March
2007
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March
2007
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| Something
to Crow About By Herb Gordon, the Weekend Fisherman 
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Last year we went down to Costa Rica a couple of times to film the TV show WEEKEND FISHERMAN. The fisrt time we went in January and did a very successful show on sailfishing out of Quepos. The second time we went in September and filmed a tarpon show out of Parisminia on the east coast side of Costa Rica. So many fish, so little time; what to fish for this trip? The Super Bowl weekend seems to have become a tradition for our group of guys the last year or so. I called a friend of mine who lives down in Los Suenos and works the boat yard there. Ben said sure he could take us rooster fishing on Saturday, the day before the big game. We always stay in San Jose as our base of operations at the El Presedente Hotel. You can get a spa suite to stay in for $85 a night and it is beautiful; better than a $400 a night place in the US. We just rent a room for the whole week and leave most of our gear there when we travel south. You can make a copy of your passport and drivers license and leave your original in the room safe. We arrived in San Jose from Norfolk, and Charlotte connection on Thursdsay afternoon. After spending one night in town we headed by van to Jaco on Friday. It is about a three hour ride by van to Jaco. When we got to Jaco we checked the beach out and relaxed some. I hooked up with Ben by phone at Los Suenos just up the road and he gave me the bad news that his boat was down and he would not be able to take us on Saturday. Plan B was now in effect, so I called another buddy of mine Terry, who also lives down there and asked him if he could hook me up with a local guide down in Quepos, an hour south of us. I also called Capt Jesse in Quepos who we sailfished with last year. Terry came by Saturday AM and picked us up in his truck and we headed down to Quepos. |
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| We went straight to see Wavy Dave who runs Rich Coast Charters and Tours in Quepos. Anyway it was too late Saturday to get a boat for that afternoon. I was sweating bullets since we were supposed to be back in San Jose late Sunday for the Super Bowl party with the other guys. My fishing partner Keith Wilkinson said no sweat; we could fly back in 30 minutes from the Quepos airport for $120 for both of us. Wavy Dave had |
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lunch with us and then we all drove in Terry's truck up into the jungle with Dave (15 year American resident of Quepos). He knows all the locals and back unpaved roads and then some. We went to a guys house who cooks the best chicherones in all of Costa Rica. The chicherones and papaya were free as long as you buy the cerveza from him. What an experience, to see these locals come out of the jungle to eat and drink the afternoon away on a Saturday. Enough local color; let's talk fishing for the powerful roosterfish. Sunday morning at dawn, Keith and I met our local guide Jeffrey Sapada and his brother in their pink Panga at the sea wall. Jeffrey spoke no English and my Español is very limited, but we managed to communicate as most all fishermen do. We went down the beach outside of the huge rollers of the Pacific looking for bait. They use live bait and slow troll outside of the breakers in the surf for these roosters. As everywhere I've fished, catching the bait is always harder than catching the targeted species of fish. Jeffrey's brother had a 12 foot cast net in the bow of the Panga. We would see the sardines (looked like threadback herring) flipping in large schools out from the surf. The problem we had was the water was so clear that the sardines would swim out from under the net as it settled over them. It took 3 hours to catch 15 or so baits! If we only had some sabaki rigs! Keith is sending some down to Wavy Dave to give Jeffrey. By 10:30 AM or so we were finally ready to fish. Jeffrey eased the Panga into the edge of the surf (huge swells) and we put two livies out on spinning rods with Shimano bait runner 4500's. Within two minutes the line was screaming off one of the reels and we were hooked up to what appeared to be an amberjack on steriods (roosterfish). Unlike AJ's the rooster will jump and tear the water up as well as scream drag off the reel. What a fighter, and a beautiful fish to look at. I thought they would be 50 pounds the way they pulled, but they were babv roosters at 15 or 20 pounds. Jeffrey said they do catch 40 to 50 pounders, especially around the rocks. They are definitely structure fish. We were running out of time as we had a flight to catch at 1:00 PM. We had to be in by 12 noon to check out of our hotel in Quepos and hook up with Terry to get a ride to the airport. We caught 4 or 5 roosters in less than an hour. Keep in mind that it takes several minutes to land one of these fantastic fighting fish. Catching roosterfish is definitely something to crow about! The cost of a trip like this is $300 for a full half day. You can reach Wavy Dave by e-mail at richcoastcharters@yahoo.com or call him 506-777-4444 in Quepos, Costa Rica. Be sure to tell him Capt. Herb sent you! |