Fishing in Quepos Costa Rica with MFCC Member Scott Yelle

Hello My Fishing Cape Cod  My name is Scott Yelle and I've been a member of the site since 2018.

I think there were some folks on here recently asking about CR. I am here now and just finished 4 days of fishing. We are stationed in Quepos on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. 

We are fishing out of Marina Pez Vela while I am here.

In this report I will recap our experiences in Quepos fishing both offshore for billfish and tuna, as well as inshore for snappers, jacks and roosterfish.

Day 1 - Six Sailfish on Trolled Ballyhoo

Day one was offshore on a 45 Cabo with a captain and 2 mates. They let us know that the traditional excellent Mahi Mahi bite was horrible. They mentioned that the mahi had been here back in November but had moved on. Very few were being caught. That left us with marlin, sailfish and yellowfin tuna to chase for the 8-hour trip.

We left the harbor at 7:15 am and headed out for about a 45-minute commute to the fishing spot that Captain Jesse had in mind. We arrived at our location and the mates quicky got busy getting 6 lines out with ballyhoo as the bait and 2 teasers. That in itself is pretty impressive to watch.

Within 10 minutes we had our first hit by a sailfish, but we missed the bite. We continued to troll the area. We would occasionally see sailfish jumping around us. At 9:50 am we got hit again and this time we were able to set the hook on our first sailfish of the trip. Charter guest Steve had the first crack and had the fish boat side in 12 minutes. We took a quick photo and safely released the fish. High fives all around. We quickly reset and continued on.

We ended the day with 6 sailfish landed with three misses. Overall, a very good first day and charter guest Steve, Ed and Dave had all landed their first sailfish. It was great to see their smiles and energy all day. The drive back in from our fishing location to the marina is very spectacular. Seeing the rugged mountains rise up behind the marina is special. One that I could take in everyday!

Day 2 - Bottom Fishing & First Marlin Sighting

Day 2 was another offshore fishing day with Captain Junior and one mate. This trip was on a modified 32 foot Bertram that was more open. Felt much more like our center console at home.

We told the captain that we wanted to bring home some dinner tonight! He said then lets grab some snapper and then look for big game fish! We first grabbed some live bait with a sabiki rig. We were snagging blue runners. The bait didn’t cooperate much, so we packed it up with three live bait and headed about 35 miles offshore to a reef area that is about 6 square miles.

When we arrived, we slowly trolled a Sabiki rig for small bonito to use as live bait for tuna and marlin. We snagged one of perfect size and threw it in the tuna tubs to keep it alive. We snagged a much larger one that we killed and would chunk up and use for snapper bait.

We drifted and dropped a dead sardine to the bottom with a weight for a snapper. Our first fish was a yellowtail snapper. We repeated this and the second one was a mullet snapper. One more time and we had a dogtooth snapper. So, we had dinner! The mate processed the fish and we got them on ice.

We then set out trolling again like the previous day are around 10:15 am. We landed just one sailfish between then and noon time, but things were about to get hectic! Between 12:30 and 3:30 pm we landed 7 sailfish, lost one sailfish, and lost our first marlin. It was an epic 3 hours of nonstop action!

A couple of times as we got the sailfish boat side, another one would be following it. The water is so clean you could see them right behind the boat. We pitched some bait to them, but didn’t get them to take it.

As we were fighting what would be our last fish at 3:15 pm, a marlin chased it to the boat. The mate threw a bait to him while the captain put the boat in gear while Ed was fighting a sailfish. Boom! The marlin hit and immediately exploded out of the water about 25 yards from the back of the boat. A beautiful blue marlin. It landed and took off and pulled the hook. A short but exciting fight! Felt like some bluefin tuna experiences back home.

All this was happening while we were trying to clear lines, and Ed was fighting his sailfish. We lost him as we pulled ahead trying to land the marlin. It was time to call it a day. It was a great day! 3 snappers for dinner and 8 sailfish landed. A couple of cervezas for the ride back into the marina with smiles all around!

Day 3 - Inshore for Roosters, Jacks & Needles

Day 3 was fishing inshore for rooster fish, jacks and what ever else we could find.

We grabbed sardines first. It was impressive to watch the captain. He never used a fish finder. All by sight. Once we had a full live well, we set off bump trolling with two lines in on small Diawa 5000 spinning reels. It was a similar approach to using live bait for striped bass.

It was fairly slow overall. We lost some in the hook up but we were able to land 2 roosters and some leather jacks. We also lost a needle fish which are pretty cool to see. Long and thin with big teeth.

Day 4 - Searching for Yellowfin Tuna

We went a little farther offshore on this day (about 42 miles) looking for some yellowfin to mix in with the sailfish and marlin. We never found any tuna, but we ran in to baby mahi. Nothing we could keep, but fun to see. We landed a couple of nice sized bonito again too.

We trolled all day. It was a little slower than day 2. We only landed 3 sailfish but we had 2 marlin in our spread. We missed them both times but it was fun to watch the mates go crazy trying to get them to eat our hooked pitch bait of bonito. They were so upset both times. You could tell it really means something to them to catch a marlin, so like us with bluefin, when they miss, it hurts.

The captain said he was seeing sailfish all day, but he thinks they weren’t as aggressively eating because they were mating.

In Conclusion

All in all it was a great 4 days on the water and I avoided the cold of New England. I hope this helps anyone else who might be heading this way.

This was the second time I’ve used Quepos Fish Adventure. Andrew and Connie are from Texas and now live here. They are straight shooters, with great captains and mates who work hard, laugh with you, and catch fish!