4:30 AM came early here with 4 Corners Costa Rica at their Corcovado Beach Lodge destination. But that doesn’t mean it was hard to wake up. Granny and sprung from bed and hit the tasty local coffee on the dinning room porch. We were headed out for some inshore fishing for roosterfish, jacks, snapper and mackerel to name a few. There was even a chance to catch Pacific sailfish because the ocean drop-offs are close to shore here in Southern Costa Rica.
Everything was on schedule. 4 Corners guide Arturo led us to the nearby Puerto Jimenez docks at 5:45 and there our boat captain and mate were waiting. Soon we were on our way for a 45 minute run.
Granny and I ate homemade breakfast burritos along the boat ride and took in the rugged mountainous rainforest shoreline. It was calm and sunny. Pacific needlefish leapt and scattered from the boat as we moved along. Our first stop was about 200 yards off a beautiful long beach. We were looking for roosterfish.
The instant the motor stopped Arturo and the mate picked up teasers and launched. Granny and I scrambled for our rods but we had no chance to be ready for their first casts. And naturally, before the teaser made it to the boat Arturo was screaming, “Rooster, rooster rooster! Huge roosters!”
I’m normally ready for everything in fishing but not this morning. No biggie. I laughed and suggested Arturo and our mate wait a few minutes before the next tease.
Once we were ready to fish, I turned only to see the hatch for our motor wide open. Our captain, mate and Arturo looked worried. The apparatus wasn’t sounding good either. We had engine problems and our captain figured we should return to Puerto Jimenez while we could.
Returning early on day one was a bummer but after a lifetime being around boats, old cars, broken snowmachines and numerous other devices and etc., I know these things happen. Fortunately, Arturo said we’ll do a make-up boat day later in the week and that today we still had plenty of time to have fantastic fly fishing from the beach.
We were back at the lodge by 9 AM. The tide was at its lowest and Arturo told us the best fishing was the rising tide. That meant get going fast. The good news was that we were walking to a river mouth right from the lodge.
It wasn’t a far walk either but Arturo warned us we’d walk through some mud to get there. He wasn’t kidding. The mud was thick because we were walking the low tide. So thick I had to take this close up of Granny passing me. It doesn’t look fun but it actually felt nice on the feet!
Once we made it down to the mouth of this tidal river the fish were waiting. The way it works is that at low tide, all the baitfish are stacked up at the mouth because they were pushed down river by tidal currents formed by the dropping tide. The baitfish abundance of course attracts predatory fish to eat them. Then as the tide rises the baitfish retreat back up river. There’s a ton of movement and the mix of that and the water rising gets those larger fish active.
I’m not packed to the hilt like I normally am on foreign saltwater fly fishing trips. The fact that Granny and I are on a two month trip from home that includes hauling a ton of “Currier fish mugs of all sorts” to shows, means I was limited. Granny tossed my 10-weight Winston Max Air 2 and I the 9-weight. Arturo had Granny throwing one of his roosterfish baitfish patterns and I threw an orange Christmas Island Special I tied exactly 30 years ago. Both flies worked well. While this isn’t exactly a glamourous sought after fish, the longjaw leatherjack (Oligoplites altus) will always give you a run for your money. Beware of his belly spikes however as they can deliver a painful stab if you’re not careful.
We landed several of Mr. Longjaw, a few baby Pacific jack crevalle and green jacks along with a heap of bullseye pufferfish. We expected some snook too but they didn’t cooperate. I lost two decent fish and there was one that fought snook-like. Oftentimes good size snook spit the hook because their mouths are soft in spots and if you hook them there, the hole gets bigger and bigger as you fight them and then on a jump or good headshake, the fly gets dislodged. Our best fish was caught by Arturo, this stunningly colored golden trevally. Arturo said this was the first he’s caught ever at this river mouth. I’ve seen some dang nice goldens the last 30 days going back to December in Australia.
Our fishing was done by early afternoon because soon the tide was too high to wade. We played on the beach some hoping for roosterfish but they weren’t around. Chuck and his friend Johnny joined us and Johnny surprised us with a Yeti Backpack cooler full of lunch and beers. There’s not much better than being surprised by such after a good fishing session on a steaming hot beach somewhere beautiful.
Chuck and Johnny also had one more trick up their sleeve to keep this already fun day going. After we left the beach, we made about a 45 minute drive up to the famous Boena Lapa Rios Lodge for hors d’oeuvres and a fancy drink. I had one of their homemade pale ales and it was delicious. It’s the first beer I could not find on my beer app.
I’ve packed my Sharpies along for this trip and I surprised the guys by breaking them out while we were having our refreshing drinks. Johnny had his bran new Yeti Panga and I couldn’t resist. I drew him up a sailfish. Maybe it will be good luck being tomorrow we’re going to chase the billfish on the fly.
We went straight from Lapa Rios back to our lodge and crushed another big dinner. We are eating like kings down here and we’ve barely been here 24 hours. That’s all for today. 4:30 AM comes fast. Stay tuned!