TLDR;
Select this charter if you aren’t planning to bring your own equipment/tackle or prefer to kick back and enjoy the scenery while allowing the deckhand do most of the fishing.
However, if you want to use your own tackle, expect to be frowned upon and discouraged to use it.
Detailed review:
On May 25, 2024, my five person party chartered Allin Sportfishing with the hopes of going after YFT, mahi, wahoo, and marlin. Our fishing experiences ranged from beginner to advanced.
When we arrived at Playa Jaco, we were promptly greeted by Capt Henry and his deckhand Carlos who both spoke pretty good English. I only call this out b/c on my last charter in CR, that was not the case and it was challenging to communicate.
Once we paid the remaining balance in USD, we jumped onto a water taxi from the beach and shuttled to the fishing boat. While on our way out, Capt Henry informed that what we wanted to go for was not in season (that we just missed it at the end of April).
This was both a surprise and a disappointment that he did mention this when we were inquiring about our trip and placing an order to purchase live bait.
Would it not have made sense to call this out and therefore live bait might not be necessary?
That aside, once we started motoring out to the fishing grounds (some 30 miles offshore), we came across a school of juvenile dorados. The captain immediately slowed the boat and the deckhand started dropping lines.
I had brought a few mahi trolling rigs and I asked to use a rod to try them out. I was immediately told that my rigs weren’t going to work b/c they were too big. I insisted and was reluctantly allowed to use 2 rods. Both were immediately hit as soon as they were in the water and had 3 fish onboard.
One of my friends wanted to try his Rapala and was told that also wouldn’t work. I was puzzled by this as the bite was pretty wide open and it would have been a lot of fun on his light tackle.
After the 3 fish were boarded w/in 10 mins, we pulled up and continued onward to the YFT grounds. For the next 4 hours, we did not get a single bite while trolling ballyhoo rigged with an egg sinker.
I then asked if I could try out my Madmacs 200 and DXT Minnow and was told those wouldn’t work- that in their 18 yrs of fishing experience the lures that I have never worked. After insisting to give it a try, they allowed me to put one on but after a short 15 mins of trolling, they removed it and switched back to trolling the ballyhoo rig.
Despite seeing several pods of dolphins and a surface boil of feeding YFT, we did not get a single bite on the ballyhoo.
We then started to head back towards shore and left the dolphins and feeding YFT at around 12:30p.
The saving grace for our trip was that we did hook up on two sailfish in the 80lb class on our way back in which was a lot of fun.
For this reason, I am giving Allin Sportfishing 4 stars for finding and helping to land two respectable game fish. But, deducting a star for not being more accepting for us to use our own tackle which we had brought all the way from the US.
As for the equipment and boat….
The crew had quality rods (6’ roller guided tips) and reels (2-speed Shimano TLD 30 and 50 series). The boat is equipped with 1 fighting chair and has both a live well and 4 slot tuna tubes. The dual Yamaha 115 hp outboards was able to push the 7 passengers at a respectable cruising speed of approximately 18 kts. There was also outriggers to spread out our lines. However, there was no toilet onboard or a fresh water wash down. There was also no fish finder and so we mainly relied on sight fishing.
TLDR;
Select this charter if you aren’t planning to bring your own equipment/tackle or prefer to kick back and enjoy...
