I knew the reason for his comment, of course.

Not many predators are large and fast enough to threaten a school of grown dorado, putting them in head-for-the-hills mode like these. But for a big, hungry marlin, dorado offer a dandy meal. There was little doubt that a big billfish had chased the mahi topside.

Actually the "Jurassic Park" moniker can be attributed to a couple of sources. One is indeed the fact that big fish — of several species — hang out here. Also, this is Jurassic Park, at least according to Steven Spielberg. Part of the movie was filmed right here, north of the Gulf of Papagayo. That's not surprising, since this steep, rugged coast with its thick, pristine jungle looks every bit the lost world; I kept one eye out for a T-Rex to appear at any time.

JURASSIC HABIT
The fact that dino-size predators patrol the waters along the Costa Rican coast just south of the Nicaragua border isn't terribly surprising either, at least when you've seen it on a map, on a depth sounder and finally, with your own eyes.

More often than not, a long, rocky finger of land jutting out into the ocean, with currents clashing over the rugged habitat, spells fish. This particular rocky finger qualifies as the westernmost point of land in the Guanacaste (the most northerly state in Costa Rica, just south of Nicaragua) and is the hot spot most often fished by the four charter boats that Billfish Safaris currently operates out of the new Papagayo Marina.

The geologic nature of this landform, in the area more properly known as Playa Blanca, can be understood when you see it from the water. Harless pointed to the east where, looking back at the peninsula, I could clearly see two landmasses that had been pushed together to form a steep, narrow ridge running right down into the Pacific. Depth-sounder readings as we trolled left no doubt that the ridge retains its austere form beneath the surface. The top of the ridge rises to within about 40 feet of the surface; it drops away on one side to about 100 feet of water and to about 250 feet on the other sides. Harless says the ridge extends into the Pacific this way for about two miles and offers productive trolling grounds with great variety.

Variety is definitely the spice of life for 14-year veteran skipper Luis Ruiz Ruiz. The captain and his two mates concentrate primarily on trolling live baits. Harless says just about all the major game fish of Costa Rica can be taken right here and down the coast to Papagayo Bay on any given day by pulling live skippies or blue runners. He ticks off a long list of targets that includes marlin of the blue, black and striped persuasion, as well as sails, wahoo, yellowfin, dorado, roosterfish, cubera, almaco jacks and still others.

ROOSTERS RULE THE ROOST
While acknowledging that nothing beats a live bait, I still couldn't resist throwing out some poppers while the mates bridled 'em up. My first cast of the morning scored a wahoo that nailed a Strike Pro Tuna Hunter Junior lure in a vicious and spectacular strike. That result encouraged me the next morning to have at the ready, on my medium spinning outfit, a Yo-Zuri Surface Bull. After a few throws, a respectable cow dolphin (dorado) whacked it for a great visual battle.

Interestingly, not long after I landed that dorado, right in the same area, something inhaled a slow-trolled runner. In this case, Joey Prochazka of Z-Man Lures was ready on the starboard corner to make the grab. He had his hands full with what turned out to be a pretty impressive first-ever roosterfish in the vicinity of 60 pounds. On a TLD 20 spooled with 30-pound Momoi IGFA-rated mono, Prochazka — who knows about tough fish from amberjack and jack crevalle off his native North Carolina coast — discovered in a protracted battle how powerful roosters are. That afternoon, Sjon (pronounced Shawn), Harless' charming spouse and as enthusiastic an angler as you'll find, boated another rooster almost as large.

Enough anglers have made the discovery that "We get more and more guests coming each year just to catch big roosterfish," Harless says. "We release several every year in the 80- to 90-pound range."

Deep in the Jungle
The 30-mile run to Playa Blanca takes about an hour and 20 minutes from Marina Papagayo. En route, you can expect to pass miles of pristine coastline and rugged headlands and reefs, including the famed Bat Islands. And pass them you will: This area is part of the Santa Rosa National Park — a huge chunk of the state of Guanacaste that's off-limits to development, and the surrounding waters to any sort of fishing. That prohibition extends out from shore to depths of 50 meters (just more than 150 feet).
Marina Papagayo has the distinction of being the closest major facility to Playa Blanca's happy hunting grounds. It's part of a multibillion-dollar new development known as Peninsula Papagayo that includes a five-star resort, an Arnold Palmer Signature golf course, much more under construction and even more coming.

Somehow "development" and "pristine wilderness" seem antithetical. But we're not talking tract homes and strip malls. This development has big money behind it and is intended for well-heeled players. Marina manager Roberto Koppel stresses that nothing happens arbitrarily on these 2,300 acres overlooking the Pacific. Planning has been meticulous in keeping "in harmony with the environment," as the development's literature says.
But beyond the hype, the facilities already completed along with those under way are impressive. The peninsula retains its pristine quality, yet the resorts, estates, condos and villas offer world-class luxury.

The villa in which we stayed qualified in all respects. At the same time, we never had to go far to remember where we were. In fact, we didn't even have to get out of bed for a memory check, at least in the pre-dawn darkness when troops of howler monkeys within a peashooter's range of the villa obviated any need for an alarm clock. Definitely not Kansas.


Sjon Harless with her pending world-record roosterfish. At 68.2 lbs it will most likely unseat her previous all-tackle record rooster landed in June of 2008 off Guanacaste.

BAIT-AND-SWITCH FOR RECORD FISH
While Koppel keeps busy overseeing development of the very impressive Marina Papagayo, with 180 slips ready now and 200 more slips on the way, he did take some time out one day to join us. His short sabbatical from the office paid off with the biggest rooster of many on our trip, estimated at close to 70 pounds. We'd become believers in Playa Blanca's popularity as a hangout for some massive roosterfish. Sjon holds the women's 130-pound-class rooster, a 64.4-pounder, but she's hoping to beat herself with a pending 68.2-pound Playa Blanca catch. She also holds the 130-pound line-class record for the Pacific almaco jack she caught here, weighing 56.2 pounds. In fact, the Papagayo region has recently produced a number of line-class records for almacos to 85 pounds. Also, Harless cites many big cubera taken in the area, as one would expect, given the rocky headlands and reefs, along with other reef-loving species.

Of course, billfish generate particular interest and are a major target of the aptly named Billfish Safaris. "Our specialty," says Harless, "is bait-and-switch" with light tackle, though these boats hook plenty of good fish pulling large, high-speed trolling lures. Besides the Playa Blanca area, says Darrell Furton, Billfish Safaris' general manager, good action can start just off the mouth of Papagayo Bay itself, as well as south of the bay off what's known as "the shelf," where depths plummet from 700 to more than 2,000 feet.


Most anglers dream of the day they land a toothy wahoo, but here in Guanacaste, there are times during late summer that they become a nuisance! Photo: Bill Boyce, Boyce Image

If wahoo are your cup of tea, time your visit for late summer through early fall when they can be so thick, says Harless, they actually make a nuisance of themselves, at least to billfish hopefuls, chopping up live baits right and left. (continued above in the right hand column)