What better way to top off my 25th wedding anniversary with my beautiful wife than to catch a 9 foot sailfish with Captain “Famous” Amos! We started off the day on time they picked us up exactly where they said they would be and took us out on a little dinghy to their boat, which was anchored just offshore. The boat was well equipped with ice, cold beer, water, and sodas. We headed out about 35 km. The ride was smooth and the weather was beautiful, and the view of Tamarindo from the boat cannot be beat! Captain Amos and the crew had six poles trolling in the water before I knew it. The first fish we hooked was a beautiful looking yellowfin tuna. First mate Henry filleted it for us right there on the boat and he also had some soy sauce ready. We ate a bit raw and it was excellent! We left with a big bag of tuna that Captain Amos told us where to go and have it cooked up on shore for us how we wanted, My wife and I actually got two meals Each out of it. But of course, the highlight of the day was catching a 106” sailfish! We weren’t having any luck for a couple of hours and so we started to head back in for shallower waters so we could do some bottom fishing and trolling further in. Just as we started back in-BAM!!! We hooked a Sailfish and saw it jump in the distance, high out of the water, fully expanded fin, just a beautiful site! Captain Amos handed me the rod and I began reeling it in, rod up, reel it down up, rod up, reel it down…. This went on for what felt like an hour, but it was probably about 15 minutes. Once I reeled it in close enough to the boat, the crew Guided the fish up to the side of the boat so we could measure it and get some great pictures. (Sailfish are protected in Costa Rica, So it is catch and release ). Once the hook was released, they freed the sailfish, and we watched it dive under. With the pictures and the measurement, I will have a great mount made of my trophy Sailfish! I highly recommend this crew and will say this was definitely my favorite experience of my Costa Rican vacation!

Boat is fairly small for the amount of swells we had(6-10ft). The captain did navigate through the waves fairly safely. We have to do a beach start which we didn’t know when we booked. A wave went over The front of the boat and soaked us within the first 2 minutes. We asked for life jackets which were hidden in the front compartment with a cooler locking the door. It took the deckhand 5 minutes to get them. when we got a 5 pound tuna I could even reel it in because the real was broken. Besides that tho they really wanted to catch us a fish we stayed out later than the 4 hours got lots of bites, reeled in a shark for 30 minutes. You kinda get what you pay for this was one of the cheaper boat trips so more our fault for not spending the extra money to get a heavier duty boat.

I was really excited to take my 9 year old son, who has gotten very into fishing, out on this tour based on the great reviews of Captain Eyhmus. Only after getting picked up 20 minutes late did I find out that our captain was actually Juan, who spoke no English and did not seem excited to engage with my son. The language barrier wasn’t ideal given my being a relative novice at this sort of fishing, though Juan did effectively put us on a few bonito early on. It practically may not have been possible, but he wasn’t able to help give instruction to my son on how to successfully reel one all the way in; I brought in the couple that we caught. After less than an hour getting 4 of these on the line, though, we headed further inshore, where the final 2.5 hrs was spent trolling with not a single bite. This change may have been because of rougher waters further offshore, but because of the language barrier I don’t really know.

In short, I would at the very least confirm who your captain actually is in advance; this tour is likely better suited for groups of more experienced anglers with some Spanish proficiency at the least. For me, unfortunately, it felt a bit of a bait and switch.