# Fishing lodges on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast

> Silver King Lodge at Barra del Colorado is the only full-service fishing lodge on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast that we could confirm open in late 2026, with small, locally run Kawé Lodge on the same river and Río Colorado Lodge booking again for 2027. Casa Mar, the lodge where modern tarpon fly fishing grew up, is closed and largely reclaimed by the jungle; in Tortuguero, the Manatus Hotel books fishing days.

Source: https://sportfishing-costarica.com/caribbean-fishing-lodges/
Last checked: 2026-11-15
Open fishing lodges: Silver King Lodge (all year) and Kawé Lodge, both on the Río Colorado
Reopening: Río Colorado Lodge, booking tarpon and snook trips for 2027
Closed: Casa Mar Lodge (The Tico Times, October 2026)
Tortuguero: Manatus Hotel books river and sea fishing days
Access: No road to Barra del Colorado; small plane or boat
Refuge rules: No fishing on Tuesdays; inner lagoons closed October 1 to January 31; separate SINAC licence
Best tarpon months: About February to April and September to October

## The short answer

Costa Rica's Caribbean has fewer fishing lodges than it did 30 years ago, when half a dozen tarpon camps lined the Río Colorado. In late 2026 we could confirm one full-service fishing lodge open all year, Silver King Lodge at Barra del Colorado, plus small, locally run Kawé Lodge on the same river. Río Colorado Lodge, which dates its tarpon fishing to 1972, is taking bookings again for 2027. Casa Mar, the most famous name of all, is closed.

This article looks at each one in more detail than our [complete guide to Costa Rica's fishing lodges](/costa-rica-fishing-lodges-guide/), and adds the places in Tortuguero and Parismina where you can stay and fish for a day or two. For the coast as a whole, including independent guides, seasons and every rule, see our [Caribbean fishing guide](/caribbean-fishing-guide/).

## How we checked

We opened each lodge's own website in November 2026 and looked for dated signs of life from 2025 or 2026: package dates, news coverage, guest reviews or mentions in reports by FECOP, Costa Rica's sport fishing federation. Nobody pays to be listed. We don't show prices, because packages change every season.

## The Caribbean lodges at a glance

| Lodge | Where | Type | Status, November 2026 | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Silver King Lodge](/silver-king-lodge/) | Barra del Colorado | All-inclusive tarpon lodge, up to 24 guests | Open all year, 2026 packages listed | Lodge flight from San José, about 25 minutes |
| [Kawé Lodge](https://www.kawelodge.com/en) | Barra del Colorado Sur | Small, locally owned fishing and nature lodge | Open; named in a May 2026 report | Boat only |
| [Río Colorado Lodge](https://riocoloradolodge.com/) | Barra del Colorado | All-inclusive tarpon and snook lodge | Booking for 2027 | Ask the lodge |
| [Manatus Hotel](/the-manatus-hotel/) | Tortuguero | Wildlife hotel that books fishing | Open, fishing offered | Boat from La Pavona or a flight to Tortuguero |
| Casa Mar Lodge | Barra del Colorado | Historic fly-fishing lodge | Closed | None |

## How a Barra del Colorado lodge works

Barra del Colorado sits at the mouth of the Río Colorado, close to the Nicaraguan border, inside a wildlife refuge of rivers, lagoons and lowland forest. There's no road. Silver King flies its guests in on a small plane from San José in about 25 minutes, and the lodge's boats leave from its own dock on the river.

A typical day starts early. If the sea is calm enough to cross the bar at the river mouth, the guides run outside to look for schools of tarpon rolling at the surface. If it's rough, they fish the river channels and the lagoons behind the village, where tarpon, snook and freshwater fish such as rainbow bass (guapote) and machaca live. The Tico Times, writing about Silver King in July 2026, put a typical Río Colorado tarpon at about 100 pounds, with fish of 140 to 180 pounds realistic and a few near 200 each season. Every tarpon goes back.

![A still black-water jungle lagoon at dawn, with tall rainforest trees and palms reflected in the water and mist rising off the surface](/static/img/cfl-ai-jungle-lagoon-dawn-800.webp)

## Barra del Colorado's lodges

**[Silver King Lodge](/silver-king-lodge/) (Barra del Colorado).** The coast's best-known tarpon lodge has fished the river since the early 1990s, outlasting most of its neighbours, and changed hands in 2025. The Tico Times reports that the new owner has fished Barra for about 30 years. The lodge is built on pilings and takes from 1 guest up to 24, in cabins with 2 or 3 queen beds. It has an IGFA-certified scale, a tackle shop and free Starlink Wi-Fi, and supplies conventional and fly tackle. It's open all year and calls February to well into June, and mid-August to the end of November, its prime months, with September and October especially popular. Packages include the flight from San José. One detail to plan around: the plane allows 30 pounds of luggage plus one small extra item, so ask about rod tubes. In March 2026 FECOP held a captains' meeting at the lodge on safety and good release practice.

