First trip to Costa Rica and the experience was amazing.  Booked a full day trip through Fishing Booker and the process was painless.  We chose Costa Tamarindo after reading great reviews.  My daughter, son and I met the team on the beach and headed out to the boat. Boat was stocked with snacks and drinks, clean and ready to go.  Captain and first mate were awesome and put us on fish early.  We loaded the boat with quality Yellow Fin, some Bonita, and a Rainbow Runner. Headed offshore to target Sail Fish and Marlin and they delivered.  After a 2.5 hour fight, landed our ultimate target a +300 lbs Blue Marlin!

Capt Novel was great along with the mate. Started off the morning inshore in search of a rooster fish and we were able to cross that species off the list within the first hour and a half. Had a miss hit within the first 5min but fish missed the bait and bailed. Then started heading offshore trolling the entire time from inshore. Was slow for a while but then it happened. Hooked up onto about a 40lb wahoo, got him in the boat. Continued to head out till we found some birds, dolphins and fish. Trolled the bait pods and hooked into a yellowfin tuna, 60lb, got it in the boat. Great gaff job from Capt Novel on both wahoo and tuna. Continued to fish the bait pods and had multiple missed marlin and sails. Ended up finally having a sail bite the hook. Got that up to the boat, got our picture, and a clean release from the capt. continued the day and had a few more marlin smack baits but not take the hook (why it’s called fishing and not catching) although we had already caught. Finished the day like that and came back in saw a humpback whale was a little bonus. They provided sufficient drinks and food/ snacks which was plenty for us for the day. Overall a fantastic experience and couldn’t have have asked for a better day.

I booked this charter originally for three people but two backed out at the last minute so I went solo. Was met promptly at the agreed location and was on the boat by 7am sharp. The boat was a modest panga stocked with plenty of beer, snacks, water and soda. Captain Novell asked what kind of fish I was looking to catch and as this was my first time in CR I left it up to him. 5 minutes into the trip we saw breaching humpback whales and tons of tortoises. Started to troll and hooked up on some blackfin tuna almost immediately. Within the next two hours we caught 3 yellowfin and a couple more blackfin. Novell asked if I wanted to do some jigging so we did and had no luck. Tried out some bottom fishing and lost what I can only assume were some giants. Went back to trolling for the remainder of the day and hooked three more yellowfin. I can’t recommend these guys enough. Not big conversationalists but they definitely know what they’re doing and where the fish are. I left with at least 20lbs of cleaned tuna that I cooked no more than an hour later and was delicious.

I read the reviews for this company and like most people went right to the bad ones which, in my opinion, were unwarranted. You should do your research before booking a charter. Mainly, know the season,  the weather and the conditions. If you’re on an open boat in high seas, you WILL get wet. That’s not the fault of the captain. And remember, it’s called fishing, not catching.

Highly recommend!!!!

Our captain was fighting some tough conditions and did his best to get us hooked up! I said I wanted to catch a rooster and he got us some, also every time he passed any trash in the ocean he stopped to pick it up to conserve and clean our natural resources, I appreciated that. He and his crewmate worked hard for us. I wanted to fish with a lure on a spinning rod and he got me what I wanted and made opportunities for me to fish from the front of the boat with the lure when we saw bait fish boiling , in between times of trolling and that was fun! Caught a couple bonito doing that on light tackle and it was cool.
Also we saw dolphins, and even two of what I think were humpback whales breaching and tail slapping. Snacks and drinks on the boat, I ate basically the equivalent of two whole pineapples