Fishing In and Around Costa Rica, y MAS

Vanilla Beans

2012-01-25T16:15:00.000-06:00

When son Jonathan was here in Atenas about a year ago he took the time to hand pollenate our valilla orchid vines. Last week I noticed a few of the beans, now over ten months old, had started to brown and split so I picked them and blanched them in boiling water for a minute. Now after a week in the midday sun each day they are nice and mahogany brown. The green ones on the left were just picked today. They were so high up the vine that I had to have gardener Juan get them using a ladder. They have just been blanched and are drying on a paper towel. The 100 colones coin is about the size of a quarter.

Well done Jon, thanks.

Marley and Kat

2012-01-25T16:10:00.000-06:00

Grandaughter Marley and her Mom have been studying the martial arts for some time and from this recent photo they sure seem poised in their poses. <

Feria =s Farmer's Market

2012-01-07T11:28:00.000-06:00

Friday mornings in Atenas, Saturday in Palmares and one morning of the week in every Costa Rica town the farmers haul their produce to a centrally located Farmer's Market or Feria. Here one can get he freshest produce at the best prices and also photos that tell the Pura Vida tale.

Often in addition to produce there are flowers, and baked goods, and fish or poultry and in Atenas the local Animal Shelter offers new puppies and other animals to adopt.

So, see your at the feria; and don't forget your camera!

.m.

Panama

2011-12-27T12:28:00.000-06:00

December 20, 2011 Jean and I drove to Puerto Amuelles, Panama in order to get new tourist visas for Costa Rica upon returning. Hooked on Fishing, Aqua Adventures Lodge a little down the road from there has 11 fine little cabinas with a/c and sat TV and the above view of the sea.

Bing Sat View of Casi el Cielo

2011-11-19T10:49:00.001-06:00

http://www.bing.com/maps/embed/?lvl=18&cp=9.993001055309136%7E-84.41587083041644&sty=h&draggable=true&v=2&dir=0&where1=Atenas%2C+Costa+Rica&form=LMLTEW&pp=9.983299970626831%7E-84.38330076634884&emid=26a16dd4-7efb-18b6-8658-b84da7b3a4e9&w=500&h=400

Check out my photos on TripAdvisor TripWow

2011-10-31T20:47:00.000-05:00

Link: http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-033a-9158-57a7?em=1&st=59329454

any old hillside

2011-06-08T21:49:00.001-05:00

After the first few rains a thousand shades of green return and clouds
outdo some of the tropical blue sky.

Just look around, any old hillside will do.

Pura Vida

<m><

The Livelys Ten Years Ago

2011-06-05T13:38:00.001-05:00

GML, Brian Lucas, Geoff, George

Terri, GG, Jean

Coryne, Marley, Tim

Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles

2011-06-05T09:33:00.001-05:00

Hello Friends,

Please reply to gmlively@gmail.com when you receive this.

When I accidentaly sent the Mew and Esqui photo here it was then
relayed to Sergey, Judith, Coryne and probably more folks too, but I
am not sure who gets it. So please tell me.

Also, did you sign up to get my Fishing in and around Costa Rica y Mas blog?
(Not sure if one needs too, or if the Blog captures your email if you sign in.

Someday I will get all this straignted out.

<m><

Tranquilidad

2011-06-04T14:29:00.001-05:00

Siesta: Mew y Esqui

Christmas Lights, 12/18/2010

2010-12-18T23:52:00.001-06:00

Jim drove Donna, Jean and me around Arlington and Alexandria tonight to see some spectacular Christmas displays. The one above was featured on the news this morning. It takes 11 days to set up, has 230,000+ lights, seven miles of cable and music coordinated with flashing sets of lights.

We have had a great time with Donna and Jim and will see them several times before we leave, but it is time to join in the excitement of Geoff's new place. It is a fine little brick and block place in Rockville. The previous owners kept it wonderfully maintained and the home inspector have it a score of 90. I would score it higher. I have never seen a better older home. There are some things that Geoff can do, and is planning to do, to open it up a bit and upscale some flooring and wall covering, but the structure and mechanical features are damn near perfect.

Jean and I will use the first floor bedroom. Easier for her, and speaking of easy there is a ramp from the driveway to the front door!

Most of her doctor visits are over, two to go; and one more test.

Dinner at the Koenigs on the 20th. The 23rd is some event somewhere celebrating something. Christmas Eve will be Roast Beast with the Kasicas. Christmas Day will be shredding paper and a turkey at Cory and Jerry's with ALL the boys in attendance. Some time between the 26th and the 30th we will get together with Lou Mayo.

Then on the 31st we return to Qunita casi el Cielo arriving mid afternoon for a little siesta before a fondue and Cava New Years's Eve Party with a few friends.

=m=

It's Tough to Leave

2010-12-06T07:04:00.001-06:00

It's tough to leave. I want to see family and friends very much but I want to stay here in paradise even more. The wall of flowers behind me right now as I type could never be duplicated in Virginia. Thousands of impatiens planted by God, and at a cost of zero colones instead of 6 for $1.98 at Merrifield Nursery.

It's tough to leave. Jean needs to see all her doctors and renew prescriptions and I can tend to her needs. She is not demanding. But her care here with help from Mari and Carmen and Reina and Flor and Juan is better. And, it's only a month. We fax prescriptions right from the physician's office to Medco, Blue Cross/Blue Shield; and using our Florida mail drop address they are mailed directly to us for about ten dollers per three month supply of each med. ( A cost well worth paying rather than staying an additional four to five weeks.)

It's tough to leave. I have grown spoiled by the weather and the ability to slip into Tevas, shorts and a polo every day, wellllllll long pants on Sunday. Shoes that encase my feet and clothing in layer are foreign to me.

Right now Mari is bathing Terry while Carmen cleans the kitchen, makes coffee and starts breakfast. Carmen covers for Mari on Saturdays and is here with Mari on Mondays to do the heavy stuff, windows etc. Carmen will miss her two days a weeks pay, but her four weeks aquinaldo pay and two weeks vacation pay gave her some Christmas pay. Mari will stay her while we are gone. Mari is placing Christmasy votive candle holders around the sala right now, her way of fixing the place up for Christmas.

Packing is almost done. Only my clothing and the laptops remain. Better get to it.See most of you soon.

Love,

El Marteen (as Jimka calls me)

Getting Ready for a Christmas Trip to Virginia

2010-12-03T07:55:00.001-06:00

Getting Ready for a Christmas Trip to Virginia

Redcap and wheelchair pusher tips: rojos, 1,000 colon notes, and bucks, 1 dollar US bills need to be gotten at the bank. And while at the Banco de Costa Rica might as well pay the Costa Rica departure tax; it's a lot more convenient than standing in yet another line at the airport and then trying to fill out the forms while balancing ticket and luggage.

Local coffee, Lizano and wildlife fridge magnets are a must as stocking stuffers. Our own coffee will not be processed and roasted until later this month so I bought coffee from Gerardo Capulina's little beneficio in Altos de Naranjo. He heads up an organic coffee associaton but also does custom processing of other coffee, mine will come from there.

Stock the house with food for the housesitter, and for the dogs and cat.

Pay aquinaldo, the 13th month. Annual bonuses are not only traditional they are the law. Employees are also entitled to a two week vacation which they often take around Christmas. If they do not take the leave they get the money.

Pack, of course. Here I wear only shorts, polo shirts and Tevas. Fortunately we have a stash of winter clothing at the Chapkeys.

Today I have to go downtown, San Jose, to pick up 18 newly framed photos. John Desarzin and I are going to have an exhibition of HDR photography in January and so I framed some large Adorama prints in the same style as his exhibition stuff. Tomorrow is a little show and sale and they will be handy there too.

So, with all of that there is not time for much else before our plane leaves on Monday the 6th.

Next missive will be written in the Olde Dominion.

.m.