::: triptych "A Río Colorado tarpon: the jump, and the release beside the boat"
![A tarpon leaping clear of grey-green water near the bow of a Silver King Lodge boat, as a guide and angler watch with the rod bent](/static/img/cfl-silver-king-tarpon-jump-800.webp "Photo: [Silver King Lodge](https://www.silverkinglodge.com/)")
![A guide and a smiling angler holding a huge silver tarpon in the water beside the boat before letting it go](/static/img/cfl-silver-king-tarpon-release-800.webp "Photo: [Silver King Lodge](https://www.silverkinglodge.com/)")
![A common snook with a bold black stripe along its silver side, holding in clear water among mangrove roots](/static/img/cfl-ai-snook-mangrove-800.webp)
:::

**[Kawé Lodge](https://www.kawelodge.com/en) (Barra del Colorado Sur).** A small lodge of air-conditioned casitas a few metres from the refuge, reached only by boat. Its website describes tarpon as the main event, plus fishing in the nearby lagoons and canals and guided trips into the refuge, with home cooking that leans on fresh fish and Caribbean flavours. A May 2026 report in El Mundo, on the FECOP-backed effort to grow sport fishing in Caribbean villages, names Eduardo Pérez as the man running it; he came home about 10 years ago to lead it, and the lodge offers catch-and-release fishing. Its website hasn't been updated since 2023, so contact the lodge directly to confirm boats, guides and dates.

**[Río Colorado Lodge](https://riocoloradolodge.com/) (Barra del Colorado).** Founded in 1972 by the angler and conservationist Archie Fields, and one of the river's original lodges. After a long remodel, its website now says it's booking all-inclusive tarpon and snook trips for 2027, with English-speaking guides. We found no guest reviews from 2026, so treat it as reopening rather than open, and ask what's finished before you pay a deposit.

## What happened to Casa Mar

For decades, Casa Mar was the name tarpon anglers knew. A San José tackle shop owner, Carlos Barrantes, built it in the late 1960s on Laguna Agua Dulce, and from the early 1970s it was run by Bill Barnes. Under him, The Tico Times says, it became the place where much of modern tarpon fly fishing was worked out, with Lefty Kreh, Del Brown, Dan Blanton and Harry Kime among the regulars. Its success brought a boom of new lodges on the river: Isla de Pesca, Tarpon Land and Río Colorado Lodge among them.

Barnes died in 2002, and the lodge never recovered. A writer for The Flyfish Journal describes visiting around 2007, when it was open but had no guests, and later finding it shuttered. In October 2026 The Tico Times reported that the jungle has reclaimed much of the old building. Casa Mar is closed, and any older article or booking site that still lists it is out of date.

![A large saltwater fly reel and a bright tarpon fly lying on the weathered wooden deck of a small boat, warm late-afternoon light](/static/img/cfl-ai-tarpon-fly-reel-800.webp)

## Tortuguero: a wildlife lodge with a fishing day

[Tortuguero](/tortuguero/) is better known for nesting turtles and canals than for fishing lodges, and most of the area is national park, where Costa Rica's fishing law bans sport fishing. Fishing does happen around the village and the river mouth, in water where it's allowed, but you need a licensed local guide who knows the boundaries.

**[Manatus Hotel](/the-manatus-hotel/) (Tortuguero).** A small canal-side hotel, not a fishing lodge, that sells half and full-day trips on the river or the sea with Eddie Brown's company, which supplies the boats and handles permits. It names tarpon as the main catch from January to June and snook from September to December, with mackerel and barracuda near the coast, and practises catch and release. It's the easiest way to fit a tarpon morning into a wildlife trip.

Booking agencies also sell a guided fishing day that picks up from several other canal-side lodges, so if you're staying elsewhere in Tortuguero, ask your hotel.

![A quiet sandy street in Tortuguero village, lined with brightly painted wooden houses, a small supermarket and coconut palms](/static/img/cfl-tortuguero-village-800.webp "Photo: [Tortuguero village](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tortuguero,_Costa_Rica.jpg) by John Menard, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons")

## Parismina: small village lodges

Parismina is a small village between the Parismina river mouth and the sea, south of Tortuguero, reached by a short boat ride from Caño Blanco. The famous fishing lodge here, Río Parismina Lodge, has no current website or recent activity that we could find. Today the village has small, family-run places instead. The May 2026 El Mundo report names Esmeralda Lodge (Gerald Pérez) and Green Gold Eco Lodge (Jason Taylor and Yuliana Mendoza) as offering lodging and tours that include fishing, and local guide Garvin Watson as a leader of the village's sport-fishing effort. Neither lodge publishes fishing trips online, so arrange your fishing when you book a room or once you arrive. Lonely Planet places Green Gold about 3 km south of the village dock, in its own patch of jungle.

