Boy, let me tell you about my fishing adventures.
We fished with Don and Sandy Blake in the afternoon of December 6th. We were trying to catch a sailfish for Don on trolled flatline 8 pound line for his fishing club. We raised 4 sailfish while trolling. 2 of those were so hot on the strip teaser that we had trouble getting them to look at the baits. One ate a bait on 12 pound tackle and jumped off. The fourth ate the right bait, but in the middle of a school of dolphin. In the confusion, the sail broke the 8 pound line. At least we caught 2 dolphin for dinner and released 4 more.
We fished with Spenser Pepe on December 7th. The 6th was with 20 knot NE winds. The 7th was flat calm and the fish quit with the wind. We did catch 10 king mackerel, a mutton snapper, a small shark, small grouper and a dolphin.
The evening of the 7th we fished with Bob, Ben, the Dutchman and the Hamburg Birthday Boy. We caught tarpon of 50 and 110 pounds and jumped one more.
With severe weather the next day, we were done fishing for a while. I took the boat to Dusky to get brand new 250 horse power Evinrude E-techs and took off for a dream vacation to Costa Rica.
My brother-in-law Joe and my nephew Keith and I had been looking forward to this adventure. We flew to San Jose and then our driver Francisco drove us through the fog shrouded mountains to the Selva Verde Lodge on the Sarapiqui River. On Sunday we white water rafted through treacherous class 2 and 3 rapids for several hours. What a blast. We lost Joe overboard, but the crocs and piranhas threw him back in the raft.
Monday it was off to Arenal Lodge to view the fog hidden Arenal Volcano. It was our belief that we were going to see beautiful birds and fog, but no valcano. Suddenly about 4 PM the fog blew away and there was the valcanic mountain in all it's glory. As the sun set, we watch in amazement as lava erupted from the mountain and flowed down the side for hundreds of yards. By 9 PM the mountain was once again lost in the fog.
On Tuesday, Francisco drove us around Arenal Lake and up into the mountains to Monte Verde Lodge. We visited a coffee plantation and learned the history of coffee in the world. After 58 years, I finally found coffee worth drinking.
The next day we flew to Golfito. In the late afternoon we met the world renown fishing guide Captain Bobby McGinness. He was as cordial a host as ever walked the earth. We checked into The Big Thunder B&B and prepared for our fishing.
Thursday, Bobby took us on our dream hunt. We were after the rooster fish that Joe and I had dreamed of for years. When the sun set that afternoon, the three of us had caught 6 rooster fish. Joe caught 3 up to 48 pounds. My best of two was 30 pounds on 12 pound plug casting tackle with a pilchard jig. Keith caught a 30 pound rooster as well. We also caught several pacific jack crevalle in the 25 pound class and a couple pacific bonito.
Keith with a rooster fish
Friday we wanted Keith to try for his dream blue marlin. Two hours after the lines got wet, Keith was hooked up with 400 pounds of wild leaping blue muscle. Over the next 45 minutes Keith's blue jumped about 20 times. With a few photos we saluted Keith's blue marlin release.
It was Keith's day. He finished his day with a rooster fish on a surface plug and spin tackle. I added a pacific barracuda and horse eye jack.
Saturday was our last day. How was the great Captain Bobby going to top two super days? How about swarms of mullet snapper jumping out of the water to eat flies and popping plugs. What a wild time. Joe and I each caught pending world record mullet snapper on fly. Oh!, Joe caught two on the fly. We all caught a bunch on plugs. I caught three rooster fish, including one on a surface popper. Joe finished off the trip by adding two bluefin trevalle.
Joe with a mullet snapper on fly
Did I mention how great Captain Bobby McGuinness and his mate were? Did I mention that I experienced my first rooster fish, mullet snappers, white water rafting, real cigar smoking and black russian drinks? What a vacation.
So back to real life. The new engines are great. Don, Mark and his sons Dustin and Dakota fished with us Monday night. The younger men caught 2 tarpon of 50 and 120 pounds. We jumped 3 more tarpon and caught several ladyfish plus a pompano and a few runners. Tuesday they joined us on the high seas. And I do mean high seas. We caught 3 mutton snappers to 10 pounds, numerous other bottom fish, a dolphin, 2 kings, a spanish mackerel, a couple ladyfish and a tarpon.
Wednesday was more high seas with the same tough foursome. We caught 6 groupers, 3 muttons snappers to 14 pounds, 3 dolphin to 25 pounds and a few smaller bottom fish.
We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all other Happy Holidays. May 2007 be your year for dream vacations.