Dry Season Started

2010-11-27T08:28:00.000-06:00

Volcan Turrialba and Volcan Irazu are about 35 Kilometers distant
across the Valle Central, but when the dry season starts and they can
be seen without the rainy season cloud cover they appear much closer.

This morning they appeared. Not as clearly as they will a little
later when sunsets backing the plumes from Turrialba will be recorded
on all the digital camera in Atenas and on this side of the Valley. I
have a couple of good ones, but now that I am using HDR I hope for
somethingmore spectacular and check the view early while making
coffee.

Speaking of coffee, yesterday was the last of the first round of
coffee harvest here at Casi el Cielo. We got 58 cajuelasl, about 900
pounds. When the final accounting is done that will net us about
$500. I am very curious to see what the entire harvest thus far has
been, but hating number I will wait until Jean "does the books."

Jean is feeling a little better and will do her physical therapy in
the pool for the first time in over a month. And exercise is
essential to keep the blood moving in her legs and prevent further
arteriosclerosis of her legs, especially the right one.

So, good morning to all from midway up the Avocado Mountians in San
Isidro de Atenas.

-m-

Harvest Continues

2010-11-24T14:38:00.000-06:00

Got back from Jean's dental appointment about 1:30pm and the pickers were waiting. Mari and I counted as they poured from bag to cajuela measure and then into another bag. EIGHTEEN Cajuelas, two shy of a fanega which is worth 80,000 to 90,000 colones.

The pickers say that they estimate there is another ten days of five or six persons picking left.

Do the math! If they are right there is another fifteen hundred dollars waiting to be picked.

And about the same amount of green cherries waiting to ripen and be collected in late December. Keeping the finca weeded, fertilized, and protected against insects and fungus has really paid off. Recall that these are just regrown plants which are only about half size. George, get those labels ready! =m=

Remembering Margaret

2010-11-23T09:20:00.000-06:00

Margaret, Peggy, Mom, GG was:
born in Jerome Arizona
grew up in Anaheim, CA
got her RN in San Francisco
had two kids
retired from Laguna Honda
was a “getting old” role model
died in Front Royal, VA

and then did another two years teaching med students!

I got an email yesterday from the anatomical donation department of Georgetown Medial School informing me that the cremated remains of Margaret M. Lively were now available for pickup.

Mom had made the gift of her body to the University years and years ago and had designated me as the beneficiary of her cremains. She wanted to avoid all last expenses and to continue her medical service into the future.

In DC the dust of her sits in an 8x8x6 urn. I will get it in December and bring her memories to Costa Rica.

She loved it here, lived at the Villa Alegria in Alajuela for a couple of years. The staff loved to see her wheel out into the garden after dinner to watch the flowers fade into black.

Having to deal with her remains prompts me to think about my own, and Jean’s. Death is the final act of living and it is time to plan.

So I will visit the City Hall and see what is available there for Mom’s urn and then later for Me and Jean and Terry.

Dad is interred in a cremains niche in Sonoma with a vista of the vineyards of Sebastiani.

It would be fitting for Mom to be near us surrounded by the Avocado Mountains and a thousand shades of green

-gml-

25 Cajuelas for us.

2010-11-20T14:39:00.000-06:00

During two days in November, 2010 three women who live nearby picked 25 cajuelas of coffee cherries here at Quinta casi el Cielo. A cajuela is an ancient measure of volume, the Costa Rican official measuring box is about 1500 cubic inches.

We usually sell our harvest to the Beneficio Diamonte, the coffee processing plant of the local farmer's cooperative for 1,300 colones (about $2.50) each. But, needing coffee for the house and for you, I took the freshly picked fruit to a small beneficio in Altos de Naranjo where they will batch process it for us in the old way. This entails sun drying, separating the fruit from the seed, drying and hulling the seed and then toasting the final green bean. Geraldo Capulina specializes in organic coffee which he roasts and sells ,but batch processing for neighbors brings him a little extra cash.

After green and damaged fruit are removed the remaining cherries are expected to finally result in about 35 to 40 kilos of whole grain, medium roast coffee beans.

Costs
to pick 25 cajuelas of cherries 32,500 colones
to process as above 75,000 colones
packing bags 21,000 colones
for a total of......................128,000 colones
Using 35 kilos, 70 500kg bags will end up costing... 1,836 colones per bag or $3.29 per pound.

If you have tried Cafe casi el Cielo I am sure you agree that it is as good or better than "gourmet" coffee costing $10 to $14 a pound and more. After that calculation I decided to do another 25 cajelas or so from the second harvest cycle.

Son George is working on a label. He wants me to process the entire harvest next year so that he can sell it in West Virginia. Maybe, but lots of hurdles before that is possible.

Fishing...and everything else...In and Around Costa Rica

2010-11-20T08:23:00.000-06:00

Hello to you!

Judith has inspired me to broaden my Blog and to be more attentive to it. So I will start recording non-fishing events and stories here too.

Email notice of a new post is being sent to a few folks right now, please email me (gmlively@gmail.com) if you would like to get an email when I post a new entry.

-m-

Tarpon Quest Twenty Ten

2010-09-26T17:56:00.000-05:00

Tarpon Quest Twenty Ten
First Tarpon Catch and Release
50th Annual Fishing Tournament
Rio San Juan, Nicaragua
September 13, 14, 2010

by G. Martin Lively

The trip
I have described the trip from here to and from El Castillo, Nicaragua before, so I won’t go into detail. You drive to Los Chiles, Costa Rica, take a boat from there to San Carlos, Nicaragua and from there another boat to El Castillo. It is a jungle view adventure worth the trip even if you do not fish, I have taken Jean and Terry there just for the scenery.

Roberto, Geoff & Dennis

Hotel Victoria
After you get off the boat at El Castillo walk to the street fronting it and turn left. At the end of the trail, and it really is a trail, no cars only carts, is the Hotel Victoria and the smiling faces of Julia, Nena and their crew. It is like coming home to your aunt’s place in the country. You will be ushered to the rear deck restaurant and handed a bottle of ice cold Tonya beer, much needed after a long boat ride and the the more than warm walk to the hotel. Nothing fancy here, but it is spotless and air conditioned and $35 a night single $50 double with breakfast on the deck. Slow Internet is available in the lobby. ( photos of the hotel and more of El Castillo are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/gmlively )

Fishing
TarponQuest Twenty Ten was the 50th year of this tournament on the San Juan River between El Castillo and the Solentiname Islands. In addition to the pre-historic tarpon, megalops atlanticus, the contest includes snook, machaca, guapote and roncador. This year the tributory rivers were muddy and the lesser fish were caught up near San Carlos, that is to say we near El Castillo caught NONE of them; and the shore lunch of just caught snook was a highlight of the last two trips.
Same guides and deck hands as last year, but unfortunately two of the four were still drunk from the party last night kicking off the tournament, one was half drunk and the fourth was from up river. But the fishing is quite simple, troll a Rapala Shad Rap in fire tiger or white with red head around the river mouths of tributaries and hang on. The river moves swiftly and hooking a tarpon is like snagging a side of beef in that current. (I have a broken road as proof.) When those smaller rivers are clear one can troll up and down them using a Rapala Far Rap or Big O in the same colors as the tarpon lures. Roberto had one strike, Dennis none, I fought a 120 pounder for 22 minutes before another boat came too close and caused my tarpon to jet downstream. My drag failed and SNAP.

El Castillo Our boats at El Castillo dock

Geoff’s fish
On day two Geoff hooked into another 120+ lb fish. It ran and jumped many times and the rod holder belt we brought along came in handy as Geoff worked the fish for over an hour. Hooked well in the upper jaw the fish managed to surface for a gulp of air and energy every fifteen minutes or so and forced us downriver and over the rapids. In the calmer water below the rapids the fight continued for another half hour until finally the leader came back onto the rod and Geoff brought it to the side of our boat. Published rules for catch and release had been changed and had we known the ‘new rules’ his fish would have qualified for catch and release when the leader touched the tod tip. Next year we will file for catch and release status! Anyway, the guide was too anxious and botched the lip gaffing and the leader to lure knot gave way. It may have been a prize winner and we all sulked for some time.

