Fishing in Costa Rica in July

Part of our complete guide: Costa Rica Fish Species: The Complete Guide

The short answer

July is the northern Pacific's month. Off Guanacaste and the north of the Nicoya Peninsula, sailfish and blue marlin are both at their best, and dorado, yellowfin tuna and wahoo are all in their peak too, so a single day offshore can turn up almost anything. The rest of the Pacific is good as well, with blue marlin, dorado, tuna and wahoo in season from Los Sueños to the Osa. The Caribbean is the exception: July is one of its wettest and slowest months for tarpon.

This page goes deeper on July than our month-by-month guide to Costa Rica's fishing seasons, which covers the whole year. Below you'll find what's biting on each coast, the July weather (including the drier spell Costa Ricans call the canícula), the school holidays and Guanacaste Day, the tournaments, and how to book.

July at a glance

From the site's season chart, which rates every fish as best, good or slow in each month:

July and August are the only months of the year when 5 of the chart's Pacific rows read "best" at once. It's the first month of the dorado's best stretch and one of the last of the tuna and wahoo peak, and the northern billfish season is in full swing.

The Pacific coast in July

Guanacaste: the northern billfish peak

The strong dry-season winds are long gone by July, and the offshore fleets from Playas del Coco, Flamingo and Tamarindo are at work. Todd Staley's billfish guide for FECOP, the Costa Rican sport fishing federation, quotes northern operators putting their sailfish peak from May to August and their marlin peak in June and July, and another Flamingo operation names June to August for both. On our chart, sailfish, blue marlin, dorado, tuna and wahoo are all in their best months.

The Presidential Flamingo Fishing Rodeo, fished from Marina Flamingo in late July or early August, gives a feel for it. In 2025, 28 boats with 144 anglers released 524 sailfish and 5 blue marlin over 3 days, and the inshore division's top boat released 9 roosterfish. That inshore side matters: roosterfish are "good" in July rather than best, but they're still on the rocks, and some local captains prefer the calmer months for them. Our roosterfish in Guanacaste guide has more.

The wind isn't gone entirely. Researchers measuring at Bahía Salinas, near the Nicaraguan border, found a small bump in the Papagayo winds in July, though nothing like the dry-season surges; our page on the Papagayo winds explains. For towns, marinas and crews, see the Guanacaste fishing guide and our page on sportfishing in Playa Flamingo.

Nicoya Peninsula: Nosara's deep water

Staley lists July, August and November as the peak billfish months for Nosara, where deep water comes close to the beach and the run offshore is short. Sámara and the northern beaches share the same green-season offshore fishing, and roosterfish and snapper keep biting inshore when the surf allows a beach launch. Our guide to panga fishing on the Nicoya Peninsula explains what that's like. Inside the Gulf of Nicoya, corvina and snapper are caught in every month. The Nicoya Peninsula guide has the rest.

Central Pacific: marlin and dorado time

Sailfish are still around off Los Sueños and Quepos in "good" numbers, but July's headliners here are different fish. Staley quotes boats at both Los Sueños and Marina Pez Vela putting a marlin peak from July to September (with another in November and December). Adventure Tours Costa Rica, which runs boats from Los Sueños, gives May to August as the best months for wahoo, late May to November for dorado, January to July for yellowfin tuna, and July to December as the best stretch for snapper.

So a July day here often means trolling for marlin and dorado offshore, or a half day inshore for snapper, roosterfish and jacks. The waters off Manuel Antonio National Park are closed to fishing, so boats run past them. See the Central Pacific guide and, for a day trip from the capital, fishing near San José.

Southern Pacific: slams in the far south

Down around Puerto Jiménez, Golfito, Zancudo and Drake Bay, Crocodile Bay Resort calls July prime for marlin, sailfish and dorado, with slams (more than one billfish species in a day) becoming common. Its notes add a chance of black marlin as well as blues and striped marlin, and describe a short second sailfish peak in late June or early July that local crews call the "Indian summer". It also reports yellowfin tuna running with spinner dolphins in early summer; our page on big yellowfin on the Southern Pacific puts the tuna's best months from about May to August.

Inside the Golfo Dulce, July and August are good months for roosterfish and cubera snapper, even with the rains building. One thing to know: researchers find newborn hammerhead sharks in the gulf in June, July and August, and hammerheads are fully protected, so any caught by accident go straight back. See the Southern Pacific guide for the whole zone.

