Amberjacks in Gulf of Nicoya

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Geo: 9.87991, -85.5715

First thing in the morning we headed next door to meet up with our neighbor, Christian, owner and operator of Buena Vista Sportfishing (http://www.pechesportivecostarica.com/index.html). He agreed to take us out for 6 hours of deep waterfishing in the Gulf of Nicoya. Since we don't have a car he drove us to the boat which gave us the opportunity to cross the river in a car. Fun!

We arrived at a small beach south of Samara and met his first mate, Jason, and took a rowboat out to the fishing vessel, a 25' penga boat. He reported that he had been having very good luck this week, so we were optimistic for an excellent day of fishing.

Christian is a French expat who is married to a Costa Rican woman named Clarisa. Christian's French is, of course, perfect. His Spanish is excellent, but has kind of a funny, French accent that I had some trouble understanding. Unfortunately, I missed the lesson on Spanish for Fishing, but we muddled through nonetheless. Christian was able to demonstrate the various techniques he wanted us to use. The first was a fairly aggressive jigging off the bottom of the ocean, about 30 meters down. Mike had never jigged quite that way before and found it awkward with his long arms. Still, it yielded two good-sized amberjacks that Kate and Josh landed pretty early in the trip. Then we hit a long, dry spell. The kids hung in their pretty well and enjoyed the butter shortbread biscuit cookies that Christian packed for lunch. The tomato sandwiches were not a big hit.

After hours of jigging that pushed Mike's forearm to the point of cramping, we decided to troll for a while. Still, no luck. We headed in closer to a reef and they used top water plugs. That was the ticket, we started catching amberjack's again. The next one was Alex's and the largest of the day at about 20lbs. That might not sound like much, but those 'jacks really know how to fight. Mike had to help Alex hold onto the pole while Alex did the reeling. All total we caught seven fish; not the giant yellow tuna we had been hoping for, but a respectable day out.

When we got back to shore Christian introduced us to his wife and daughter and invited us back to visit their home. The kids played with Nicole and the grown-ups fumbled around conversation and enjoyed drinks. Nicole is about six and is very funny and bossy, as is the way with many girls her age. She really seemed to enjoy having some kids to play with and teach some Spanish at her "escuela."

Christian and Clarisa were kind enough to invite us back for dinner, so we walked home, rinsed off the salt and gave the kids a snack in case they were offered fish for dinner. I was kicking myself that I didn't bring any gifts with me. I usually like to bring Virginia peanuts or some such thing that is special to home to share with folks we meet, but I never got them into the bag this time. Luckily, I had stashed away a bag of Starburst Fruit Chews for the kids so we wrapped up a handful of those to bring to Nicole.

We seemed to do a little better with conversation when we returned. Mike brought along his iPhone and we used the translator when we got really hung up for a word or phrase. We also used Google Earth to show each other where we grew up. Clarisa got a huge charge out of showing us where her other family members live. She was able to pinpoint the houses and we were able to see exactly where we were because it is so sparsely populated. As Christian cooked dinner he told us about his time cooking as a chef aboard a cruise ship. He enjoys cooking, but hated the headache of management. He was whipping us up swordfish steaks in a cream sauce, using fish he had caught a couple days previously. Clarisa made drinks and rice and was the center of much of the conversation. Her accent is very clean and easy to understand and she is very patient and good-humored about talking relatively slowly or repeating her words.

The swordfish was fabulous. Dad, Mom and Kate all enjoyed it immensely. Josh and Alex were very polite, tried a little fish and quietly moved portions of theirs over to Dad. All in all, it was an excellent day. Christian and Clarisa even sent us home with a little of their yellowfin tuna to have at dinner (boys will get pork chops) on Friday. They are very kind and generous hosts.

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Photos

Kate and Nicole play music
Nicole was also the teacher with Kate as her pupil.

Pina colada with Clarissa
Clarissa made Mom a tasty pina colada, complete with drink umbrella.

Swordfish with Christian and Clarissa
Captain/chef Christian catches and prepares the fish. Very impressive!

Josh displaying his catch
All the fish went right back in the water. The Ticos encourage catch and release fishing to maintain their sportfishing populations

Fighting the fish
This was Kate's first opportunity to use a fighting belt. She needed it as the amberjacks are strong.

Josh hoisting the championship belt
He thought it looked like something worn by the hevyweight champion of the world.

Mike and Alex with shared catch
The 'jack was about 20lbs.

Walking away from the boat at low tide
We launched from a beach at the southern end of Samara.

The philosopher snail
Josh found this question mark in the sand made by a snail. He pondered the cosmic implications.