Geoff’s fish’s first jump ...and over the rapids

120 lbs + almost to the boat

San Carlos Awards Ceremony and Fiesta

November 16 is Nicaraguan Independence Day and the week from the 12th to the 17th is a huge party at the dock in San Carlos. November 14 is the tournament awards ceremony and fisherman’s dinner and we enjoyed mingling with the fisherman and hundreds of spectators and fiesteros.

Drive back, Ceci’s
From San Carlos the day after the Fiesta we hired the Monte Christo launch, twice the price and less than half the time and we could leave before the 2pm waterbus.

November 16 is Nicaraguan Independence Day and the week from the 12th to the 17th is a huge party at the dock in San Carlos. November 14 is the tournament awards ceremony and fisherman’s dinner and we enjoyed mingling with the fisherman and hundreds of spectators and fiesteros.

Drive back, Ceci’s
From San Carlos the day after the Fiesta we hired the Monte Christo launch, twice the price and less than half the time and we could leave before the 2pm waterbus.
Just before Zarcero is a favorite restaurant, Ceci’s. If we drive that way going we stop for hot chocolate and chorreadas, this lunch stop called for Beef Stroganoff, Sauteed Pork Chops and Onions, Lomito Suizo, and Grilled Chicken with Mushrooms. I tried them all and can’t wait to get back to any dish there.

PS Applications for “Tarpon Heaven Twenty Eleven” being taken at gmlively@gmail.com

Trolling and Reef fishing out of Sierpe

2010-09-07T09:20:00.001-05:00

Aldea del Rio Charters, Sierpe, Costa Rica

I’ll bet it was the first time in 30 years that the three of us had fished together. It was a good day for fishing and getting together with sons George and Geoff who will be back soon to give Dad another excuse to fish. Chris Gardes who grew up in McLean with my sons came along too.

Brian of the Rio Lindo Resort in Dominical had told me of Aldea del Rio Charters in Sierpe and I booked a day offshore with them. We did not go to far out, maybe ten miles, before we found a huge school of small, six to eight pounds, tuna. The boat was a 27 foot, center console, full bimini top sportfisher with a 150 horsepower outboard. We cruised swiftly down the river for about an hour, ran the potato patch at the mouth and turned south for about an hour. From nine to eleven it was non-stop action with one or the other of us fighting a tuna. We trolled surface splashing plugs on two outriggers and two stern rigs. In addition to the yellow fins, which are great eating, we caught black tuna or skipjack which we kept for later bait.

The overcast burned off and the sea was calm; a perfect day. But no sails, dorado or marlin showed and when the tuna quit, we turned North to a sea mount Jay knew of. His GPS guided us there and the depthfinder showed the bottom rising to 60 feet below the surface. Large blips on the screen at about 40 feet meant big fish were available.

We rigged with heavy leader, a two ounce weight and a big circle hook. A fillet of skipjack is hooked once and then dangled down to the fifty foot level with the reel in free spool. Lots of little tugs from fish too small to get the big fillet in their mouths had to be resisted, as did the big tug and run, for a few seconds that is. A circle hook works by being pulled slowly towards the corner of the fish's mouth as it pulls away taking line. After a few seconds the drag is engaged and the hook digs in, no strike necessary. We drifted over the seamount and then motored back up current to do another drift. Over the next few hours we fought, caught and lost many kinds of fish: trigger fish, red snapper, green snapper, rooster fish, big eye jack, amberjack and white tipped reef shark. The amberjack weighed 23 pounds and the shark was between five and six feet long. The shark stayed in the water, but the rest joined the tuna in a large cooler as we headed for shore.

Jay had wasabi and soy and so the first yellow fin fillet was cut into thin bite sized slices and right after a swift dip in the soy and horseradish sauce was enjoyed by everyone on the dock.

More photos of the trip at http://picasaweb.google.com/gmlively/SierpeJune172010#

Aldea del Rio website is http://www.aldeadelrio.com/

I’m eager for another trip, and if you are too, you can email me gmlively@gmail.com and we can arrange a charter.

-gml-

Tarpon Safari 2008

2009-08-04T17:39:00.000-05:00

Rio San Juan Tarpon Tournament 2008

Not a lot of tarpon were caught, but a lot were hooked and lost. I didn’t even see the two sides of beef whose initial strike and run broke my too light rod, and then next my too light line. But son Geoffrey’s fish made it to the boat, made it to the scales and made it into the record books as the third largest fish of the event!

Five of us drove from Atenas up to Los Chiles in Rick Mazza’s Mahindra King Kong Kab. What a truck! Smooth, fast and used very little fuel. We went through the border crossing and boat trip to San Carlos, Nicaragua as described in El Castillo, my earlier article about the Rio San Juan.

Raquel from Sabalos Lodgr met us at the dock, helped us through customs and immigration and got us to the downriver water taxi with only a few minutes to spare. Registration for the tournament took those few minutes and we learned that about a hundred entrants were expected. The hour and a half downriver run was a delight for Geoff and Rick and Roberto Muggli and John Difazio who had never been in this part of the world. Herons in three sizes and three colors, anhingas, swifts, congo monkeys, kingfishers and the occasional caiman dotted the dense foliage of the shoreline. Rough sawn plank houses peek out from that shore now and then, and all of them fly the multicolor flag of bright pink, orange and yellow tee shirts and shorts.

Yadro, 70 something, and wife Rebecca, 18 something, waved from the Sabalos Lodge dock. Finally after a three hour drive from Atenas to Los Chiles, an hour plus trip down the Rio Frio and onto Lago Cocibolca, and another boat ride of an hour and half down the Rio San Juan, not to mention lots of waiting between each leg of the journey, the adventure began.

John had flown in from Virginia where only in the last few years he had started to fish with a neighbor there in Vienna. Roberto lives in Atenas and, like me, fishing is his passion. Especially ice fishing in Minnesota. Rick might have wet a line sometime, somewhere during his oil soaked, Semper Fi, coffee selling, colorful career but memories of it were vague. I handed Geoff his first spincast rod and reel when he was five and we caught sunfish. He went on to light tackle spinning for largemouth black bass and then to the flyrod for trout, and has by now out fished me in every variety of fish. Especially tarpon!

At 5:30am on September 13 the contest began as two boats with the five of us shoved off from the dock at our lodge. After a ten minute run the trolling began. We used large, medium diving Rapalas in grey and silver and firetiger colors. The basic technique is to work the deep run out in front of El Castillo and each of the river mouths, alternating with trolling trips up the several smaller rivers feeding the Rio San Juan. In the rivers we caught snook and machaca. Circling the river mouths was best for tarpon. All but one of us had them say hello, several were hooked and were on long enough for an initial run and a few jumps. Tarpon are strong, primitive fish with very tough mouths and the difficulty of setting the hook combined with violent head shakes in the air makes for easy un-hooking.

During the first morning Roberto boated a couple of snook over 12 lbs and Rick, Geoff and I each landed some smaller snook and a few machaca. John, as they say, “jumped” a couple of tarpon one of which Roberto reports was probably a prize winner.

We went to Cofalito’s restaurant for lunch. Cofalito was our lead guide and is one of few licensed guides in El Castillo. Piña, also licensed, and Hamilton and Beto were our other guides. All of them are serious fisherman and very knowledgeable of the river and how to fish it. Cofalito and Piña debated locations and techniques all day and teased the hell out of each other if the final destination did not produce. This Heckel and Jeckel pair was a delight and kept us entertained when the fish were not paying attention. While at lunch a center console walk-around pulled up to the dock just below the restaurant and unloaded the largest fish I have ever seen caught in fresh water, 140 pounds. It was and remained the largest fish of the tourney. Geoff was pumped!

