Back to the North Country

Joey really wanted to see where I was bringing clients in the northern areas, as well as wanting to try some kayak fishing other than out in the ocean, so with a few loaner kayaks from my friend Neil Kahn at Kayak Jaco (www.kayakjaco.com), we set off on another adventure.  Since I actually have a real job, we didn't get on the road until about 4:30 Thursday.

getting everything cinched up

We made it up to Canalete by about 7PM, found some food, and settled in for the evening.  We had a 6AM meeting at river side with our boatman Gilberto, who would shuttle us up the river with our kayaks, so we could fish while floating down the river.

We arrived a little late, having decided to catch a quick bite to eat and some coffee. Right away we had an omen!  As I was helping to unload one of the kayaks, I didn't see that the driver's side rear view mirror of the car had moved (!) under the kayak I was handling , and  the kayak and mirror had a small "interaction" which in turn separated the mirror from said RENTAL car (it cracked off!)  I admit it, it was my fault!  We did get the other boat off the roof without any problem, though, and so we finished loading up the boat, and were soon heading up river.

ready to go

The river was noticeably lower than 3 weeks ago when I was here last, but Gilberto easily navigated his boat around any trouble spots, and we were soon at our drop-off spot.

off loading for a day on the river

Let me just say up front, that I am not a kayaker (!), so this was all a new experience to me.  Trying to throw  a fly line while sitting down, making sure the kayak is heading in the right direction, making sure no trees are behind you when casting,  making sure you don't lose the paddle, and then, if you actually hook a fish, trying to land it while controlling the kayak!  Whooaa, this ain't easy!

Of course it wasn't all that hard at tmes either; there were many stretches when the kayak needed no attention, there was plenty of room to cast, and it was actually fun.  That is until I hooked a fish and I had to think about ALL of the above aforementioned possible screw-ups.  And I certainly had my share, from snagging overhead branches to having to redirect the kayak out of harms way.

nice machaca on a 5 wt

We were only fishing half day, since we wanted to get over to Cano Negro for some early morning tarpon action, so we did not start as high up on the river as usual.  We did catch machaca, although not in the abundance of my last trip.  Trying to determine why there were less fish, led me to consider that we had only fished half the distance of river.  Besides not fishing the upper river stretches, I also realized that when fishing off a kayak, you only get your line in the water perhaps not even half as much time as if floating and fishing off a boat!  When I added in those variables, I decided it was a decent day after all!

We stopped off for lunch at a local soda before heading out to Cano Negro.The road to Cano Negro from Upala is all dirt, and can be a bit challenging at times.  We made pretty good time, arriving in less than an hour.  My friend Carlos, who's father Antonio was born in Cano Negro, had set us up in his cabinas, and we found we were the only guests there, so it was "muy tranquilo".

And since it was getting late in the afternoon, (about beer thirty), we decided to head over to the Bar Del Lago (bar of the lake).  Unlike the main bar in the center of town, Bar el Lago is very much off the beaten path and took some doing to find.  The draw of this place is that it is very much a locals bar (no tourist could ever find it), and it sits right on the lagoon, where at sundown, you can watch the fish feed.   Our timing was perfect, and our front row seats gave us a ring side few view the "show".

Perfect spot for happy hour

After enjoying a beer, we headed back to the car.  We noticed a darkened house next to the bar, with many plastic tables and chairs.  It looked like they might feed people there (not quite sure if it measured up to being called a restaurant).  The lady of the house was in the yard at her grill, frying up a bunch of fish heads,  and judging from the size of the heads, they had been nice size fish.  We inquired if she might cook us up some dinner, and after quizzing us on what we might want, she said she would cook up some fish, with of course the usual rice, beans, and salad.  Not too long after, our food appeared.  It was a little disconcerting eating in the dark, not knowing exactly what was on the plate, but it did taste good, and eventually, after a few sparks, the lights did come on and we saw we were eating fried guapote; and not the heads!  And just about the time we were finishing up the fish,  our rice, beans and salad came to the table to complete the meal.  We left with full bellies and smiles.

The next morning we were at Carlos's house by 5:20, a few minutes early.  Antonio, his dad invited us in for coffee, while we waited for his son to arrive.  Carlos arrived right on time and we headed down to the lagoons.

 Antonio had the coffee ready

It wasn't quite sun up yet, and there was a slight rainy mist when we got the kayaks to the water

getting rigged up

The water in the lagoons was falling daily, so we had to paddle the kayaks a bit to reach the boat, where we loaded them up for a few hours of fishing.

shuttle

The river current was strong, and we struggled to keep the kayaks in the area of the fish, which we could see rolling and jumping.  There was a bunch of gar rising as well as tarpon explosions.  Joey landed a nice gar which we documented below.

nice gar fish

If I could figure how to rotate this photo, i would, but right now I can't figure it out.  These critters have huge teeth. Joey also hooked up with a few tarpon, but was not lucky enough to land one.  Of course just watching one of these monsters  leap out of the water a few times before throwing the hook is still worth the price of admission.  And it keeps you coming back for more.

"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope"*(John Buchan)

And then of course we had to deal with the mirror!

oops

can you say "10 minute epoxy?"