## The rules every lodge works under

Your lodge should handle most of this, but it helps to know before you go. The Barra del Colorado lodges sit inside the refuge, and SINAC's January 2026 guide for anglers sets its own rules on top of the national ones in our [fishing rules guide](/costa-rica-fishing-rules/):

- **No fishing on Tuesdays,** the river's rest day, and only from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- **Open all year (except Tuesdays):** the main channel of the Río Colorado, Caño Bravo, part of Caño Penitencia, Samay Lagoon and Laguna Agua Dulce.
- **Closed October 1 to January 31:** more than 20 inner lagoons, Laguna Kawe and Laguna Yaki among them, and calba (fat snook) at the river mouth, which closes most of the fall snook run there. Our article on the [fall snook run](/caribbean-snook-run-calba/) explains it.
- **Rod or hand line only.** No nets, traps or spears.
- **A separate SINAC licence,** valid for a year and requested online, on top of the INCOPESCA licence you need to fish from a boat. Ask your lodge how it arranges both.

Tarpon are released everywhere, and selling sport catches is banned.

## When to go

| Months | Tarpon | Snook | What it's like |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Good | Best | Calba closures still on at Barra until January 31 |
| February to April | Best | Good | Silver King's prime time; drier, often calmer |
| May and June | Good | Good | Silver King's prime runs well into June |
| July and August | Slow | Good | Wet; Silver King says it picks up from mid-August |
| September and October | Best | Best | Calm seas, the classic peak; books up first |
| November | Good | Best | Still prime at Silver King; inner lagoons closed |
| December | Slow | Best | Wet and often rough |

This follows our national [season chart](/costa-rica-fishing-seasons/), which marks July, August and December as slow, though tarpon live in the river all year. Our article on [tarpon season on the Caribbean](/caribbean-tarpon-season/) explains why the sources disagree a little.

## Choosing a Caribbean lodge

- **For a dedicated tarpon trip of 3 days or more,** book Silver King, or ask Kawé Lodge what it can offer. Barra is a long way to go for a single day.
- **For tarpon on fly,** tell the lodge when you book; Silver King stocks fly rods and reels, but serious fly anglers bring their own.
- **For a wildlife trip with a fishing morning,** stay in Tortuguero and book through the Manatus Hotel or your own lodge.
- **For something quiet and local,** try a small Parismina lodge and fish with a village guide.
- **For food,** expect Caribbean cooking: rice and beans in coconut milk, fried fish and rondón, a coconut seafood stew.

![A bowl of Caribbean coconut fish stew with chunks of white fish, plantain and cassava in a golden coconut broth, on a wooden table](/static/img/cfl-ai-coconut-fish-stew-800.webp)

## Lodges we left out

- **Casa Mar Lodge:** closed, as above.
- **Tarpon Land Lodge, Barra del Colorado:** a June 2025 Tico Times piece written by its sales team promoted it as the village's booking office, but its website wasn't working in November 2026 and we found no reviews.
- **Río Parismina Lodge, Parismina:** no current website, reviews or 2025-26 activity found.
- **Isla de Pesca, Barra del Colorado:** remembered only in histories of the river.

If you know one of these is taking anglers again, we'd like to hear about it. For lodges on the other coasts, go back to our [complete guide to Costa Rica's fishing lodges](/costa-rica-fishing-lodges-guide/).

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Casa Mar Lodge still open?

No. The Tico Times reported in October 2026 that it never recovered after its longtime manager died in 2002, and the jungle has reclaimed much of the building.

### Which Caribbean fishing lodges are open now?

Silver King Lodge is open all year, and Kawé Lodge is open on the same river. Río Colorado Lodge is booking trips for 2027. In Tortuguero, the Manatus Hotel books fishing days.

### How do you get to a Barra del Colorado lodge?

There's no road. Silver King includes a small-plane flight of about 25 minutes from San José; other lodges arrange a boat. Pack light, because the planes have strict weight limits.

### Can I fish every day of my trip?

Not on Tuesdays inside the Barra del Colorado refuge, the river's rest day under SINAC's rules. Plan a wildlife trip or a rest day for Tuesday.

### Is the fishing catch and release?

For tarpon, always. Most lodges also release big snook, which are mostly breeding females, and the refuge closes calba at the river mouth from October 1 to January 31.

### Do I need more than one licence?

Inside the Barra del Colorado refuge, yes: an INCOPESCA sport-fishing licence to fish from a boat, plus SINAC's own 1-year licence for the refuge waters. Lodges can help with both.