The afternoon was a boat ride. Hot, then rain, then troll, troll, troll. My back began to ache and Rick napped, hands still locked to rod and reel. He awoke and I sat up camera in hand as Geoff yelled “I got one!”, and he DID. A head the size of a small keg of beer came out of the water followed by a matching mirror sided body. It was so huge that it failed to clear the water rising to three quarters of its body at best before splashing back like the fat kid at the pool doing belly flops.

Leaps became fewer and further between, and runs became shorter but still powerful as the fight between Geoff and His Sablao continued. The first half hour went like it was five minutes but then time began to drag and Geoff began to tire and I began to fear that the hook would straighten or the line would break or the lure would dislodge during a jump, or… The guys were all like boxing ring attendants, giving Geoff bottles of water, handing him a lit cigarette or a towel and always words of encouragement. Deep dives close to the boat were the most threatening. The line could foul on the engine. Cofalito worked the boat away when the fish approached as Piña, gaff in hand, sat at Geoff’s feet giving instructions to both Geoff and Cofalito. Another half hour passed. Then during the final half hour the fish tired and began to only roll near the surface and could no longer resist the constant pressure Geoff had skillfully applied. After two near misses right at the boat Piña gaffed the lower jaw and we had our tarpon. The fight had taken us so far down river that the dock and weigh station were only a couple of hundred yards away and we dragged the fish alongside right up to the dock.

The crowd and tournament officials gathered as Geoff’s catch was dragged up the boarding steps of the dock and over to the scales. The closest guy to the fish was the man whose fish was so far largest. He was as elated as Geoff was disappointed when the scale read 104. That disappointment faded fast as Geoff grinned for the photographers. Everyone wanted a photo and I had to elbow my way into the paparazzi to get my shots in.Geoffrey Stiles, Sabalo, 104#, 13/9/08 went up on the board. (Geoff’s middle name became his apellido for this tournament.) He was in second place! But would it last?

Exhausted from a long days travel followed by a long day fishing, we headed in just before dusk for a dinner of our snook and early to bed for the final tournament day.

5:am on the 14^th, Cofalito wanted to work the Sabalos Grande River before river traffic, swimming kids and washer women put the snook down. He was right and we caught more snook that morning than any other This river stay wide and deep for quite a distance and would be perfect for fly rod popping along the bank below overhanging trees. Snook think poppers are frogs or flailing fish, machaca think a fruit has fallen from the trees and attack with their piranha like teeth. Both fight well, the snook going deep and the machaca taking to the air, and the snook/robalo is especially fine eating. After weighing in our snook at the Hotel Monte Cristo dock we took an eight pounder to a riverside restaurant for lunch. Cofalito thought that we might be in contention for the most total weight of snook caught during the tournament so we made sure all snook caught were recorded with officials.

We took a couple more snook in another little river, and then when trolling it’s confluence with the Rio San Juan Rick well hooked what looked like a 60 or 70 pound tarpon that stayed on for more than the first couple of jumps. But then on a long, deep run the line went slack. The fish had rubbed it off on the bottom, or … who knows? But that’s why it’s called “fishing” not “catching.” Another hour of trolling and we were home. But not for the night, tonight was awards night and fiesta in San Carlos. We had barely enough time for a shower, change of clothes and a cold Toña before Cofalito and the boys were back for our trip to San Carlos. High speed against a stinging rain prevented napping and made for a long hour and half trip.

We went Direct to the central, official weight tally. Geoff had been pushed down to third by a 114 pounder caught late afternoon of the second and final day. A 104 taken after Geoff’s finished fourth. A commercial cooler full of beer for the entrants gave us our first beer of the festival. The town square was rimmed with food and beer tents and a high stage where the Victoria Girls, think Budweiser girls only hotter, tried to shake their scanty costumes off all night. In addition to the contestants everybody from within a hundred miles was there, hundreds and hundreds of beer-in-hand guys and families and groups of teenagers. The restaurant tents were jammed and we stood in a light rain eating vigaron and waiting for the award presentation.

Finally someone came to the microphone at the biggest elevated stage and called for the officials: the event coordinator, the head of the tourist bureau, the mayor of San Carlos, the candidates for the next election, and a bunch more – each made a fifteen minute speech, except for the woman from the tourist bureau who spoke for almost 45 minutes. The light rain continued.

Finally the tournament official started the prizes, but not for fishing; it was a raffle of door prizes using our entry numbers. Backpacks and tackle boxes and fishing rods, I thought it would never end. When the announcer called out JEFF, our ears perked up and Rick and Roberto shoved Geoff to the stage where he accepted a raffle won backpack. When JEFF was called again we listened closer and the number was not Geoff’s, it was some Canadian fellow – Geoff had snatched somebody else’s prize and was known thereafter as “Geoff de Canada”

Most snook, biggest snook, most guapote, biggest guapote, biggiest drum, the awards trolled on. Then 4^th largest tarpon and the photographers crowded in as formal portraits of winner and officials was taken by the tournament photographer. When Geoff was called out again, it was Geoff Lively and he mounted the stage to accept third place in the Sabalo Real category. He got a huge trophy, a beautiful carving of a local fish, a quart of Flor de Cana 18 year old rum and a certificate. We all cheered and he and the other winners stood on stage grinning.

It was so late that we all slept on the floor of the Sabalo Lodge’s office in San Carlos rather than risk the night run back down the Rio San Juan to the Lodge itself.

Up at dawn and the return trip by boat, boat, boat and car to Atenas. Ready for 2009!

G. Martin Lively

2 August 2009

Berries and Blood

2008-10-06T07:49:00.000-05:00

Ripe, red coffee and blood on the deck

4 Oct ‘08

The not-so-nice scent of rotting fruit from the nearby Coopeatenas coffee processing plant, the Benificio Diamonte, let me know that harvest had begun. Not in a big time way yet, jut small amounts selectively picked as bushes with a little too much sun for this altitude ripened. But it has to be picked; green to yellow to orangish to red and then brown and down on the ground and lost. Don Ramon and young David had picked the little ripened fruit on Finca Zacatal, only two cajuelas – maybe forty pounds. But like a Beaujolais Nouveau, the first fruit of the season carries a certain excitement.

I was just putting the half-full sack in the back of my Montero when a huge Ford pickup pulled into Casi el Cielo. My fishing companion stuck his head out the window and yelled “Come on, let’s go: it’s time to put the Montauk in the water.” He had added a smaller boat to his adventure armada, a 17 foot, center console, walk around Boston Whaler. So the coffee moved from my car to his and then to the

Beneficio San Isidro, where, after Jose and I shared lots of fishing stories with Rolando Rojas, it began the fermentation, cleaning, drying, husk removal, pre-roasting, roasting and packaging that puts in on our shelves.

Puntarenas and the Costa Rica Yacht Club are a little over an hour from Atenas, and soon we were putt-putting from the dock across to dry storage where fishing boats are kept clean and dry on their trailers. Radio, rods and reels and other gear came from another boat as the full black cover was pulled from the new baby. White and cream and chrome it glistened in front of the huge 4 stroke outboard. Dock crew backed it down the boat ramp and we were off. Off very slowly at first, since the tide was out and there are places where there is less than two feet of water and even the Montauk needs a foot and a half.

Jowen taught me the instruments and controls and the channels and obstructions as we high propped out to deeper water, but soon we were on plane and zipping toward the fishing grounds. Working birds disclosed fish feeding at the surface and we slowed, stopped and cast metal jigs at the diminishing boil. As fast as the fish showed they departed. I was so excited being back on the water that I cannot tell you how long the run to the Negritas took, but it wasn’t long, and a few minutes after getting there we switched to white, red head, five inch Rapalas and were trolling around the island just off the rocks. We were in the Pacific; the little chain of islands including Tortugero and the Negritas is where the blue ocean and the brownish green Gulf of Nicoya come together.

