Monkey Head Adventures

Part of our complete guide: Fishing the Nicoya Peninsula: the complete guide

A local crew from Playa Garza

Playa Garza is the small fishing village on a curved bay a short drive south of Nosara, and it's where most of the northern Nicoya Peninsula fleet keeps its boats. Monkey Head Adventures is one of the outfits that grew up there, quite literally. Owner and captain Jordanny Garcia was raised a few steps from where the boats now leave, and the company's FishingBooker page says it started with a single panga in 2018.

Today it runs 2 boats and a crew of 4. Jordanny is a certified international boat captain, a certified Costa Rican lifeguard and a surf coach, which explains why the company also sells boat-access surf trips. The fishing side leans on captain Alex Moreno, another Garza local, who has won the village's Ship of Fools tournament several times and was on the team that won the Puerto Calero Marlin Cup in the Canary Islands, earning a place at the 2026 Offshore World Championship in Costa Rica. Danny Mora and Dario Rodríguez work as first mates.

The company also says its crews don't drink on duty, and that it can make a charter alcohol-free if your group asks.

The boats

Osprey is the bigger boat: a 32-foot Rampage from 1987 with twin 330 hp Cummins inboard diesels and a flybridge. It's the one to pick for a full offshore day, with an air-conditioned cabin, an enclosed head with a sink and shower, and shaded seating outside. It's rigged with outriggers, a live well and tuna tubes, and it fishes 6 anglers.

Ticorette is a 27-foot Costa center console with twin 140 hp Suzuki outboards, new in 2025. It's open, with a roll-out shade sail, cushioned seats and a marine toilet, and it fishes 4. It's quicker to move along the reefs and suits inshore mornings and smaller groups.

Both carry GPS, a depth sounder and a VHF radio, and both stay on moorings in the bay, so you're ferried out by water taxi.

What you'll fish for, and when

Inshore trips work the rocks and reefs near Garza for roosterfish, cubera and other snappers, grouper and jacks. Offshore, the targets are sailfish, blue and other marlin, yellowfin tuna and mahi-mahi. The company stresses how close the deep water is off Nosara, and that's backed up by a tournament report from Garza, which had the fleet fishing about 12 miles out in deep water on day one.

The crew publishes an unusually frank month-by-month guide: billfish pick up from December, sailfish come close in around March and April, the biggest yellowfin show in June and July, and August to October is the slowest stretch of the year. Inshore fishing slows in the clear water of February, since roosterfish and cubera prefer it green. It all lines up with our month-by-month seasons guide.

Sailfish are always released, as Costa Rican law requires for billfish. You can keep some eating fish such as tuna, mahi-mahi and snapper, within the legal limits, and the crew cleans and fillets them so you can take them back to your kitchen.

Trip types

Every trip is private. You can book a half day (about 7:30 to 11:30), a three-quarter day (to about 1:30) or a full day (to about 4:00), inshore or offshore, on either boat. Tackle, fishing licences, fruit, snacks and drinks are included, with lunch on the longer trips. Offshore runs cost more than inshore ones on the same boat, so say which you want when you ask for a quote.

The same boats also run surf, snorkeling and whale-watching trips.

How to book

Book directly through the company's website, by WhatsApp on +506 8659 6277 or by email at [email protected]. It's also listed on FishingBooker. You meet the crew at the tables in the Pilo's Bar and Restaurant parking lot on Playa Garza, about 10 to 12 minutes from Guiones, and there's no hotel pickup. If you've never boarded from a beach before, our guide to panga fishing from a beach launch explains what to expect.