Papagayo SportFishing — Attraction in Sardinal

I fished aboard the mahi mahi on Wednesday march 8th 2017. Originally we were scheduled to fish on the 4th,which was me and my wife's first day in Costa Rica (flamingo),but were canceled due to the winds. The area was experiencing nasty pressures and fake winds up to 45mph,and were deemed in safe to fish from smaller boats. Genaro from papagayo worked with our schedule and got us a day on the boat for our last day in country.the winds just started to die down enough for a safe trip thank god. Our captain was Jose,and first mate was Lino. We started the morning off trolling for bait which resulted in a few bonitas.the bonitas were very fun to catch on light tackle,and we used light tackle because I requested to the captain that we use our own gear because I wanted my wife to have fun catching the smaller fish. Captain Jose was very accommodating for that. Personally my only targets were eaither a roosterfish or cubera snapper. So after we hook the few bonitas right off the bat,we make a b line to some rocks a few miles off playa flamingo. Witching. Few minutes of dropping the first Bonita we hook into a runner! 10 minutes after muscling the fish I land my first ever rooster. It was roughly 65 pounds! A dream come true! Although we did not hook another,I was very thankful to land this once in a life time fish,and captain Jose and first mate Lino worked. Sry hard to get us on another.we trolled rapalas for more tuna to use as bait,and ended up catching some of the bait on rock and snagging them,but that is apart of fishing.there was definitely a language barrier,and I've seen some reviews of this boat critiquing the conversation side of it,but I realized they weren't comfortable speaking their second language all the time because it is their second language.....and that's normal!! Heck I'm not fully comfortable with my second language of Spanish either.but every time I asked questions or tried to communicate in my very badly broken Spanish they tried to assist me and speak to me in a comprehensive manner. Eitherway they made a dream come true and were professional when it counted,and that's when it came to hunting down the catch and landing my dream fish. All I can say is THANK YOU JOSE, LINO,...

This fishing trip was what we most looked forward to and it was a huge disappointment. We didn't really get good communication from the beginning. The night before we were told the boat we booked was broken down and we got a smaller boat, which was fine, I guess.

We were picked up in the morning and it seemed neither of the crew members spoke English, which is ok, but were told where the snacks and water were and then the boat just started crusing the waters. The waves were insanely high due to a nearby tropical storm (unavoidable). But.. with absolutely no idea what was going on, we just trolled the waters for over an hour, while the guy messed with the fishing lines. Our entire family sat on the boat feeling sicker and sicker from the boat's rocking back and forth.

After catching nothing for about an hour (it happens), we told the captain to take us home. We caught nothing and we were all sick for the day.

All of this is happenstance. It was no one's fault. What we were disappointed about were: 1) the complete lack of communication on the boat. 2) The uninvolvement of us in the fishing process (were we just supposed to watch him fish and pose for the picture?) 3) The companie's response when we shared our experience, which was basically saying "it happens and no one else had a problem. Terrible customer service, which led to this review.

I don't recommend this company for...

Was really looking forward to taking my husband deep sea fishing! He is an avid angler in michigan but we’ve never fished the ocean. Unfortunately during our 8 hour day we really only fished no more than 100 feet from the shore. We caught about 10 small fish which was definitely fun but no where near what we expected. We personally dont believe we fished anywhere where we COULD catch something big. And there didnt seem to be equipment to assist in that either. The bathroom on board was also super gross. 4-5 roaches in the toilet. Obviously its costa rica, there are bugs! But the bathroom itself just didnt look like it was even remotely ever cleaned :/ our guides were very sweet which is why i did give some stars. They tried their best. They spoke very little english but tried to understand us as best they could. I’d recommend booking your fishing trip with another company...