Roosterfish, pargo, grouper, dorado, sierra mackerel, jurel or jack and even the occasional wahoo or sailfish were possibilities. Rod holders had not been installed so it was only possible to fish one rod at a time, so under the guise of wanting to test the boat and all components (but really more interested in my getting a fish) we steered clear of the rocks and slow trolled keeping an eye on the fish finder for water depth and for the

small and larger blips on the screen indicating baitfish and under them – game fish. Each time we passed over schools of baitfish the skipper would then see larger fish images and command, “Two hands tight on that gear Martin, that’s a thousand dollars you are holding and there are fish down there capable of ripping it overboard.” White knuckled I waited while the end of the G. Loomis rod vibrated the Rapala dance. Rainy season. Too many previous moonlit nights. Middle of the day. Quien sabé? But a couple of hours of trolling produced only one small Spanish Mackerel, a beautiful little fish, and the one which christened the deck with its bright red blood. The dock boys would enjoy this fish for dinner. It fought well but was no match for the gold anodized Calcutta 700 reel.

I had taken the helm after clearing port on the way out, but was tired from the constant movement of the boat and the toll that that takes on your legs as you stand bent kneed and bowlegged struggling for balance, so Jowen “drove” back. He loves this little boat and pushed it to the limits as we flew over the slight chop and in between the winter wood in the water.

In the center of the Gulf, Birds! We stopped as the few birds of earlier had grown to hundreds and the surface was broken in bands thirty feet by thirty yards as some unknown predators slashed at baitfish driven to the surface. Again metal was tossed to them and this time we were both hooked up to the hard fighting Jack known locally as Jurel. Ten/twelve pounds each they were a good fight and there were thousand of them within casting distance. We cast, hooked up, fought and landed or released as many as we had the arm and leg strength for. The school would veer away, break up and then re-group as we fought the hooked ones. A short run to where they resurfaced and we were hooked up again. It was the largest school of feeding game fish I have ever seen and what fun. Four went into the ice chest and the rest swim to grow and wait for our return.

Over spicy lemon shrimp soup and beers at Restaurante Leda in Mata Limon we exchanged views of photos on our digital cameras and told stories of fishing past and future.

From coffee harvest to café con leche at sunset at the beach, with singing reels and pounding waves in between – just another average day in Costa Rica.

g. martin lively

Fish here like you fish at home

2008-08-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

There is nothing really complicated about fishing in Costa Rica. Just fish here as you do back home. That is, the trolling rigs you use for bluefish on the East Coast or salmon on the west coast will work in the Pacific for tuna, dorado, wahoo, sierra mackeral and more. Surface skipping lures for larger fish including sailfish and marline are easy to find in the few good fishing tackle shops.

In fresh water lakes and streams use the same gear and lures that you use for largemouth and smallmouth bass - here you will catch guapote and guapatillo. Popping bugs on a flyrod like you use for bream, bluegill, pumpkinseeds and the like will drive the mojarra wild too. They are like bluegills on steroids and are really fun. Another fish that takes surface lures or flies is the machaca or sabalito, little tarpon. It looks like a small tarpon, leaps like all tarpon but be careful it has teeth like a pirana which is uses to eat fruit and nuts as they fall into the water. Lake Arenal and the rivers feeding it are on the tourist trail, bring your gear.

Surf casting with lead head jigs and mirror lures as is done on both coasts of the US for stripers or rockfish will work in tropical waters, but will result in snook and snappers. Just get beyond the first wave into the trough. I like the river mouths and am partial to the Parrita area.

Trout are trout, especially the rainbow trout; they came from the McCloud River in Northern California and behave here just as they do in Oregon and New Jersey. They are smaller, so stick to small lures and flies. Rivers holding trout include the Savegre, the Toro Amarillo, and most of the headwaters of the famous rafting rivers.

Tarpon are different, maybe not for Floridians, but for me. I have yet to catch one. There are famous lodges in the Northeast of Costa Rica at the Rio San Juan and Rio Parismina, and tarpon can be found in the Southeast too. Juar Google Jim DiBerardinis, he's the Wheeling College guy who found them there and has developed a fishing service.

<

ST PETER'S FISH

2008-07-14T17:28:00.000-05:00

ST. PETER’S FISH

The farm pond just down the road from you is probably the best place to fish in the Central Valley. Most have been stocked with Tilapia, oreochromis mosambicus. Farm raised around the world this tasty fish originated in North Africa and the Middle East. It is the fish of fhe two fish and five loaves at the sermon on the mount in the Bible, and is often called in English St. Peter’s Fish.

It has firm, white, mild flavored meat and you have eaten a lot of it as ceviche and as the pescado en your casado con pescado. Most seafood markets carry tilapia, and often it is the least expensive seafood in the case. Try it in your favorite fillet recipe.

Fish for tilapia as you did for carp, bass and bream as a kid. Put a doughball on a small hook a couple of feet below a bobber and toss that bait not too far from the bank. In a few minutes or less the bobber will move in one direction or the other. Seldom do tilapia strike hard enough to pull the bobber completely under, just look for a steady lateral movement and give a quck, light strike.

In the pond near my home in San Isidro my friend Jim, his girlfriend’s eleven year old son, Esteban, and I using doughballs and mini-marshmallows hooked and released 20 or more fish in less than an hour. Four of the largest tilapia went home with Jim, and he reported the fillets were very tasty. Esteban caught the first fish, and the largest, and that one was the biggest fish of his life– almost 2 pounds!

So get out your lightest weight rod and reel, or just get a cane pole, and squeeze some Bimbo on a tiny hook. Your neighbor would love to have you at his pond.

Out of Golfito

2008-06-10T14:05:00.000-05:00

Roosterfish and a Pair of Pargo: Golfito

G. Martin Lively

I had heard of good sailfishing out of Golfito and it was time for a steam bath anyway so out of the temperate Avacado Mountains and south to the former banana port and current free market town of Golfito, Costa Rica

The drive down was uneventfull, cool and foggy at the crest, the area known as the Cerro de la Muerte; called that not because of the landfalls which often reduce the two lane road to less than one with deadly dropoffs, but because it gets so cold that stranded travelers sometimes died from hypothermia. Trucks and curves make transit slow but soon we dropped down to the coast and into the grubby port town of Golfito.

The travel guide Costa Rica by Christopher Baker, a Moon Handbook (our favorite for Costa Rica) gave the Hotel y Restaurante el Gran Ceibo a good write-up and, since it was the first lodging we came to we checked in and immediately hit the pool. http://www.1-costaricalink.com/hotels_puntarenas_costa_rica/hotel_el_gran_ceibo_costa_rica.htm

An early dinner at the Banana Bay Marina put me in touch with Skipper Bobby McGuiness. He had a charter the next day who was looking for another fisherman. Don wanted to flyfish and I wanted to see that. We agreed to meet there at the Banana Bay Marina at dawn the next day.

McGuiness knows the waters well, we stopped at the mouth of the bay to catch bait and then turned south, trolling just beyond the waves and stopping to cast to rocky outcroppings. Each of us picked up a couple of small pargo, but nothing to brag about. http://www.fishcostarica.com/bobby_mcguinness.html

We headed further south and were almost into Panamanian waters when the skipper was able to triangulate a spot in the ocean from two landmarks. He threw two netsfull of baitfish out from the stern and soon the water exploded. We were over an undersea mountain that made it almost to the surface, miles from sea it was a gaterhing place for baitfish, rockfish and marauding predators. As the skipper circled the mount don cast a huge white streamer fly and I tossed a hooked baitfish. We circled, cast, hooked and caught lots of fish over the next hour or so. Don and I each took a pair of dogtooth snappers and each released a good size roosterfish or Pez Gallo.

