Offshore/nearshore fishing vacation experience – resort recommendation?

Looking for a recommendation for a warm-weather destination fishing trip/resort. I’m looking for something more than the rinky dink charters you get out of the big all-inclusive type resort areas. Where the fishing is almost always exceptional – dorado, sails, marlin possibly — With near-shore snapper, jack, roosterfish, etc, if we don’t want to go offshore. Somewhere that we could fish seriously 3-4 days of a 5-7 day trip while wives could have spa or eco tour experiences if the guys are out fishing. I’ve found some stuff in Costa Rica, and I’m sure Panama, Belize, and many Caribbean locations have similar resorts.

Anyone have any experience with any destination fishing resorts that might fit this description?

Thanks!

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I have only fished in Florida. But Crocodile Bay Resort is on my bucket list. We are probably 2-3 years from going. But from what I heard its hard to beat this resort.

http://www.crocodilebay.com/costa-rica-fishing-report-january-26/

That’s the main one we are looking at. Fishing and accommodations looks great, and lots of eco-tour stuff to do when not fishing. I just wasn’t sure if there were many other resorts similar to Crododile Bay or not. It would be a blast to get down there for 6-7 days with another coupld (or even just a guys fishing trip)….

I recommend Costa Rica. We went in March of ’07 and fished a day with Sailfish Bill, out of Playa Herradura. We caught 9 sailfish and a durado that day for 6 of us. CR is a beautiful country with tons to see. Very cool to have rainforests, volcanoes, and beaches all within a few hours of the airport. The Costa Ricans are also great people and I never felt unsafe. I don’t know if Sailfish Bill is still fishing since his report hasn’t been updated since 2011, but it would be worth a call to find out.

http://costaricasailfishbill.com/

I’d put another vote in for croc bay. We are also on a two year plan on making it down there but I think that I am also going to do 2 days on the east coast for tarpon and snook out of Tortuguero with eddie brown “The Tarpon King”. I mainly want a big rooster though. After catching some in Mexico I am completely hooked on them.

You may look into the tropic star lodge in Panama as well. Very similar as far as accommodations go and eco tours ect.

Los Suenos is where Marlin magazine conducts their “Marlin University” in Costa rica each year. Really good catches and a very nice location. I wouldn’t overlook Cabo San Lucas. In 2 days of fishing, we got 10 tuna, 5 wahoo, 7 sharks, 4 amberjacks, 3 cierra, and a marlin. (we lost another) See erniescabofishing.com for pictures. Lots of things to do, great restaurants, and fabulous accomodations. Airfare can be as low as $400s on Sun Country. We’ve done it 4 years in a row and have never been dissapointed. We take 50-100 lbs of fish home each year.

Some Cabo pictures on a winter day,…

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captddh wrote:

Some Cabo pictures on a winter day

Now that’s my kind of winter!

You make me want to go back to cabo! We used Pisces Sportfishing and they were a great company to deal with.

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According to everything I have researched Costa Rica has everything you are looking for. Reason I know this is because we leave in just over 3 weeks on feb. 26th and staying for 7 days. We are staying not far from Crocodile Bay but I’m still talking to different charters right now out of Quepos. I’m thinking of taking one out of there. The main reason we picked Costa Rica is to get a sailfish or Marlin. I’ve been offshore deep sea fishing now 6 different places and can’t seem to hook up with one of them. I had some buddies who got 12 of them in one day last year so that’s why we picked Costa Rica. Crossing my fingers and good luck wherever you choose. 😊

tbro16 wrote:

What is that 2nd fish you caught? Looks like an African american muskie on steroids

That is a wahoo one of the best eating fish you will find in my opinion.

Mexico is great but I think that costa rica would be better. I don’t know for sure since I haven’t made it down there yet but I hope to find out for sure soon.

Ryan Hughes wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Travis Brooks wrote:</div>
What is that 2nd fish you caught? Looks like an African american muskie on steroids

That is a wahoo one of the best eating fish you will find in my opinion.

Mexico is great but I think that costa rica would be better. I don’t know for sure since I haven’t made it down there yet but I hope to find out for sure soon.

Not only are Wahoo great eating but they are a blast to catch. One of the fastest fish I’ve ever seen. We had one take a bait 30-40 yard on one side of the boat, In the blink of a eye it was 30 – 40 yards on the other side of the boat. The last time I was in the Bahamas we caught 2 of them + 4 Yellow fin tuna + 8 Mahi Mahi. All Excellent table fare by the way. Yummy !!! I need to get back to the Bahamas and do that again soon.

Lil Guppy please let us know how you do. Where you stayed and who you fished with. If you can rate everything that would be nice. I cant wait to get down there in 2 years. Thanks, safe travels and good luck

Second tropic star. Five star fishing resort.

