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Sportfishing in the San Juán River
Tackle-tearing tarpon, trophy snook, rainbow bass (guapote), mojarra, drum, alligator gar and a lot more! Costa Rica offers the best year-round fishing for more species than you are likely to find anywhere else in the world. But like anywhere else, you never know exactly where the fish are going to be concentrated at any given time.
Near the mouth of Nicaragua's San Juán River, against a backdrop of lush tropical rainforest, stands a giant, rusting dredge from the 1920's. It is a souvenir of a lost opportunity-a failed attempt to establish a cross-isthmus shipping route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Today, it's a landmark for a remarkable fishing destination. The southeast corner of Nicaragua is remote and beautiful; the mouth of the San Juan holds snook and tarpon in abundance, and the numerous upriver creeks yield tropical freshwater exotics, such as the guapote (a.k.a. rainbow bass),a relative of the peacock bass that can grow to 10-pounds; the machaca, which looks like a big-toothed, silvery bluefish and jumps like mad; and the colorful mojarra, a pan fish that grows to 2 pounds and fights like a bull. And snook-at least two species.
With no land-based accommodations available and the nearest fishing camp almost 3 hours away in Costa Rica, a houseboat seems the best way to fish in the San Juán River. Remarkably Rain Goddess, the boat, draws less than 3 feet of water (such shallow draft is an absolute must for maneuvering in a wide range of locations and situations).The Rain Goddess lacks little in creature comforts. Two generators produce enough electricity for air conditioning, lights, hot water for the three bathrooms, and an excellent fan in each of the six staterooms. A bona fide chef prepares meals that are superior to those you'd find in many of Central America's better hotels. And from the comfort of the mother ship, the fishing is unique.
The biggest snook consistently hold near the river mouths from April through June, and from August through October. Some are available all year, but these are the peak months. As to which period is best, opinions are divided, but if you want to mix fishing the surf for big snook with some tarpon fishing in the near shore Caribbean, go in the fall, simply because there are more calm days. The snook here can run as large as 40 pounds, but anything over 30 is a trophy, and you can handle them with conventional casting or spinning tackle, using 12- to 20-pound test line. If it's windy, surf fishing for snook remains good, but you can forget boat fishing for tarpon outside the river mouth.We learned quickly, however, that the tarpon are attracted to the rough surf, probably for the same reasons as the snook.
But if you decide to go for the big tarpon in the surf, which range from 50 to just over 100 pounds, you'd better put the lighter tackle away. When you hook one of these fish you are instantly rewarded with a rocketing leap that explodes through breaking waves. If the tarpon stays hooked, it then goes ballistic, and makes its next skyward appearance 50 yards farther out, followed by another leap at 100 yards the 150, and finally 200, now a tiny silver icon flashing in the sun with crashing breakers on a dark-green backdrop.
Or, if you didn't tie the line to the reel arbor properly, you'll just be staring at an empty spool.
When you hook a big tarpon in the surf, it goes ballistic, running hard and exploding through breaking waves. But if you really want to wrestle one of these heavyweights all the way to the beach, you should use a stiff 8-foot rod, 20- to 30-pound-test line, and a reel that holds at least 400 yards of line. If your knots are good and everything hangs together, you're in for one of the wildest rides of your life, and it will probably last upwards of an hour.Big snook in the surf call for a lot of casting.... and patience. Long casts are not necessary. Most of our fish were hooked within 20 yards of the beach where they cruised a drop off looking for something to eat. Unless schooled for spawning or ganged up around a major underwater structure, snook are wanderers and these fish are no exception. You pay your dues, and sooner or later you're rewarded with a robalo that will typically range between 15 and 25 pounds. On a good day you can hook two to six, maybe more.
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