friend and longtime Costa Rican resident, sent me an e-mail saying that he and his son Robert, along with Jim Blanchard and Jim's son Michael, fished a day at the Río Colorado Lodge on the northern Caribbean coast during the holidays, and caught about 20 calba and drum and some big mojarra, with nobody else fishing there except for a couple of locals.

"Everyone said this has been one of the best calba runs in years," Schroeder said.

The calba run is wide open on the northern Caribbean, where Río Colorado Lodge operator Dan Wise reports that the tarpon are still working in the area as well. Mississippi angler Charles Phillips and his fishing buddy boated a
150-pounder and enough calba to feed everyone at the lodge over the weekend.

Tom Larkin, also from Mississippi, in three days caught 40 calba and three larger common snook. Most of the action has been at Agua Dulce.

They followed that up with a trip to Playa Carrillo and a day with Sonny Kocsis on the Wet Ass II, hooking up on 20 sails and bringing in 12 for release, along with a couple of dorado.

Pam Evans, from Rhode Island, is back in the country on her annual fishing trip, accompanied by fiancé Alan Mitchel. As usual, she is showing the locals a thing or two. This makes nine Costa Rican fishing trips for Evans, and a time or two she has made more than one trip the same year.

The couple started fishing in Quepos, on the central Pacific coast, on the Big Eye with skipper Ralph Roberts. On Wednesday and Thursday of last week, they caught and released two black marlin the same day, both estimated at more than 200 pounds, along with a half-dozen sails and some dorado.

They flew to the northern Caribbean coast?s Barra Colorado on Monday, basing as usual at the Río Colorado Lodge, where, as this was written on Monday, they already had a 150-pound tarpon to the boat.

On the northern Pacific coast, Capullo operator Steve Curtis reports that plenty of sailfish and some marlin are being caught by the Tamarindo and Flamingo boats, but most have been fishing closer to shore and not chasing the billfish in the blue water.

"Nothing wrong with inshore fishing, with a lot of big dorado, roosterfish and tuna to the boats on a regular basis,"  Curtis added.

A bit farther south at Playa Carrillo, Kingfisher skipper Rick Ruhlow, reports that all the boats from the region that were out last week found sailfish, a few tying into marlin, and everyone getting all the inshore action they could handle on the smaller (and a lot better eating) species.

The bite is also turning on the central Pacific coast, where J.P. Sportfishng out of Quepos had 17 sailfish releases in six days fishing last week, but you can look for action to explode any day in that region, with red-hot action
through the next few months.

Dan Ross from Portland, Oregon, dropped by the house last week to tell us about a new fishing operation he is putting together in Golfito, following up with a fish report.

He and Oregon anglers Doug Wilhite and Rick Robinson fished three days after we met last week, with veteran skipper Bobby McGeniss on his boat Sweet Dreams.  They were fishing flies exclusively.

Their first day out was Thursday, and he reports: "Bobby spotted a sheet of plywood floating on the surface and as he approached saw more than 20 dorado under it, and we landed 11 of those, all on flies. As the day went on we saw five more dorado and landed two of those, and also raised four sailfish, boating and releasing two of them."

"The next day we raised 16 sailfish and a marlin, and Rick and Doug landed eight of the sails, but we couldn't get the marlin. Bobby said he fished seven days offshore for marlin, bringing 15 to the boat and releasing seven."

The Ouye family from California visited us for their vacation and in addition to fishing they enjoyed scuba diving, white water river rafting, tree top canopy, ATV?s, Arenal Volcano & hot springs and Jody even found time for a relaxing massage.

Did you know that you can play golf, scuba dive and fish all on the same vacation in Costa Rica? You can even fish before and after diving and on the surface interval.

Make reservations for the 2007 hot billfish season in the Northern Pacific, Gulf Of Papagayo. The season for marlin and sailfish runs from April through November. Call us for information 011-506-461-2478 or e-mail
info@srfrogsincostarica.com  or lola@srfrogsincostarica.com  You can add any of these activities to your itinerary. Our agents will be happy to handle all the details.