Surf Snook near Parrita
G. Martin Lively
Solomon says "Use a white lead head jig as big as your gear will allow, white bear hair with a white and red plastic tail work best." Solomon said that, or something like it in Spanish, as we stood waist deep in the Pacific near the mouth of the Pirris River. He always narrated in that fashion, starting each bit of advice or story with "Solomon dice."
I was lucky to meet him. He had fished the ocean and river there for his lifetime and knew the currents, tides, moon phases and everything else. He could also cast his bucktail from a simple plastic, hand held spool further than I could cast mine using a graphite rod and spinning reel. We both caught snook six to eight pounds, and I kept one for dinner and gave him the others doubling his income for the day. What could be better?
Son Geoff and I fished the ocean side of a sandbar on the south side of the river mouth. That's Geoff is the lower left of the above photo, still casting into the last rays of the sun. From Parrita you drive to Palo Seco and when the main road hits the beach you turn left to find a hotel or right to get almost to the river mouth. If locals are fishing you came at the right time. By the way I never saw any of them fish the river side of the spit, maybe that had something to do with the saltwater crocodiles.
Jean and I were staying at La Isla Hotel (506)-2258-8020
http://www.infoturistica.com/hospedajes/hotel_laisla.html
which we found by driving along the Palo Seco strip out of Parrita, a small town on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica about XX miles south of Jaco, the
Josefino beach town. Our dentist in Escazu had told us he had heard good things about surf fishing in that area. He was right. The first time we approached the beach a teenager on a bicycle was coming from the beach with a fish hanging on each side of his handlebars. Both the pargo and the snook were dragging their tails on the road! I became so excited I forgot we needed to check into a hotel. I was ready to start casting.
La Isla Hotel is like many vacation resorts in Costa Rica, sized for overflow crowds at Christmas and Easter and all but empty the rest of the year. We have stayed there many times and although the restaurant seats over a hundred there were never more than three other couples or families there. The hotel is great for personal service including cooking my snook for the three of us and a guest, and trading four meals with all the trimmings for the rest of the fillets.
In addition to fishing the surf you can ask the hotel to arrange for a boat and guide and do some inshore trolling and casting with the same equipment and lures you use in the North for big largemouth and small stripers. Grandson Tim and I caught Sierra or Spanish Mackerel in this manner.
G. Martin Lively
Solomon says "Use a white lead head jig as big as your gear will allow, white bear hair with a white and red plastic tail work best." Solomon said that, or something like it in Spanish, as we stood waist deep in the Pacific near the mouth of the Pirris River. He always narrated in that fashion, starting each bit of advice or story with "Solomon dice."
I was lucky to meet him. He had fished the ocean and river there for his lifetime and knew the currents, tides, moon phases and everything else. He could also cast his bucktail from a simple plastic, hand held spool further than I could cast mine using a graphite rod and spinning reel. We both caught snook six to eight pounds, and I kept one for dinner and gave him the others doubling his income for the day. What could be better?
Son Geoff and I fished the ocean side of a sandbar on the south side of the river mouth. That's Geoff is the lower left of the above photo, still casting into the last rays of the sun. From Parrita you drive to Palo Seco and when the main road hits the beach you turn left to find a hotel or right to get almost to the river mouth. If locals are fishing you came at the right time. By the way I never saw any of them fish the river side of the spit, maybe that had something to do with the saltwater crocodiles.
Jean and I were staying at La Isla Hotel (506)-2258-8020
http://www.infoturistica.com/hospedajes/hotel_laisla.html
which we found by driving along the Palo Seco strip out of Parrita, a small town on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica about XX miles south of Jaco, the
Josefino beach town. Our dentist in Escazu had told us he had heard good things about surf fishing in that area. He was right. The first time we approached the beach a teenager on a bicycle was coming from the beach with a fish hanging on each side of his handlebars. Both the pargo and the snook were dragging their tails on the road! I became so excited I forgot we needed to check into a hotel. I was ready to start casting.
La Isla Hotel is like many vacation resorts in Costa Rica, sized for overflow crowds at Christmas and Easter and all but empty the rest of the year. We have stayed there many times and although the restaurant seats over a hundred there were never more than three other couples or families there. The hotel is great for personal service including cooking my snook for the three of us and a guest, and trading four meals with all the trimmings for the rest of the fillets.
In addition to fishing the surf you can ask the hotel to arrange for a boat and guide and do some inshore trolling and casting with the same equipment and lures you use in the North for big largemouth and small stripers. Grandson Tim and I caught Sierra or Spanish Mackerel in this manner.
