By Captain German Bustos
At press time the sailfish bite was extremely good with boats raising fish in double digits. The marlin on the other hand had slowed and even boats running out to the seamounts and Fad’s were having trouble justifying their fuel costs. That should change as we get into March and April and the number of marlins raised should increase quite a bit. Dorado is still a daily occurrence and yellowfin tuna are plentiful.
Roosterfish, jacks, and cubera snappers will jump on a fast moving popper but you may have to soak a live bait to catch a really big fish as they will be a little more skittish in the clear water. March and April have always been good months for deep jiggers working 3 to 600 feet of water with grouper, amberjack, tile fish and an occasional barrelfish on the menu.
Our feature angler is Joey Dalsey, a high school senior who just accepted a football scholarship to play for Princeton. A repeat visitor to Costa Rica with his mother Kelly, Joey took his first marlin and hooked this roosterfish on a small spinner off the pier at Crocodile Bay. He had to jump in a boat to keep from getting spooled but successfully landed and released this huge rooster.
German Bustos has been head captain at Crocodile Bay Resort for the last dozen years after working on prestigious sportfishing boats all throughout Central America for nearly 20 years. He is one of the most requested captains at Crocodile Bay.