Costa Rica Marlin Fishing

The Pinnacle: Costa Rica Marlin Fishing

Costa Rica marlin fishing is thrilling! The purple-hued marlin is one of the most prized game fish in the world. With its leaps and twists and its bill slashing the air and water, a 1,000-pound blue marlin is an awesome sight! What other magnificent fish could have battled for over three days in Hemingway's, "The Old Man and the Sea"?

Amazingly, marlin can be taken year-round when you fish Costa Rica. The abundance of all kinds of fish ensures a flourishing food chain--plentiful tuna means plentiful marlin, whose main diet is tuna. Marlin fishing in the Caribbean has not been tried consistently enough to pinpoint peaks and locations. Most sightings have been in the northeast corner of Costa Rica, but that may be because most boats troll for tarpon and snook in that area. A sailboat out 25 miles from shore radioed local lodges one day that white marlin were jumping all around his boat!

Rich Fishing Grounds in the Pacific

Costa Rica marlin fishing is richly rewarded all along the Pacific coast. Three- to five-hundred pound blue marlin are the most common catch, but 900-pounders are not rare. Fish over 1,000 pounds have been hooked--and lost! Black marlin well over 700 pounds have been caught. The striped marlin--a real fighter!--averages 150 to 200 pounds. Try Costa Rica fishing vacations for a workout and a thrill!

Along with that other combative billfish, the sailfish, marlin is the star attraction of Pacific Coast fishing out of Tamarindo and Quepos. Battling a marlin is a serious challenge to your stamina and determination! It is a fitting tribute to these dazzling survivors that, when hooked, they are released back into the immense ocean depths, in accordance with the conservation of resources practiced by
the entire country of Costa Rica.