The 2022 peak billfish season in Costa Rica is underway and the marlin bite has been on fire. November is the month where we transition from the green season back to the dry season, so the fishing generally offers a mixed bag offshore and the conditions can vary drastically from year to year. By December the dry season, or summer, is established so the waters clear up and both the offshore and inshore bite gets turned up a notch. This year followed that pattern to a ‘T’, so read our full Costa Rica Fishing Report – December 2021 that recaps the action over the past two months.

The past several years, the month of November has featured an insane 3-4 week dorado run where seemingly every boat on the water was catching 5-10 big, mature fish. This year it happened in October, which was a bit earlier than anyone expected. Since October is usually the wettest month of the year it’s also the slowest for tourism, so there simply weren’t that many anglers on the water to enjoy that early run. There were still plenty of dorado still around in November however, and more importantly was the black and blue marlin that followed them. Our top boats out of the Los Suenos Marina and Quepos being seeing 1-2 marlin a day, plus the aforementioned mixed bag of yellowfin tuna and dorado offshore. The sailfish bite, especially around Quepos, was almost non-existent but all the tasty pelagics present made up for it.

Once the calendar flipped to December however the marlin fishing went to another level. For the first two weeks of the month it became commonplace to see boats get back to the dock and report four, five, even up to seven marlin bites. The vast majority were blues, as are most of the marlin in Central America, but November and December are also the months when striped marlin are most frequently caught. Best of all, there were several of the ever-elusive black marlin around, including some that reached 500+ lbs.

With all these marlin around, as you might expect several boats were able to complete Grand Slams last month as well. A billfish grand slam is any three types of billfish in a day, so here in Costa Rica that could be three out of Pacific Sailfish, Blue Marlin, Black Marlin, and Striped Marlin. Some highlights from all the marlin action last month was Captain Mike Alligood going five for five on blue marlin and Captain Esteban getting seven bites one day with Captain Tom getting six bites the following. Several groups of CAF anglers were able to enjoy this incredible bite as the large group from Missouri Southern totaled 12 marlin in two days offshore (three boats), the Irvolino group releasing 7 marlin in three days (and missing five more), and two other groups that released four marlin in just two days each. Read below for our daily Costa Rica Fishing Report – December 2021.

Nov 2 – Good Day Too – 5 mahi, 8 tuna, and lost 2 blue marlin
Nov 4 – Captain Tom – 1 blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 10 dorado
Nov 5 – Captain Tom – SLAM – 1 blue marlin, 1 stripe marlin, 1 sailfish, 3 mahi
Nov 6 – Captain Tom – 1 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin, 1 wahoo, 6 dorado
Nov 9 – Monkeyshine – 1 blue marlin, 9 dorado, 15 tuna
Nov 10 – Good Day Too – 2/3 on blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 3 dorado
Nov 11 – Sea Fly – 1 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin, 8 mahi
Nov 11 – Open Fly – 3 blue marlin, 3 sails, 1 striped marlin + several dorado
Nov 13 – Geaux Fly – 1 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 3 mahi, 5 tuna
Nov 15 – Good Day Too – 1 blue marlin, 3 yellowfin tuna, 17 mahi
Nov 16 – Blue Daze – 2 blue marlin, 5 dorado, and 6 tuna
Nov 16 – Blue Daze – 2 blue marlin, 5 dorado, and 6 tuna
Nov 17 – Wing Man – 1/2 on blue marlin, 2/3 on striped marlin, 1/3 on sailfish and 3 tuna
Nov 21 – Good Day – 1 blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 4 dorado
Nov 23 – Bucket List – 3 marlin released, 4 dorado, 5 wahoo
Nov 24 – Epic – 2/3 on blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 5 dorado
Nov 25 – Captain Tom – 8 mahi and 4 tuna
Nov 27 – Captain Tom – 1 blue marlin, 1 mahi, 8 yellowfin tuna
Nov 29 – Blue Daze – 3 blue marlin, 1 black marlin, 1 sail, 7 dorado fishing in Quepos
Nov 30 – Epic – 2/4 on blue marlin + several mahi and tuna

Dec 2 – Good Day – 1/2 on blue marlin, 2 dorado, 3 tuna
Dec 2 – Sea Fly – 1 blue marlin & 5 mahi
Dec 2 – Tiger Fly – 2 blue marlin & 5 dorado
Dec 2 – Spanish Fly – 2 Striped Marlin, 1 Blue Marlin, 6 Mahi
Dec 3 – Big Eye II – 1 sailfish, 3 tuna, 7 dorado
Dec 3 – Good Day Too – 2 for 7 on marlin + 1 mahi
Dec 4 – Sea Fly – 3 blue marlin & 5 mahi
Dec 4 – Tiger Fly – SLAM! 1 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 5 dorado
Day 4 – Spanish Fly – 1 Striped Marlin, 2 Blue Marlin, 1 Yellowfin, 6 Mahi
Dec 5 – Epic – 5/5 on blue marlin plus 4 dorado
Dec 6 – Captain Tom – 3 for 4 on blue marlin and a mahi
Dec 6 – Good Day Too – 3 blue marlin, 1 black marlin, 1 tuna, 5 dorados
Dec 7 – Good Day Too – 2 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 3 mahi, 5 tuna
Dec 7 – Epic – 2/5 on blue marlin + dorado
Dec 7 – Captain Tom – 1 for 2 on blue marlin and 10 mahi
Dec 7 – Big Eye II – 7 dorado and 11 tuna
Dec 8 – Geaux Fly – SLAM – 1 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 2 mahi
Dec 10 – Good Day Too – 2 blue marlin, 1 sailfish, 5 tuna, 3 mahi
Dec 10 – Epic – 3/3 on blue marlin plus several mahi and small tuna
Dec 11 – Epic – 2/3 on blue marlin plus several mahi and tuna
Dec 12 – Epic – SLAM! 1 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 2/2 on blue marlin
Dec 13 – Good Day – 1 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 2 dorado, 2 tuna
Dec 16 – Captain Tom – 3 blue marlin and 3 mahi
Dec 18 – Good Day Too – 3 for 5 on blue marlin + 5 dorado
Dec 19 – Good Day – 3/4 on sails and 2 dorado
Dec 21 – Captain Tom – 3 for 6 on blue marlin and 6 dorado
Dec 24 – Geaux Fly – 1 blue marlin, 2 sailfish, 7 mahi
Dec 26 – Good Day Too – 1 sailfish, 2 dorado, 6 tuna
Dec 26 – Geaux Fly – SLAM! 2 blue marlin, 1 striped marlin, 1 sailfish, 2 mahi
Dec 28 – Good Day – 2 sailfish, 3 dorado, 3 tuna
Dec 30 – Geaux Fly – 4 sails and 5 dorado
Dec 31 – Tiger Fly – 1 blue marlin, 2 sails, 2 dorado