Ryan wrote:

Lil Guppy please let us know how you do. Where you stayed and who you fished with. If you can rate everything that would be nice. I cant wait to get down there in 2 years. Thanks, safe travels and good luck

Will do Ryan!

We have concerns travelling south with the Zika Virus outbreak in Central and South America. We are putting our yearly Carribean trip on hold until we learn more about this virus that’s spreading through the south, it does not sound like something to catch with no known vaccine and good luck staying away from mosquitoes. Fish safe.

Thanks to all — Not sure if this will happen for us this year or next, but it sure looks like a great trip. I’d really like to talk some buddies into going. It probably would be more enjoyable as a group vs just my wife and I. Offshore bill fishing looks awesome, but inshore fishing really piques my interest. Roosters, snapper, jacks, and whatever else is hanging out in the rocks.

For those that have been to (or are going to) fishing specific resorts like Crocodile Bay, what kind of itinerary’s work best? I’m thinking 3-4 days of fishing for a 7 day trip. Relaxing and eco tours the other days. Would love to see the volcanoes and hot springs, but might be tough to do all of that on a 7 day trip. Just might have to extend it to 10 days, I suppose.

I think if I were to go to Croc bay only I would do 4 days fishing in a 7 day stay just to keep the wife happy. If it were just me I’d fish everyday.

I think when we go I have my wife convinced of doing both the east and west coasts in the same trip which will make it a little more broken up as far as the fishing goes. Here is what I am thinking for our trip.

Day 1: Travel day-fly down and stay that night in San Jose
Day 2: Travel to the east coast at Tortuguero National Park to the Manatus Hotel (nicest one in the area from what I can find). The last leg of this is actually down a river on a boat to the hotel through the national park. Then relaxing the remainder of that day.
Day 3&4: Tarpon and Snook fishing with capt Eddie Brown “the tarpon king”. These days we should still have some time to relax in the afternoon and evenings as well.
Day 5: Travel from Tortuguero on the east coast across to Croc bay and then relax once we get there.
Day 6: Eco tours and jungle exploring
Day 7: First day inshore fishing
Day 8: First day offshore fishing
Day 9: eco tour/ relaxing day
Day 10: Second day inshore fishing
Day 11: Second day offshore fishing
Day 12: Travel back home

This is what would be considered 7 days at croc bay with 4 days fishing. So if you weren’t going to do the east coast deal too your trip would start on day 5. This is a once in a lifetime trip as far as the fishing goes. I hope I can make it happen!

Id stear you toward either Cabo or Costa Rica as well. Have fished both, and had good success at both. Like anywhere, a great deal of how successful you are, depends on who you go with. Overall, my vote would be for Costa, as the vacationing is much better IMO. You can walk to a bar at 10PM and feel safe. Can’t say that about a lot of places in Mexico…

Wife and I just got back from Costa a few weeks ago. Didn’t do a ton of fishing, but bite was good when we did. Both offshore for bills and inshore for other species. We didn’t do it, but heard bottom fishing was also very good for table fare.

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We made it back from Costa Rica on Saturday and it was awesome trip! A short rundown on the offshore fishing for ya. We went fishing out of Quepos. It’s a little over 2 hours from the San Jose airport. We rented a house south of there near Dominical. Since only 3 of us out of the 8 in our group were interested in fishing we booked the whole boat to ourselves. We went out from shore about an hour-hour and 15 minutes. They said we were 20-25 miles out all day. We dropped the lines out and within 5 minutes we were already hooked up with our first Sailfish. Caught 2 more about an hour later. 1 more about 10am and then we got 2 more right before we headed back in around 3pm. During the dry spell we had between 10am or so and 2pm we had 6-8 baits get bit off from short strikes. We actually saw a couple of their sails come up out of the water after our baits a few times. We definitely had potential to double our catch rate but that is fishing. We were happy to land 6 since the 3 of us had never caught one before. We got got pretty neat video’s of all of us reeling them in and of course some cool pictures. I would definitely recommend going down to Costa Rica if you ever have the chance. They said most of these fish in that area range from 80-120 pounds. Just remember to wear plenty of sunscreen as it was VERY hot. But they had plenty of beer and fluids and also made us a good lunch. The name of the charter company is “Reel In Luxury Sportfishing”. If you’re interested the website for these guys is http://www.fishingqueposmanuelantonio.com

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Nice looking sail. Have to keep that charter in mind. Thanks for the update.

We went to aruba, caught wahoo, and yellow fin tuna no marlin and i’am sure your wives will find something to do . When you get a big wahoo they throw it in a huge cooler,hooks and all, then get a great big club and beat the hell out of it. DK

Continuing the thread…

Looking into specifics for a trip to Crocodile Bay this winter if anyone else has the itch…..