Fishing & Exploring the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

In my last blog post from Costa Rica I shared with you stories of fishing for snook from a kayak on a brackish lagoon on the Osa Peninsula. If you have never done it before, then I will tell you right now that snook fishing is a lot of fun!

Snook hit lures very hard, and soon after being hooked they will often leap high into the sky. You can click play below to see what I mean!

As part of this trip to Costa Rica one of my ideas/goals is to eat as much of what we catch as possible. Fortunately for Lauren and I, snook and a lot of the other fish I've been catching are wonderful eating.

We have been enjoying fillets cooked simply in a pan with butter. 

After getting my fill of catching snook from the kayak I decided to branch out and do some exploring and fishing of some new and exciting areas, and in this post I'll share with you some of the highlights.

Read on to learn more!

Corcovado National Park

The most bio-diverse place on Earth is Corcovado National Park, located on the Osa Peninsula here in Costa Rica. There are more plants and animal species here than anywhere else in the world.

There is literally no telling what you might see next!

As I mentioned in my previous blog post we've seen scarlett macaws and three species of monkeys.

However we've also seen countless varieties of insects, birds, and mammals, such as the coati and ant eater. 

Turtles also come ashore during the night to make nests and lay their eggs on the beach. In many areas of the world turtles have had a tough go of it, due to shoreline development and vehicles driving on the beach.

However here in Corcovado the nights are pitch black and the beaches are deserted, which is exactly what the turtles need to successfully reproduce.

"El Rio" in Corcovado

The other day I made a 45 minute walk before sunrise to fish a river which empties from Corcovado into the mighty Pacific Ocean. River mouths are always excellent places to fish in Costa Rica as jacks, mackerel, roosterfish and snook often congregate around them.

However, upon arriving at the river I found it to be bone dry.

Because it is now the dry season in Costa Rica, the river had no water at all.

My plan of fishing the inlet was a bust, but I did manage to capture some spectacular drone shots of the jungle and the undeveloped coastline which stretched for miles to the north.

The walk back to our villa was long and hot, but along the way I met some people who I think may of been indigenous to the area. Interestingly, I have learned that one of their sources of income is panning for gold.

All in all our time spent at our accommodations at Corcovado was tremendous. The wildlife was the best we have ever seen, and the snook fishing was pretty great too. However, it was now time to make the trek south to a new destination.

Cabo Matapalo on the Golfo Dulce

On Monday of last week Lauren and I left our accommodations at Corcovado and headed to a different location on the edge of the Golfo Dulce at a place called Cabo Matapalo.

Instead of taking the usual coastline road, our taxi driver brought us through the mountains on a road that is impassable during the wet season.

The views were tremendous!

There are no stores in Cabo Matapalo so we needed to make a quick pit stop in Puerto Jimenez for supplies and groceries to last us two weeks.

Thank God for Lauren because she is very skilled at meal planning. Without her I would probably starve! 

From Puerto Jimenez we traveled west down the "world's bumpiest road", or at least that's what we think. Maximum speed on sections of this road are less than 5mph due to enormous pot holes, and rivers!

Some people might find this inconvenient, however Lauren and I enjoy dirt roads because it forces vehicles to go slow, which keeps noise down and helps maintain an easy-going pace and vibe throughout Cabo Matapalo.

By 1PM we had arrived at our new home for the next two weeks. Due to COVID there are very few travelers here, and as a result we have the entire place to ourselves for $100/night.

The view of the gardens and the Golfo Dulce in the distance is second to none.

Humpback Whales in the Golfo Dulce

No more than one hour after we settled in I found myself gazing out at the ocean when I suddenly spotted a whale spout. Within an instant I grabbed my drone and headed down the cliff at the edge of the property. 

I have filmed whales before off Cape Cod, however the opportunity to film a whale while having both my feet on terra firma was a brand new experience for me. The whales were only about a quarter of a mile offshore and were headed southeast into the Golfo. 

From October through December humpback whales visit the Golfo Dulce with regularity, but seeing whales in the Golfo this late in January is rare and a bit odd. I got some really nice images of the whales but then was surprised by a sight I've never seen before on the drone.

From the depths of the Golfo I could see the outline a whale's body, so I moved the drone into position to capture the whale as it surfaced. To my delight there was not just one whale, but two whales - a mother and her calf.

Seeing a sight like this less than one hour after arriving at Cabo Matapalo pretty much sums up the experience of visiting this area. There is no telling what sort of wildlife you are going to see next, and there are surprises throughout each hour of every day. 

Fishing For Giant Hawkfish In The Rocks

Unlike the first place where we stayed on the Osa, our current rental is located along an extremely rocky shoreline. I believe these rocks are all volcanic, and were probably formed millions of years ago when nearby volcanoes erupted.

As a result there is plenty of structure along this coast to attract a variety of species within casting range. The only issue here is that large swells rolling in from the open Pacific Ocean can make it dangerous and sometimes impossible to safely fish from shore.

Low tide is in my opinion the safest and easiest time to fish here. After unpacking and getting settled in, I headed down to the shore to fish the first low tide of our stay.

Instead of using my big rod to cast poppers for jacks and roosters, I decided to first try my little setup in hopes of catching pargo, snappers and whatever else might be hanging out by the rocks.

Fortunately the swell was not big this day so I had no trouble at all wading out to a volcanic rock that is situated just a few yards off the beach. Once upon the rock I began casting a 1/2 ounce lead head with a small Gulp white curly tail grub.