The author's world-record class Dorado

Osa Peninsula to Panama and Back

My buddy Gary and I decided to head down to the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica to try to catch some fish. The plan was to fish inshore for pargo and Roosterfish up and down the coast and then spend some time offshore trying for Marlin. We fished with Capt Oscar from the Las Islas Lodge (www.lasislaslodge.com). I had gone with him before and just killed it inshore on poppers and live bait. Sadly, this time the inshore bite was just not happening. I’m sure it was a combination of various factors, but the fish just weren’t hungry. I won’t bore everyone with the details, but the first five days were very tough. The fish were there, but they just weren’t biting aggressively. 

Getting the boat ready to fish

We tried poppers, surface iron, vertical jigging, and lots of live bait. I got one 15lb Rooster on a popper the first day and that was the only fish I got on a popper the whole trip. Later on I had a pack of ravenous 40-50lb Cubera Snapper come up after my popper. Two of them grabbed it briefly but I didn’t get hooks in them and then they disappeared never to be seen again. Gary had an enormous 60lb+ Cubera grab his orange topwater lure and then immediately break him off in the rocks. He lost a few more throughout the course of the week. The fish would bite baits too sometimes, but not take the whole thing down.  We had a lot of baits come back looking like this with no hookup:

Skipjack bait after a Cubera Snapper took a bite

Another bait sawed off.

We went all the way into Panama and fished all kinds of great looking spots for very few fish. In Panama we stayed at a small hotel that I don’t think advertises anywhere. The people were very gracious, but the electricity went out the first night (a common occurrence). It quickly became very hot in the room with no fan or AC so I dragged my mattress outside and slept in the open air on a balcony. Thankfully it didn’t rain and I actually slept pretty soundly. Gary was not so lucky, alternating between a hammock outside and trying to sweat it out inside. Luckily the air conditioning was working the second night, although the sink didn’t work and there was no hot water in the shower. If you are into luxurious accommodation, this is not the place for you. The meals were pretty good though.

Heading to Golfito, Costa Rica to get the paperwork to go into Panama.

Hotel we stayed at in Panama near Punta Burica

Sadly, the fish were not any hungrier in Panama than Costa Rica. Live baits went untouched for long periods of time, and when they did get bit they just grabbed them quickly and let go or ate the back half. Poppers and surface irons would get an occasional bite but very few fish stuck. It was just that kind of week inshore. In total we landed the one Roosterfish, a handful of pargo, some jacks, a barracuda, and a needlefish. It would have been a decent one-day catch, but it was a pretty poor 5-day catch. Here are a couple pics of the inshore fish:

Red Pargo

Yellow Pargo

Roosterfish on popper

Barred Pargo

This pier in Panama might be the most unsound public structure I have ever seen. I don't know much about engineering, but I do know that crossbeams are not supposed to all be broken:

While waiting for our paperwork, I helped this pier fisherman gaff this Jack and hook it up to his friend's line so they could haul it up together. Pretty impressive catch for a handline.  I'm a little surprised it didn't cause the pier to collapse:

Fortunately, on the afternoon of the fifth day we decided to head offshore back in Costa Rica on Oscar’s bigger 45ft Hatteras. It is a very comfortable boat and perfect for extended time offshore. The air conditioning was a nice change after spending all week casting poppers in the sun. We left in the afternoon on the fifth day after a morning of fruitless inshore fishing. On the way out, just before dark, we found a large log with tons of life under it. Lots of juvenile fish of all kinds were under that log. We brought out the lighter jigs and had a blast catching small Dorado, Amberjack, Rainbow Runner, and Yellowfin Tuna. The tuna were especially aggressive. They were in the 5-10lb range, but after such a tough week it was fun to get a fish on every cast. After we tired of catching the smaller fish I cast a couple of bigger live baits under the log but nothing grabbed them. Here is an example of the tuna we were whaling on. We must have landed around 40 up to about this size:

Here is a quick video clip of the magical fish attracting log:

We spent the night tied up to the log and in the morning I grabbed my little jig and immediately hooked a small tuna. On the way in, it was engulfed by a huge Dorado. The Dorado jumped and spit out the fish and the jig, but that was all I needed to see. I immediately grabbed a goggle eye and threw it out for an instant hookup with a Dorado in the 35lb class. That one got unbuttoned as well, but the next cast I hooked up to a similar size fish. It was a very tough fight on the medium spinning rod. It ran under the boat and I had to hang over the side with most of the rod in the water to avoid having the line touch the side of the boat and break off. After I managed to coax it out from under the boat it charged to the other side of the log and got the line tangled on a branch. That was a dicey time, but somehow I got the line untangled without it breaking and landed the fish.