Our fishing was interrupted by a storm and we ran directly into it forever. The small bimini top provided no protection from the horizontal rain and we were drenched completely. I leaned back against the drivers bench and white knuckle gripped the stainless steel uprights as the small walk around, center console pounded its way back to port.

Sailfishing is what Golfito is most known for and both out of Banana Bay Marina and the Sailfish Rancho across the bay one can charter experts at both conventional and fly fishing. Hope to write about that later.

El Castillo, San Juan River Nicaragua

2008-05-10T10:23:00.000-05:00

Mark your calendar -September 13, 14 & 15

because that’s when the tarpon tournament at El Castillo on the San Juan River in Nicaragua will occur. Hundred plus pound silver kings are there over a hundred miles from the sea and a three day fiesta celebrates them.

My sister Terry Lucas and a friend Jim Black and I traveled there on a visa renewal jaunt last month. The fishing at this time of year was poor but the towns of San Carlos, Boca del Sabalo, and El Castillo and the riverside beauty during the boat trips was spectacular. Three seats wide and ten rows long, the river buses took us from Los Chiles, Costa Rica to San Carlos, Nicaragua and then on to The Sabalos Lodge which is well described at http://www.sabaloslodge.com/english

The proprietor of the Lodge is a retired Sandinista Major who after retirement raised poison dart frogs and other colorful amphibians for export to the US and Europe. His headquarters is now a nine bungalow hotel right on the banks of the San Juan River five minutes from Boca de Sabalo. The thatched huts have modern bathrooms and porches right over the river. In addition to fully netted double beds, hammocks are strung at each bungalow and at the riverside, totally open Hammocks Bar. Lots of insects swarm to light bulbs but we found no biting insects at all. Meals are a bit pricey but are nicely served in a pretty little dining room.

Jim and I fished one day from the Lodge to El Castillo and back. We saw a few huge tarpon roll but there were just taunting us and inviting us to the tournament in September. We got a few smaller fish on smaller lures, but the Solantiname Islands are much better for guapote, managuense and machaca. Six inch medium diving Rapalas in tiger stripe/fire belly or white with red head for the tarpon, and Big Os in the same colors for smaller fish were what we trolled for. Our guide Hamilton lives in El Castillo and we stopped there for coffee and to see the Castle. The town hugs the riverside below the fortification built to combat pirates who had to stop at the rapids there on there way to pillage Nicaraguan cities from Lake Nicaragua.

Our trip back repeated the two boat rides and was equally full of birds ( I saw green, white, and blue herons, both sizes of green kingfisher, cormorants and anhingas, blue grey and red rumped tanagers, Baltimore orioles, and flycatchers and honey creepers of every shade as well as several varieties of hummingbirds.) There were also caimans and congo monkeys and basilisks. The boats stop not only at hotels, but at simple rough hewn homes on stilts which house local farmers and cowboys. Photo opportunities abound.

So, load your camera* and take the three day visa trip – or rig your rods and get ready for huge tarpon in September.
_____________________________________________________________________
Border crossings at Los Chiles and San Carlos are less congested than most, but equally bureaucratic – have your up to date passport and a pen ready to fill out Customs and Immigration forms on both sides. United States citizens do not need a Nicaraguan visa and may proceed directly to the Costa Rica Immigration Office which is about three blocks from the dock at Los Chiles. In San Carlos both immigrations and Customs are right at the dock.
< * photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/gmlively/ElCastillo

Solantiname Islands, Lake Nicaragua

2008-04-14T10:22:00.000-05:00

March 14, 15, and 16 in Nicaragua

One day of fishing and three days of adventure

By G. Martin Lively

The fishing in Lake Cocibolca is great. Second in size in Latin America only to Lake Titicaca, it covers approximately 8,624 sq km and, like a sea, features high winds, crashing waves, and even sharks. My friend Jim and I caught lots of guapote up to five pounds, managuense or jaguar cichlid in the two pound range, and very colorful mojarra every one of them around a pound. Both casting and trolling Big O’s and Fat Raps worked, as did casting chartreuse and white spinner baits with bronze willow leaf spinners. Next time I will bring my fly rods and lots of small and medium popping bugs. The little islands surrounding the larger, populated islands provided far more action than Lake Arenal at it’s best many years ago. I can’t wait to go back.

We stayed at the Hotel Cabañas Paraiso* on San Fernando Island in the Solentiname Archipelago which is about two hours by boat from San Carlos, Nicaragua, in the far eastern part of Lake Nicaragua or Lake Cocibolca as it is called locally. Eduardo, his mother Maria Magdalena Pineda and the fishing guide/hotel worker Jose took wonderful care of us. Meals were simple home style Central American fare featuring rice and beans and a cabbage salad with tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers and either chicken, beef or – best of all, of course- your own just caught deep fried fish!

Jim and I left Atenas, Costa Rica, around 9:am on a Friday and, after stopping for the best wire whisked hot chocolate in the world in Zarcero, were in San Carlos (Quesada) by 11:30am for gas and sandwiches before continuing North to Los Chiles. We had read the last boat from Los Chiles to San Carlos, Nicaragua left at 3:30pm so we wanted to be there by 2:30pm to have time to find the Nicaraguan Visa Office and the boat and ticket offices. With a US passport there is no fee for the Nicaragua visa and the process took five minutes. The dock is three blocks from there and the stop in between at Costa Rica Immigration ($7 exit tax) took about 20 minutes because of the line of Nicaraguan travelers headed home for Semana Santa. Luggage was never inspected and we were told to board the boat and pay the ticket cost ($10) when underway. I dropped Jim and the luggage at the dock and drove back to the Rancho Eco Directa Hotel where they agreed to keep my car in their guarded parking lot for a dollar a night.

Our 3:30pm boat left somewhat after four pm. It was the last boat of the day and it waited for those in immigration and a little longer for a few who were “on their way” to the dock. A row of opposing bench seats lined the long narrow boat holding about 24 people. The hour on the Rio Frio was a birding experience; we saw ospreys, green herons, great blue herons, regal white herons, green kingfishers, cormorants and anhingas, as well as scores of other wading and insect catching birds.

As the river widened and a huge lake came apparent through the trees many of the Nicaraguans exclaimed in pride “Cocibolca, nuestra mar dulce.” We were at the confluence of the Rio Frio and the Rio San Juan and on the other side of the Rio San Juan perched San Carlos, Nicaragua, its fort and three cannon protecting Nicaragua from invasion via the San Juan River.

Customs and Immigration were fast and informal and located right at the dock. It was there that we got the bad news. We had missed the last $10 trip to the Solentiname Islands. Eduardo from Hotel Villa Paraiso knew that we would, and he was there with his launch. The run from San Carlos to San Fernando Island is $100 via water taxi and that is not bad if there are a lot of passengers (the boat holds a dozen), but it was only the two of us! $50! Ah the price of adventure fishing.

The sun was lowering, but still hot and the canvas top shaded us and the four, triple wide seats with backrest. Its last rays turned to a rosy gold sunset silhouetting the islands with San Fernando dead ahead.

We were shown to our rooms and their array of generator, battery and solar ceiling lights. The generator lights and ceiling fan ran only from 8pm ‘til 11pm. The solar light was available of course during the day and the generator also recharged the battery light which was available at all times, hopefully. A simple Central American casado filled us up and got us ready for the agreed 6:30am fishing trip the next morning.

Excitement prevailed and I did not need my wristwatch alarm to wake me a 5:30am, I was ready at 5. Jim was awake also when I knocked on his door and soon Jose took us down the short flight of stairs to the dock and out to the islets surrounding the bigger island we stayed on. We trolled medium diving, short, fat bodied lures of many makes - and they all worked. In the first hour we each caught a half a dozen nice fish, each more brilliantly colored than the last. We stopped to cast and Eduardo showed up in a second boat brining coffee and some pan dulce. He joined us and the four of us fished, alternating trolling and casting to likely looking shoreline places for another hour and a half. Lots of fish.

