Rio Chiquito, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
To kick off 2026, Ally and I continued our tradition of going somewhere warm in February to get a break from the Illinois cold. We originally thought we'd go somewhere much farther away, but we shifted our plans and opted for a return to Costa Rica instead. Last year we focused on the areas around La Fortuna and Tárcoles. This time we would do Lago Arenal, Caño Negro, and the Guanacaste coast. We flew into the Liberia airport, picked up our rental car, and drove to our first stay at a small jungle retreat west of Lake Arenal. The next morning we followed the winding road along the lake's south shore. Our first stop was Rio Chiquito.
We were looking for oddball fish such as tuba cichlid and riverine clingfish. The water was rushing and turbulent, so we focused on calmer eddies close to the bridge. We mostly caught tetras, but Ally also caught a few juvenile guapote cichlids.
Costa Rican Tetra (Astyanax orstedii)
Rio Chiquito unnamed tributary, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Next we moved over to a small tributary crossing the road. The rental car company firmly told us that we were NOT to do any water crossings, so if you are from the rental car company and reading this blog, we did NOT drive our all-wheel-drive car across this creek and numerous other creeks during our trip. Thank you for your attention on this matter!
This creek didn't produce much for us either. I caught a guapote, and we saw a few small livebearers (which could have been something new for us: merry widow, golden teddy, etc. - they all have great names). I didn't take a picture of the cows on the other side of the road, but they were the highlight of this spot. Happiest cows we've ever seen!
Guapote (Parachromis dovii)
Lake Arenal unnamed tributary #1
We planned to check out a small culvert spot on the north shore of Lake Arenal the next day where our friend Hunter had caught two species we needed, a rivulus and a toothcarp. However, we found our own culvert spot on the south shore. It looked promising for tiny fish that like shallow vegetation.
We saw small fish hiding in the cover, and many of them were simultaneously aggressive and easily frightened. Ally was the first to catch one, and we had done our research before the trip and knew immediately it was a Holdridges toothcarp. I took a lot longer to catch mine, but I was persistent, and using Ally's rod I was able to catch one as well.
Holdridges Toothcarp (Brachyrhaphis holdridgei) - new hook & line species #1070
Lake Arenal unnamed tributary #2
We continued east but had to turn around early because, unfortunately, there was a water crossing too deep for our rental car. No worries though; we had plenty of potential fishing spots on the way back. The next stop was a creek flowing into Lake Arenal that required a scary climb down from the road.
Here we were looking for macaw cichlid and Olomina toothcarp. We fished for a while without luck, only catching the common Astyanax tetras. I gave up trying to keep my feet dry and waded down the creek towards the lake. I found an abundance of cichlids where the water transitioned from flowing to slack. Unfortunately, none of them were new, but the convict cichlids looked different enough that I figured I should spend time trying to ID them after the trip.
Yellowjacket Cichlid (Parachromis friedrichsthalii)
Guapote (Parachromis dovii)
Convict Cichlid sp. (Amatitlania sp.)
Climbing down a steep bank means climbing back up when it's time to go.
Lake Arenal unnamed tributary #3
Our last spot of the day was another creek flowing into Lake Arenal. We hoped to finally find Olomina toothcarp there, and we needed to be quick about it because we didn't have much daylight left to figure out where they might be.
As the sun was going down, I started to see schools of micros roving around over the bottom. They were aggressive. The first one I caught had a strong black blotch on the dorsal fin, which meant it was a molly. The next one had small black markings on the dorsal fin rays and a strong black marking on the anal fin. It was our Olomina!
Shortfin Molly (Poecilia mexicana)
Olomina Toothcarp (Brachyrhaphis olomina) - new hook & line species #1071
Ally crossed the bridge and came down to fish the same spot. My photo makes it look fairly bright because of its auto settings, but in reality we were close to needing our headlamps to see under the bridge. Ally is a master at catching tiny fish though, and she immediately pulled up an Olomina toothcarp as well. Success!
We finished the day at an authentic Costa Rican grill and enjoyed plates of beef, rice, beans, and plantains and visits from the resident cat. It was a tough day of fishing with only two small micros to add to our list, but we were happy to be on the board with plenty of new spots to try in the coming days.
