bajajurel
Nomad
Posts: 276
Registered: 6-17-2009
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Fishing for fun
|
|
Costa Rica and Nicaragua
Scoll down below for links to the pictures. Just came back for two weeks traveling to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Great people and good times. This
was my 3rd annual trip to the two countries. We go mainly for the Tarpon and Snook fishing on the Caribbean side.
They definitely fish differently everywhere you go. The rivers in Nicaragua are around 30’ deep and we were trolling diving lures scraping / bouncing
off the bottom of the rivers for the Robalo. The bottom was clay like and hardly any obstacles. We found that where two rivers met and combined the
incoming tidal-water movement was the best (we were not far from the river mouth / ocean water, maybe a mile or two). We found a honey hole that
produced 1 – 2 strikes every time we made a pass – convergence of a river and a man-made canal. The fat, bulb type with bright colors were working
well in the muddy waters. When it rained we really hit them hard. I don’t know why the rain made them bite like crazy, but it did. It was pouring
like a cow peeing on a flat rock and we were busy all the time.
When trolling for Tarpon we were trolling medium-sized Rapala’s that dived ˝ ways down. The Rapala’s were slow trolled about 150 yards behind the
boat. It seemed like when we trolled two lures on the bottom for snook and one Rapala in the middle ˝ way down we were getting more tarpon bites. We
constantly changed colors of the lures.
We found that keeping the rod tip below the gunwale and never, ever bringing the rod tip up resulted in keeping them hooked. It is a fine art to be
learned and on this, the 3rd trip fishing for them, we finally finessed the art! Bowing to the king now has relevance – when they come out of the
water we were going into the water with the rod tip and winding like hell. I think the tip in the water helped line resistance and keeping the fish
hooked.
The locals were rigging leaders for the Rapala’s with multi-strand wire coated in plastic rated at 70 pounds. They were only putting on about 18” of
this leader and we had them lengthen it to 3 feet as we were getting cut off by the Tarpon’s gills and scales. It would cut right through the 60
pound braid!!! I pulled all mono off the reel and went straight braid to the multi-strand leader as the mono stretched too much and we were loosing
fish. The braid gave you more feel of the hit and better control for fighting the tarpon.
We probably hooked 25 apiece, got 10 to the boat, and only stressed a few bringing them into the boat for a photo. Man when they revive, they could
break a man’s arm. We found the younger / smaller ones jumped more than the older / larger ones and after a good fight they tire fast. The largest
tarpon hooked was about 150 lbs. The largest snook went to Tim and topped the scale at over 35 pounds. I didn’t know that snook made great sashimi
but we enjoyed it on the boat several times.
We also caught a lot of Jack Crevalle which they call Jurel / Yellowtail. They are bigger and have that yellow color on the bottom all the way back
to the tail. Definitely different from the ones we have caught in Baja. The locals eat them too. Strong fighters – we never expected them in the
lagoons and rivers but it was a nice surprise as they are a great sport fish.
We stayed in a Miskito Indian village that was very primitive but very interesting. Children today should experience this so they can appreciate what
they have here.
San Jose, Costa Rica
https://picasaweb.google.com/JadShort/SanJoseCostaRica?authu...
San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
https://picasaweb.google.com/JadShort/SanJuanDelSurNicaragua...
Granada, Nicaragua
https://picasaweb.google.com/JadShort/GranadaNicaragua?authu...
Fishing - Bluefields & Barra del Rio Grande, Nicaragua – we stayed out in an Meskito Indian Village that was pretty primitive
https://picasaweb.google.com/JadShort/FishingBluefieldsBarra...
Museo de Oro Precolombino or Museum of Precolumbian gold is located under the Plaza de la Cultura in downtown San Jose. The impressive underground
building that houses the exhibit creates a mysterious and dark background for the gleaming beauty of the golden pieces, which seem to float because
they're suspended by transparent strings. These indigenous jewels depict numerous animals- frogs, birds, snakes, insects, crocodiles, lobsters and
even sharks.
https://picasaweb.google.com/JadShort/MuseoDeOroPrecolombino...
Museo de Jade, or the Jade Museum. The amazing quantities and the quality of the jade in the country can only be attributed to trade, since the
country lacks jade mines. The exhibit in this museum is the largest American jade collection in the world. The collection is extremely valuable
because of the rarity of the mineral and of the religious and historical significance that it has for the Indian population and for the Costa Ricans
in general. Like the golden pieces, the jade artifacts also depict animal shapes.
https://picasaweb.google.com/JadShort/MuseoDeJade?authuser=0...
See you at the Fred Hall show next week.
bajajurel
|
|
|
tiotomasbcs
Super Nomad
Posts: 1837
Registered: 7-30-2007
Location: El Pescadero
Member Is Offline
|
|
Sounds like an awesome trip, amigo. I know it's difficult traveling to most all the areas you visited. In 1976 I visited my girlfriend's family in
Nicaragua and visited Bluefield's. Wow, lots of esteros and wet, wet! Monkeys, sloth, etc. Did not fish. A few years later I backpacked around
Costa Rica and on one adventure we boated in on a river to Tortuguero-NE coast . Beautiful jungle scenery with rumoured crocs! Is that where you
were? I have read that area was popular lots of famous people from the East coast/Florida area. West coast fishing resorts used to gguarantee
Sails, etc. CR has made lots of magazine covers! Thanks for the post and pics! Tio
|
|
|
Curt63
Super Nomad
Posts: 1171
Registered: 3-28-2009
Location: San Diego, Ca.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Fish tacos and Tecate
|
|
Great report and pics. You scored.
I love the robalo ceviche.
No worries
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