Gary had woken up by this point and the 35lb Dorado flopping on the deck convinced him that maybe he should try doing a little fishing before breakfast. He immediately hooked another fish of identical size on a live bait and got it in the boat. We got some smaller 10-15lb ones and then decided to troll for marlin around the log since it had so much marlin food. We did a couple circles with lures and then a couple circles with bait that was eaten by sharks and then headed farther offshore. Here are some shots of some of the Dorado from under the log:

When we got to the area that Oscar wanted to fish, we immediately had a marlin in the lure spread. It took a couple swipes and then disappeared, but not 5 minutes later two reels went off at the same time and two 400lb class marlin started jumping and peeling off line. I grabbed one rod and Gary grabbed the other and it was game on. The line was peeling off my reel at an alarming rate and the fish had already dumped half the spool by the time I got a good hold on the rod. I started getting worried about being spooled, but fortunately Oscar had a few hundred yards of braid spooled under the mono and the fish finally stopped. After I had reeled about half of the line back in, it suddenly went slack. The fish had spit the hook. Bummer. Gary’s fish was still on, and was making him work very hard in the heat. After a few initial jumps it went down and was not interested in coming up. Gary slowly made progress and got it next to the boat, but it made another dive and spit the hook. Oh well, that one technically counted as a release since the leader was touched and it came within a couple feet of the boat. Here is a not so great shot of the marlin a few feet under the water:

After some more trolling with lures with no luck, we decided to try live bait. There were lots of small tunas around, so Gary and I let out some lures behind the boat and jigged them as we slowly motored around. We both had medium spinning setups, and Gary was using a small bucktail jig and I was using a little Megabait metal jig. After getting some small tuna in the boat, Gary hooked up to a very nice Dorado on the jig. It put up quite a fight on the spinning gear. Most larger Dorado are hooked while trolling for marlin, so they are outgunned on tackle made for fish hundreds of pounds larger than they are. However, if you hook a decent one on spinning gear you are in for a heck of a fight. Gary eventually got it in the boat, making it the third big Dorado to hit the deck that morning to go along with some small ones.  Scroll to the bottom of the report for links to tackle used on this type of trip.

A short time later while trying to jig for more bait, I felt a bite and started reeling in what felt like a small tuna. About halfway in, I felt a big “thump” and instinctively set the hook. Suddenly, line started screaming off the reel like crazy and off in the distance a big Dorado started jumping. Clearly, the Dorado had eaten whatever I had been reeling in and got hooked.  I was starting to worry about getting spooled again, but thankfully the big fish stayed on the surface and we backed up on it with the boat. The fish took several runs and I was nervously crossing my fingers that the barbless hook on the jig would hold. Part of me was getting a little impatient and I thought about tightening the drag to try to get it in faster but I’m sure glad that I didn’t. When the fish got under the boat, both Gary and I thought it was two 45lb Dorado swimming together. As it got closer, we realized it was one huge fish. I didn’t really appreciate how big it was until the deckhand gaffed it and struggled to pull its massive head over the side. It was easily the biggest Dorado I had ever seen. Oscar said he had weighed an 80lber a few years back and he thought this one was 5-10lbs bigger.

I had been assuming the world record was over 100lbs so I didn’t insist on weighing it before the deckhand filleted it up, but when we got back I found out the record was 87lbs (also caught in Costa Rica). Had I known that, I would have liked to have weighed it. Oh well, it was still an amazing fish and I feel lucky to have had to the chance to fight and land it, especially on spinning gear.

That was pretty much it for the rest of the day. We had a couple Marlin come up in the spread but not hook up and then it was time to head back and start packing up for the journey home.

Side note: Our captain said he heard someone else caught the Cubera with the orange topwater still in its mouth. I couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not. If it is true, and the person who caught it is reading this, please let me know. I would love to see a pic of that.