Mission Accomplished

Just 3 weeks ago, I was contacted by deGlee family out of Ft Lauderdale to take them fly fishing.  They were a party of 5, with 3 fisherman; the dad and his 2 sons.  Jim (dad) wanted to fish for tarpon along with Ben (21yrs old) and Jake (24 yrs old).  I explained that it was early in the season for tarpon, and that the machaca bite was hot right now. Jim begged for tarpon.  We split the difference and they booked a 3 day adventure to fish for both.  That didn't leave me much time to get this trip together, but I intended to give it my best.

the "family"

To find good waters to fly fish down here, we have to put some time into traveling, and that meant their very first day in Costa Rica began at 4AM, which is when they were picked up by our van in San Jose to  head north.  It would be a 4 plus hour ride through the  central mountains of Costa Rica, eventually arriving in Upala, an agricultural community near the northern border with Nicaragua.  We stopped at daylight for breakfast and some much needed locally grown COFFEE!

A few hours more on the road and we were river side.  If I could see the future (at that time) I would have told the guys the theme for the next 3 days: "fish on".

We float fished a local river til dark, and in that time there were too many fish caught to count.  We were catching machaca, a fish that can get up to 8 lbs. Our rods were 5wt and 6wt, loaded with floating line.  Trailing off the leader we used stainless steel tippets to keep those needle like teeth from ripping off the poppers we were throwing. These  poppers we used were frog patterns of pretty decent size (1/0), and while the fish here are not scale tipping, they fight well and are way too large to grip with one hand; of course their most distinguishing feature is their TEETH.  Gotta step carefully when removing that hook!

needle like teeth

Since there were 3 fisherman, we split up into 2 boats, with my good friend Peter Gorinsky handling his "Outcast" inflatable pontoon boat for one fisherman, while I accompanied the 2 other guys in the larger "lancha", with Gilberto being our captain.  

Jim and Peter

                                 Ben and Peter

We took turns alternating boats, so that all had a chance to fish solo with Peter, while the remaining 2 guys fished out of our larger drift boat.

                     Gilberto shuttling the boats up stream 

Jim hooked into a nice size fish early on, with his sons, following suit

 

                             Jim with nice machaca

Having started out so early from San Jose, we were all pretty well beaten up by the time we finally turned in (around 9PM); everyone thinking about our scheduled  6AM rendezvous  back at the river.  Are we having fun yet?!

It rained most of the night and it was still raining when we hit the river at daybreak, but the fish didn't seem to notice, and by mid morning, not only had the guys caught plenty of fish, but the sky cleared up as well.  We only were fishing a half day on this river today, because we had an afternoon date with tarpon at Cano Negro.

                            Jake eying a fish 

                             Jake with said fish

The waters of Cano Negro were still pretty high, and the recent rains had turned the water brown, but Jake and Ben couldn't wait to get their lines wet.  These boys were raised as Idaho trout fisherman,  and nothing was going to put a damper on their day.

Again we split into 2 boats, with my friend Carole taking the 2 boys, with Jim and I in the second boat.  Here in tarpon country, we put away the light rods and brought out the heavyweight stuff; 10wt and 12wt rods, throwing weight forward lines with a shooting taper.  Lashed to the end of the leader were 100lb shock tippets; we were after big fish.   It didn't take long to start seeing tarpon, belly rolling for air, and generally teasing us most of the afternoon;  that is until about 4PM when Jake set his hook on a nice size,  powerful young fish.  Jim and I looked over from our boat to see what the excitement was about when we saw Jake's rod all bent over. The tarpon was hooked right out in front of the local bar, so not only was he fighting this powerful fish, he was the evening's entertainment for "happy hour".

                                  Jake's cheering section

                            The holy grail of fly fishing

                         another kodak moment

So with beautiful Latin music from :Bar El Lago serenading the scene, a 40 minute battle began between Jake and his prey; and in the end, Jake stood proud with his tarpon for his Kodak moment;  applause from the bar added a little local flavor.  And of course the fish was returned to the water, to go tell his side of the story.  What a day; the daily double; machaca and then tarpon.  Another long day on the river and this time a 5AM get together beckoned us for the morning "rise".  "Ya gotta pay to play" was probably looping through everyone's mind as we settled in for the night.

When  I opened my window shades at 4:45 the next morning and saw darkness at the other  cabin, I figured someone forgot the alarm, so  I got my stuff together and roused the guys up, and by 5:30, (still a commendable hour), we were in the boats.  We saw few tarpon and by 9:30, we were ready to call it a morning.  Ben had been casting to a deep hole under some trees, and begged for just "5 more good casts".  Well, we couldn't say no, so Joel (our capitan) and I sat back to watch and wait.

It was the 3rd cast.  Taken slowly, but there was no doubt there was a fish on.  Ben yanked back 3 or 4 times to set the hook and all of a sudden there was an explosion out of the water in front of the boat!  This fish was HUGE, easily 4 feet long and 150 lbs (or more).  It was almost unfathomable that a fish that large would be living in such a small river.  The problem we understood immediately was that the fish had done his aerial act in front of the boat, but the fly line was off the left side of the boat; we're thinking LOG. Eventually, with no way to extricate the line, I decided to cut the fly line and hold the fish with my hand while Ben reeled in the line from under the log, then i quickly tied the line back together, with the fish none the wiser.  Ben still could feel the fish as the line pulled deeper into the water still off the port side of the boat, but this time the fish broke the water off the right side of the boat, and then as we all watched in vain, spit the fly.  It all happened quickly, but it plays over and over in slow motion each time I think about it; it was some fish.  We were still smiling when we met everyone a short while later for breakfast.

                     decisions, decisions

After breakfast,  we realized we actually were off til the afternoon , (around 2PM), so we headed back to the cabins.  Nap time; how civil, and so needed.  It was the first time since we all met up at 4AM in San Jose 2 days before that we had some down time to really relax.  We all slept well, but were a bit bummed to awake to rain.  We geared up and met Carole and the 2 boat captains down at the dock.  It continued to rain on and off all afternoon and we saw few tarpon.  By 5:30, it was evident that our luck had finally played out, and we called it an "adventure".

In the 3 days of fishing, the deGlee family caught a boatload of machaca, hooked 2 tarpon and landed one.  I hope it will be an adventure they will long remember.  Mission accomplished.