COSTA RICA NEWS

January starts and ends with a Bang! New Year’s Eve is the only day of the year you will find a traffic jam in Puerto Jimenez. Yet, thanks to a generous neighbor, this small beach town has one of the largest, most spectacular NYE fireworks display in all of Costa Rica. Local people come from all over the peninsula to enjoy the lit-up sky.

The month of December, and especially our Christmas week, is family time here at Crocodile Bay Resort in Costa Rica and our staff, along with the fishing crews, always look forward to this time of the year. Many repeat guests have become more like friends than clients over the years as they bring their families to enjoy the holidays at our activity-based resort in the warmer climate. The staff’s dedication to customer service earned Crocodile Bay the distinction of the second-best destination in the world to take a family fishing vacation by Sport Fishing Magazine.

It has been a while since I’ve done a fishing report, so I hope I am not too rusty. There are some changes in the fishing department at Crocodile Bay.

Roosterfish, or Nematistius Pectoralis as their Latin name goes, is a hard-fighting and widely sought after gamefish here in Costa Rica. Anglers come from all over the world to Crocodile Bay Resort in search of this prized species. And almost all of our guests have roosterfish at the top of their wish list.In Central America, the roosterfish can only be found on the Pacific side, and they range from southern California down to Peru.

This month I wanted to do something a little different and touch on some of the new equipment we have coming for our 2019/20 season. On the lure front, we have some great Yo Zuri Bull poppers and Halco Roosta poppers coming in. Both of these poppers have proven effective on the tuna and are even capable of attracting the lure-shy roosterfish.

August has been an excellent month at Crocodile Bay Resort in Costa Rica! We began with a wide-open tuna bite, as the fish were just a few miles offshore. The dolphins and tuna have been corralling big schools of blue runners and feeding on them voraciously — an excellent opportunity for some great topwater action. The weapons of choice were Williamson, Yo-Zuri and Halco poppers along with live blue runners and goggle eyes.