After a breakfast of gallo pinto and scrambled eggs we visited the local art cooperative and Solentiname Museum. Primitive oil painting and smooth, bright colored balsa animals were the features. (Next time I bring more cash, the paintings were gorgeous and priced at less than half their Costa Rican equivalents.) Siestas and then the lake called. Another two and half hours like the morning, except this time I caught a BIG ONE. It was a five pounder, called lagunero here and guapote in Costa Rica. The scientific name for this large, fresh water cichlid is Parachromis Dovii. Aquarists call it the Wolf Cichlid which tells you something about its aggressive nature.

Dinner Saturday featured our own caught fish which were deep fried whole. Rico and deelishous!

Sunday it was pack up and reverse the boat trips back to San Carlos and Los Chiles and then we were on the road to home. Lots of big trucks on the two lane highway especially on the mountain curves makes time estimates unreliable, but I would say that it was about two and half hours from Los Chiles to San Carlos (Quesada) and another hour and a half from there to Atenas. Leave time for frequent rest and refreshment stops.

Great trip. Great fishing. (Next time from San Carlos I will boat down the San Juan River a couple of hours to El Castillo. I hear the Sabalo Lodge is nice and the San Juan River in that area offers one of the few places in the world to fish a river for tarpon. Stay tuned.)

Even if you don’t fish, the Solentiname Islands offer a great 72 get away from Costa Rica for visa renewal purposes. The wildlife, art and river boating adventure are worth it.

*Hotel Cabañas Paraiso
Isla San Fernando
Archipiélago del Solentiname
Rio San Juan, Nicaragua
gsolentiname@amnet.com.ni
Tel. 278-3998 Cel. 894-7331, 824-1860

More pictures from the trip can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/gmlively/SolantinameMarch14
#

Hermosa Dorado

2008-03-18T10:20:00.000-05:00

Deep Sea Fishing on a Beer Budget

By G. Martin Lively

Special to A.M. Costa Rica

March 18, 2002

You can fish the blue water of Costa Rica in millionaire style and maybe catch a huge marlin. It will cost you about a $1,000 a day for the charter. Its great, but often more work than any but the very fit may want. I prefer to fish a little closer in, in a more spartan craft, for medium-sized dorado and tuna and save about $800 a day!

My wife Jean caught a 46-inch dorado while she and I and our son Geoff were trolling out of Playa Hermosa de Jacó. (We each got a dorado and several small tuna, but her’s was the big one.) Geoff and I had visited Hermosa Beach at dawn the day before our outing. I talked to a number of fisherman and fishing boat owners who were there getting ready for their customers of that day. Each pointed out their boat bobbing at anchor a few hundred yards from the shore and answered questions about the kind of fishing Geoff and I wanted to do.

The owner of one of the better looking boats described his tackle, and where and how he intended to troll for the dorado, tuna and maybe a sailfish that we were after. A little negotiation over price (bringing our own lunch and drinks saved $50), and he agreed to take us out for five hours the next morning at 6 a.m.

The same scenario has worked for me at Tarcoles, Tamarindo, Parrita, and Isla Damas in Costa Rica, as well as in various fishing villages in Panama and Mexico. Mostly you will be dealing with fisherman who would just as soon take a sport fisherman out that day as to fish for meat for the market.

Increasingly, tourism has brought about a new small craft charter business. Speaking a little Spanish helps a lot. You can find and hire a fisherman to take you fishing using English, but you may not be able to make your needs known or to ascertain the equipment and techniques available. (Take a bilingual friend with you on the day before the outing.) If dorado and tuna are being caught not too far offshore, they are my first target. Trolling with 6- to 8-inch surface skipping lures, especially around weed lines or any floating object will bring them up; and who knows, maybe a pez bella or wahoo, too?

If nothing shows while trolling offshore, head back in and switch to casting medium diving, minnow imitating lures around rocky outcroppings. Our children and grandchildren and friends, both avid fishers and first-timers, have joined us on these medium-game fishing trips. We have caught dorado, white tuna, black fin tuna, yellow fin tuna, sierra, pargo and a variety of other snappers. A couple of tuna fillets for sushi, some dorado fillets for the grill and a photo for friends back home Pura Vida!

Jean and Martin live in Leesburg, Va, and Atenas, Costa Rica Tell him your Central American fish story at gmlively@gmail.com.

Talamanca Trout

2008-02-12T14:25:00.000-06:00

Fly fishing in the Talamanca Mountains.

G. Martin Lively

A gin clear creek tumbles over polished boulders forming small, deep pools now and then. In the shadows of each such quiet place can be seen finning forms waiting for the stream to deliver delicious morsels. If it weren't for the cloud forest lining the banks and the brilliant red, orange and yellow bromeliads in bloom one would think they were in Colorado or Northern California, but the stream is the Rio Savegre near the town of San Gerardo de Dota, about 80 kilometers south of San Jose, Costa Rica.

My first Central American trout fell for a Sierra King, a dry fly imitating the ubiquitous deer fly or house fly. Eight thick inches with an oversized head and kyped jaw it was a male rainbow in full spawning colors. Brilliant as any crown jewel he was probably, like me, a Californian. Most rainbows around the world are from the first hatchery on the McCloud River above Lake Shasta and I read somewhere that these Tico Trout started out from there too. Originally planted by sportsman they were soon netted from the streams for pond raising and sale to fancy San Jose restaurants and markets. Many escaped back into the flowing water feeding their fattening pens and now can be found in the Rio Toro Amarillo, the Rio Macho and the upper reaches of many famous white water canoe rivers.

I didn't want to kill him, but I did want Jean to see him so I threaded a thin, hooked branch through his gills and laid him on the ferns beside me while I tried for a larger relative. Mistake! Concentrating on my casting I failed to notice the tiny dog that had followed me down from the hotel as it ate my prize. Well, some others came to net that morning and I did keep one for show and tell at breakfast, but none were as pretty as the
puppy's breakfast.

The above trip was twenty years ago in 1988 and I have been back several times since then, and plan to go again soon. It has become easier. The Savegre Mountain Hotel now provides stream access, fishing equipment and a guide for two for $60. See http://www.savegre.co.cr/indexeng.html on the net, or call Tel: +506-4740-1028

Snook in the Surf

2008-01-20T14:18:00.000-06:00

Surf Snook near Parrita

G. Martin Lively

Solomon says "Use a white lead head jig as big as your gear will allow, white bear hair with a white and red plastic tail work best." Solomon said that, or something like it in Spanish, as we stood waist deep in the Pacific near the mouth of the Pirris River. He always narrated in that fashion, starting each bit of advice or story with "Solomon dice."

I was lucky to meet him. He had fished the ocean and river there for his lifetime and knew the currents, tides, moon phases and everything else. He could also cast his bucktail from a simple plastic, hand held spool further than I could cast mine using a graphite rod and spinning reel. We both caught snook six to eight pounds, and I kept one for dinner and gave him the others doubling his income for the day. What could be better?

Son Geoff and I fished the ocean side of a sandbar on the south side of the river mouth. That's Geoff is the lower left of the above photo, still casting into the last rays of the sun. From Parrita you drive to Palo Seco and when the main road hits the beach you turn left to find a hotel or right to get almost to the river mouth. If locals are fishing you came at the right time. By the way I never saw any of them fish the river side of the spit, maybe that had something to do with the saltwater crocodiles.

Jean and I were staying at La Isla Hotel (506)-2258-8020
http://www.infoturistica.com/hospedajes/hotel_laisla.html
which we found by driving along the Palo Seco strip out of Parrita, a small town on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica about XX miles south of Jaco, the
Josefino beach town. Our dentist in Escazu had told us he had heard good things about surf fishing in that area. He was right. The first time we approached the beach a teenager on a bicycle was coming from the beach with a fish hanging on each side of his handlebars. Both the pargo and the snook were dragging their tails on the road! I became so excited I forgot we needed to check into a hotel. I was ready to start casting.