The Caribbean in July

July is one of the hardest months to fish the Caribbean. It's among the wettest (Limón averages about 425 mm of rain), the sea is often rough at the river mouths, and the rivers run brown after heavy rain. Our chart rates tarpon "slow".

Slow isn't empty, though. Tarpon live in the Río Colorado, the Tortuguero canals and the Parismina all year, and in July you'll mostly fish for them inside the rivers and lagoons, along with snook, which are "good". Silver King Lodge on the Río Colorado gives its prime months as February to mid-June and mid-August to the end of November, which leaves July in the gap between them. If tarpon are the reason for your trip, September and October are much better bets; our Caribbean tarpon season guide explains why.

Two rule notes for the Barra del Colorado refuge, from SINAC's 2026 anglers' guide: tropical gar (gaspar) are closed to fishing from March 1 to July 31, and there's no fishing on Tuesdays. The refuge needs its own SINAC licence on top of INCOPESCA's.

Freshwater in July

• Lake Arenal: Guapote and machaca bite all year. July is fine, but the reservoir is filling with the rains and fish are more spread out than in the dry months. See our Lake Arenal guapote guide.
• Caño Negro and the Río Frío: The refuge closes to fishing for part of each year, and sources disagree on whether the closure ends in June or runs through July. Check with your lodge or the refuge office before booking a July trip. The high-water tarpon season there starts in about August. See our Caño Negro and Río Frío guide.
• Barra del Colorado: Gar stay closed until July 31.

The freshwater fishing guide covers the rest.

Weather and sea in July

July is green season on the Pacific, with sunny mornings and rain that usually arrives in the afternoon or evening. That suits fishing, because most trips leave at first light and are heading home before the clouds build.

The canícula

Most years bring a drier, hotter spell to the Pacific in the middle of the rainy season. Costa Rica's weather service, the IMN, dates the canícula from about July 15 to August 10 and says it's strongest in Guanacaste. In those same weeks the Caribbean and northern lowlands tend to get more rain, not less.

How strong it is changes from year to year. In 2026, an El Niño year, the IMN warned of a longer and more intense canícula, the dry spell started early, and in July the Tico Times reported forecasts of highs near 36 °C in parts of Guanacaste. Don't count on a repeat: plan for a normal green-season July, and treat a strong canícula as a bonus.

Our weather guide explains each coast's pattern in more detail.

Holidays, festivals and crowds

July is green season, and outside a couple of busy weeks, it's an easier month than the dry-season peak to find a boat.

• Costa Rican school holidays. The mid-year school break runs from July 5 to 16 in 2027, under the education ministry's calendar. Costa Rican families head for the beaches, so beach hotels and weekend boats get busier for those 2 weeks.
• Guanacaste Day, July 25. A national holiday marking the 1824 decision of the Partido de Nicoya to join Costa Rica, and the most important civic day in Guanacaste. Expect parades, folk dancing, marimba music and Costa Rican-style bull events in towns like Nicoya, Liberia and Santa Cruz, with busy roads in the province. A bill to move some holidays to Mondays was in Congress in 2026, but Nicoya's council opposed moving this one, and as of May 2026 the date was unchanged. In 2027 it falls on a Sunday.
• Summer holidays in North America and Europe bring more families to Costa Rica in July than in the shoulder months either side.

July tournaments

Our tournaments guide explains how entry works.

What to keep for dinner

July's dorado, tuna and wahoo are the country's favourite eating fish, and you can keep some. The fisheries regulation allows 5 fish per trip to be landed for your own use, and selling a sport catch is banned. Billfish, roosterfish and tarpon always go back. Many crews will clean your catch at the dock, and some beach restaurants will cook what you bring in; ask your captain who does it locally.

Booking a July trip

• Go north for billfish. If you can only travel in July, Guanacaste and Nosara are the places for sailfish and marlin, with dorado, tuna and wahoo in the mix.
• Book school-break weeks and Flamingo Rodeo week early. The rest of July is usually easier than the dry-season high season.
• Fish mornings. Afternoon storms are common; a first-light start dodges most of them.
• Skip the Caribbean for tarpon. Come back in September or October instead, or plan on river fishing.
• Get your licence. Everyone fishing from a boat needs an INCOPESCA sport fishing licence, bought online for 8 days, a month or a year. Our fishing rules guide explains it.

Our trip planning guide covers flights, transfers and questions to ask a crew. For the dry-season side of the calendar, see our guide to fishing in Costa Rica in January, and for the whole year, go back to the Costa Rica fishing seasons guide.