Full Day Offshore Fishing

A normal day of bill fishing will begin with you meeting at the reception area of the tour office at around 6:45am and having some complimentary Costa Rican coffee and pastries before your charter. You will be met by the staff and the captain of your boat. Your Captain will personally escort you to your boat stopping at the dock entrance for you to purchase your boat transportation license of $15 (cash only).
Your crew will be waiting for you and you will shove off around 7:00am. Depending on where the captain feels is the best fishing area for the day, you will have an hour to a 1-1/2 hour ride to the fishing grounds. During the ride you can feel free to sit up top on the “flying bridge” or “tuna tower” with the Captain if you like, or sit up on the bow and watch the porpoise, turtles, and whales that are commonly seen. You may also go into the cabin and relax before or after the fishing for a nap.
Most of the boats are air-conditioned, have flush toilets, and fresh running water. Once in the fishing area, the mates will get all the lines and “teasers” (lures) in the water behind the boat and you will “troll” at around 6-7 knots while looking for billfish. Depending on the time of year, billfish such as marlin and sailfish can be seen “rising” on the baits.
With luck they will “strike” the bait. You crew members will be alert watching for the rising fish and let you know (usually quite excitedly!)when they spot fish. Once the fish takes the bait, the mate will hook it for you while you are getting prepared to “fight” the fish by getting a rod holder belt on and getting to he fighting chair. In Costa Rica, all billfish are catch and release and “circle hooks” need to be used. These special hooks will normally only hook the fish in the mouth and takes some practice using them. Once hooked they will hand you the rod and help you by coaching you in the proper techniques of fighting and landing the fish.
Once the fish is worn out and to the boat, the crew can try and grab the fish by the bill on the side of the boat (in the water) so you can take a photo of it. Costa Rica law will no longer allow any billfish to be brought onto t he boat for the purposes of a photo, so we will do our best to get a good photo of you with your fish. This is quite exciting and makes for a wonderful picture to send to friends back home! Many times while fishing for billfish, you will catch tuna and also Dorado (Mahi Mahi), which are both excellent eating fish. All boats have lighter spinning tackle that is great fun when catching Tuna or Dorado.