La Isla Hotel is like many vacation resorts in Costa Rica, sized for overflow crowds at Christmas and Easter and all but empty the rest of the year. We have stayed there many times and although the restaurant seats over a hundred there were never more than three other couples or families there. The hotel is great for personal service including cooking my snook for the three of us and a guest, and trading four meals with all the trimmings for the rest of the fillets.

In addition to fishing the surf you can ask the hotel to arrange for a boat and guide and do some inshore trolling and casting with the same equipment and lures you use in the North for big largemouth and small stripers. Grandson Tim and I caught Sierra or Spanish Mackerel in this manner.

Trout near Boquete, Panama

2007-05-11T10:24:00.000-05:00

A Mountain Pueblo Surrounded by Coffee in the Cordilla Central

Raise Atenas about a thousand feet, decrease the population by 1/3rd and run a trout stream through it – Welcome to Boquete, Panama!

<- Grandson Tim caught trout there about ten years ago We tried to keep this Shangri-La a secret, but both Fortune and Conde Nast Traveler magazines picked Boquete as a “best place to retire” and the boom was on. A quarter acre building lot at the end of a cul de sac with view to the distant Pacific that we passed on at $6,000 just sold for $80,000, two hectares down the hill a bit that was $10,000 went for $2,000,000. The BOOM is on. Three new hotels have been built or are in construction and Bed and Breakfasts have sprouted in the hills. There always was a pizza parlor, but now there are a few, and Papa Rico’s is great and has Italian entrées like lasagna too. Machu Pichu is the new Peruvian restaurant and it is upscale, pricey and worth it. Jean and I visited recently and stayed at Pension Marilos, http://www.pension-marilos.com/ where our family has vacationed since it was built in the 1950’s. It is a charming and spotlessly clean inn, made warm by both a fireplace and Frankie who’s Mom built the place. My stepmother was born in the Canal Zone and went to Boquete to get out of the heat of Panama’s humid lowlands. Boquete is degrees cooler than Atenas and a sweater is needed in the morning and evening.

Trout are not stocked in the Caldera River, but they should be. One has to drive about fifteen minutes out of town and up in the hills to a National Park, and then walk in two or three kilometers to fish that part of the river close enough to the trout hatchery and raising ponds to hold escaped fish. Local Indians told me that 14 inch and up rainbow trout were available, but that the river was difficult to fish. In the photos linked below is a picture of the river closer to town showing an abandoned castle.

In addition to the usual plaza Boquete has a public flower park, and a huge private flower garden open to the public. There is an annual orchid exhibition in February and a Jazz Festival during the summer. The fishing off the coast is equal to that found off of Costa Rica and there are many fewer boats plying the waters. A few years ago I caught a good size roosterfish and two huge snappers in the Pacific right on the border. Lot’s to do and see.

Although on the map you see the Pacific Ocean quite near David, the entire coast is mangrove and you have to drive an hour or so SE from David to get to Playa Las Lajas where some development is just starting. When International flights start arriving at David the condominiums will line the beautiful beaches, and I might just buy one since Boquete is so close to escape the heat.

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To get to Boquete you drive 52 kilometers from th e Border to David and then look for the sign to Boquete which is 38 kilometers up the volcanic mountain. To take your Costa Rica car into Panama you will need to bring your car ownership and registration papers to the Registro in Alajuela and get a Permiso a Salir for the car. Make a copy of all of that for the Nicaraguan Customs authorities. ( Helpers on both sides of the border will walk you through the process and they are worth the usual $5 tip. When the customs official mentions that it is hot and that he would really like a Coke, it is really a dollar he is looking for.)

More pictures off Boquete are located at http://picasaweb.google.com/gmlively/Boquete

Salmon off the Golden Gate

1976-07-18T07:53:00.000-05:00

My best day of fishing I was working,

Dan Beswick sold paper to printers, and on summer weekends he took them salmon fishing on his double ended Monterey which was docked at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Good customer relations for Dan, and an opportunity for me at 15 to make a little money while pursuing my favorite hobby.

In 1956 most of my high school buddies were lucky to have $1.00 an hour jobs as box boys or mowing lawns, and $40 a week was good money. I “worked” one day a week, Saturday, and three or four guests on the Lollie B. tipped big since they paid nothing for some fine salmon fishing. $30 to $80 a Saturday helped support my other interests.

My job was to get to the Wharf at about 5:am, buy frozen blocks of anchovies for bait, swab down the boat, make sure it was fueled and oiled, and then rig the baits. A special hook is run from vent to mouth and then the mouth pinned shut and wired so that the bait trolls true. I would do half the five pound block and put the rigged baits on ice, saving the rest for later.

Men would start to arrive about 5:30am and I would direct them to the coffee shack which was in the center of the docks and away from the tourist spots. Dan would roll in about 6:am, check the boat and round up the fishers of the day. He always brought something great for lunch, sometimes Italian cold cuts on French bread, sometimes cold cracked Dungeness Crab, some times hamburger meat (we cooked on board) and buns. He loved to serve a special lunch.

The galley produced coffee too, so all sat around holding hot cups to sip from and to take the chill from their hands. Dan took the helm and we slowly chugged out the Bay, through the Gate and out to where the squawk box said fish were being caught. We were the slowest boat of all, the Lollie B. had a two cylinder diesel that fired so slow you could hear the individual ignitions. But nobody minded, brandy and coffee go a long way.

Furthest West we went was to the Farallones, some small islands which are about thirty miles off the California coast. Famous now for being one of the favorite haunts of the great white shark there were more sharks there then than when Jaws slandered them. To us they were the “damn sharks!” To be fighting a good size salmon and then feel the line go slack only to then reel in a two pound head with a moon shaped chomp where the rest should have been is devastating. We seldom saw them, but now and then one would cruise along right next to the boat, and almost as long as the boat!

We trolled four rods, each bait and leader taken down about thirty feet by a three pound iron weight attached by a pin and spring mechanism which when pulled from the bait end dropped the weight so that the fish could be fought without all that weight interfering. Guys drew numbers for rotating strikes, and when the rod snapped up if it was your number it was your strike, and hopefully your fish. FISH ON was the cry to draw attention to the rod in action. Salmon fight as good as they taste, and the silver salmon although usually smaller were the most fun because they jump, not only a sight to behold but a dual excitement because that is when they most often throw the hook.

Keepers had to be 21 inches and the limit at that time was 3 fish per person. Dan and I could take limits too, so some days we came in with 18 fish ranging from five to thirty five pounds, most in the high teens and low twenties. Fish under 21 inches were called shakers because they were un hooked by grabbing the hook with a small gaff and while turning the hook upside down shaking the gaff – the fish dropped into the sea to feed, grow and get ready for us next year. When things were really slow I would fire up a hibachi on davits above the engine cover and place a butterflied shaker on the grill. Tented with foil the fish was ready in less than ten minutes and I slid the crisp skinned fish to a platter and removed the bones. Fingers got burned as men grabbed chunks too hot to hold. No butter, no capers, no salt, no pepper, nada – but the best salmon anyone ever tasted.

One day it was very, very slow during the morning and the guys got bored and drank way too much. By noon all were asleep in the cabin. FISH ON I yelled and no one responded, so I fought and landed the fish, a nice one of about twelve pounds. We were into a school of them and as much as I yelled no one came out of the cabin. So I caught twelve 12 pound salmon, one right after another until the school departed. By the time the guests came on deck only a few smaller fish were available, but everybody got at least one and all were quite pleased with their day outside the Gate with Dan and the kid.

With 36 pounds of salmon each, tips were huge. I deserved it, I was working after all.