Tractor Fishing

*"lookin for adventure, and whatever comes our way" was what today was all about.  There turned out to be 3 of us today, as I added Joey from Kayak Fishing Magazine to the troupe of would be adventurers.  With fly rods and beer in the cooler, I left our house at 5:30 this morning and picked up Joey, continuing on for Russ.  We then back tracked to the local bakery, with the intention of picking up some coffee, pastry, and a sandwich for lunch.  Well, sometimes the best laid plans don't materialize, as in today.  Nothing was ready at the bakery, so we had coffee and waited. 20 minutes later we finally got on the road.

Right away I knew things could get sticky when I missed the turn off the highway, but I recouped in enough time to only go a few minutes out of our way.   For the next hour and a half, we climbed into the mountains and passed through very rural and agricultural pueblos, as we asked along the way for "Flaco's house"!  And everyone seemed to know who we were taking about, and they all agreed on one other thing; we needed to make a right at the cemetery.  Hmmm, if we could just find that cemetery!

We did go the "round about"way, having to turn around a few times and retrace our tracks, but in the end of course, we did find it, and not too long after, we found "the house of Flaco",  he in his rocker outside, smiling and waiting for us.  After a few minutes of pleasantries, our talk turned to the subject of the day, fishing.  Flaco explained that my car would not be able to make it to the river, and right away I am thinking  this day is going to be a bummer.  I think Flaco sensed my apprehension, because he started smiling and explained that he planned on taking us to the river; in his tractor.  Pura Vida! His big ol Massey Ferguson was parked next to his house with an attached trailer, and he proceeded to fire it up!

Flaco was the "captain"

And so Joey. Russ, and I threw all our gear into the cart  and hopped in.  It was quite a scene, as Flaco took us across the river, then down stream.  We zig zagged through the water, jungle vegetation, and back to the river.  There were of course no seats; just a few old slippery plantain skins from a previous harvest.  We had to hold on to the sides, as we bounced along the river bank.  For the next 4 hours we fished, moved on, and fished some more. We traveled many kilometers down river, and each time we moved , we hopped into the trailer and were "driven" to our next location.  Sure, you've heard of float fishing a river, well, how could you call this anything else but "tractor fishing!".

And it was an awesome day on the river.  Toucans laughed and sang to us while we fished .  They seemed to know more than they were giving up.    A few times we encountered colorful scarlet macaws and blue morph butterflies also came by to see what we were up to.  We were fishing light tackle 5wt rods, and small streamers, trying to imitate small silver-like minnows, which the locals used for bait.

We met friends of Flaco along the way; fishermen friends.  They studied our flies and made suggestions. They kept telling us that there were snook, but we did not spot any They also showed us their catch, 3 smaller fish of unknown name, not snook, but respectable by any fisherman's standards.

Flaco with friends, talking "fish"

movin' up stream

No, we didn't catch anything.  Joey reported a few "hits", but no fish.  Of course every fisherman had the same advice;  we needed to fish at first light and last light of the day, not mid day.  So now I am thinking a camping  trip.  We'd go to the river and set up camp; an easy concept since Flaco could haul it all in for us.  Then we could fish the late afternoon, sleep over, fish the morning and then return home; unless of course the fishing was so good we needed to stay a second night.  Sounds like a plan

The toucans were laughing overhead

  hasta luego

*Born to be Wild, written by Mars Bonfire

Lookin' for "new" Adventure

Right now is a bit of "down time" as i await the next guided trip, so we are going exploring this weekend.  I live on the central Pacific coast, and unfortunately, this area is not close to any of the fishing I have described in past posts.  So we are going out to check a few of the rivers in our neck of the woods.

I depend on the locals to get an idea of where to fish, and as usually happens, I got a lead in a most unusual way.  Each Friday is our farmers market, and I go there to get our weeks fill of fresh produce.  I always buy my watermelon from "Flaco" (that would be "Slim" in English), because he always cuts a fresh one open for me to "test".  Last week I started asking questions about where he lived and grew his produce, and of course the talk moved in the direction of fishing. "Si, hay rios con pez" (yes, there are rivers with fish) !

So this weekend we are off to Flaco's place, to see exactly what might be in store for a fly fisherman.  His farm is about 2 hours or so from my house, which is doable for a day trip, but we are bringing our expedition hammocks to sleep in, just in case we're having too much fun. And I say "we", because I am  taking a Canadian friend, Russ, who "claims" to be a fly fisherman; we'll see!  It's always more fun traveling with a sidekick, anyway.  Russ spends his winters in the Canadian wilderness, blowing holes in the ground searching for "black gold" (oil and gas).  He is an outdoors man, which gets him in the front door with me.

We will be fishing in the mountains, above Parrita.  The rivers here should contain machaca and snook, although the machaca are a different strain than the ones we fish for in the northern rivers.  I expect this machaca to be smaller, but still have TEETH!  The snook, on the other hand, could grow large.

Today I also received a call from my good friend Neil Kahn, who runs Kayak Jaco www.kayakjaco.com
Neil told me he is entertaining an editor from Kayak Fishing Magazine   http://kayakfishingmagazine.net , who has asked to do some fresh water river fishing, my forte.  So I am hoping to get together with this guy,and maybe we'll get on the water together.  Either way, I expect to have some good stories in my next post.