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The Perfect ‘Storm’The Perfect ‘Storm’

The Perfect ‘Storm’

fishing off the bow of the boat of the coast of costa rica with a stella reel As fishermen, we see a lot of weather. Some of the most stunning visuals of my memory are days on the water. Mornings with rainbows and lightning to left and the sunrise to the right or a day like these in this past fishing trip. We’d be plotting the next trip, but the weather was not cooperating. Everyday brought a wind from the north east and cold currents along with it. Then we spotted a break, a complete change. Winds from the south and warm currents with them. Over the course of 2 days (more stories coming soon) we boated 25 big fish and numerous baits, which we never ended up getting a single bite on — All artificial!

The water was electric blue, visibility was coming in around 50 ft if not more around the rock formations! The ocean was alive and we were desperately wishing we brought some more muscle as we were hooking up one after another and often 2 or 3 lines all at the same time! The usual jacks, pargo, and groupers were around and hungry, but to our surprise so were some yellowfin tuna! Most of the tuna were between 15-30 pounds, perfect size for shashimi on the boat.

The top water action was unbelievable, just about every popper we tried something would hit it. If you’ve never had the pleasure of grouper with garlic butter sauce, mashed potatoes and steamed vegatablesthrowing some poppers on a beautiful day, add it to your bucket list. Seeing the fish come out of his cave and dart as fast as a bullet to strike your popper in an explosion of splashes at the water line is not only awesome to watch, but when you’re at the other end it is equally intense to feel the strike.

Arguably the best part of every successful fishing expedition is eating the catch of the day, and eat we did. Our first night we had shashimi as an appetizer with grouper in garlic & butter sauce for an entre. Paired with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables  dinner was great, Mar y Coco restaurant in playa del coco made some outstanding food throughout the trip.

Weekend in Playa Del Coco Pt.2Weekend in Playa Del Coco Pt.2

Weekend in Playa Del Coco Pt.2

Waking up in the morning, we were greeted to a beautiful sunrise and calm day for day one of the tournament, which we ended up not being able to get involved in, but the festivities on the beach were entertaining! There was a triathalon going and of course there was clowns, who we happily snapped a picture with as a little photographic proof.

tournament in playas del coco papadegayo bay fishing tournamentclown in playas del coco fishing tournament Our afternoon would take a twist when the weather became gorgeous and our captain “comi” found us wanting to fish, funny so did we. Cruising down for some afternoon fishing around the catilina’s is a nice ride, even in a small local panga. We sailed down the coast with a cool breeze from the south opposite us only slowing down to snag bait. There was plenty of green jacks running around, but no Rooster, which we were hunting.

As the day grew late we were left with bait in the tank and were trying our luck at jigging. I(Ben) had previously lost a large fish around the area at a rock to the south a bit (see: Agony of Defeat on the Video Page) and I had a hankering for a bit of revenge so we motored over to make out last few drops of the evening. Within the first 2 minutes we were hooked up! See Video:

After channeling a little Babe Ruth, we motored back home to go enjoy a wonderful meal with our captain and his family as we had the catch of the day prepared for us by a local restaurant. The fish was prepared with fresh garlic in a garlic sauce, that had a great flavor with the fish which was accompanied by rice and delicious steamed vegetables. As my good buddy and business partner says: “Its not over ’til its over”, but this is until Pt.3!

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