Feeding Frenzies

The 5am alarm went off way too early. I moaned and groaned in protest but by 5:30 had dragged myself out of bed to get ready for our fishing day. We were meeting our guide at 6:45am at Puerto Paquera, 45 minutes away. There should have been more enthusiasm for our fishing charter but upon booking Brandon realized that the guide wasn’t even Costa Rican, his name was Tom Jones and he was from Norway. His responses to all of Brandon’s inquiries had been pretty vague so we weren’t exactly sure what to expect from our day. All we knew was that we had booked a full 8-hour day trip and he would supply a “little lunch.” He didn’t seem overly informative, or quite frankly, accomplished as a guide and hadn’t even bothered to mention we needed fishing licenses until the day prior.

I insisted on stopping at a small roadside Panaderia on the way to grab a fresh piña crema pastry. We pulled up to Puerto Paqueria at 6:45 on the dot. This port also servers as the ferry landing for the large ferry that transfers passengers, and their vehicles, across the bay. We knew there was a public parking lot from our scouting the day prior but this early in the morning the area was pretty quiet so we parked on the empty street, we had seen cars there yesterday. Brandon planned to confirm with Tom Jones that where we parked was ok but we felt so rushed to get down and onto the boat that he forgot.

Tom Jones and his deckhand, Juan Gabriel, helped us onto the boat and within a couple minutes we were off. Immediately the scenery was beautiful and we stopped near a “glamping” island to drop a couple lines and catch some bait fish. I was in awe when the guide dropped a line with multiple hooks into the water and came up with five fish on the same line! I haven’t seen that before.

Finally we headed towards the mouth of the bay and let the games begin. We ate our breakfast of fried chicken, coconut protein milk, and the piña crema pastry as the boat motored on. Tom Jones armed Brandon with a hopper lure to see if he could snag a rooster fish, the goal of the day. After a no-go on that line we started jigging. I wasn’t satisfied with the answer when I asked what we were jigging for. “Anything.” I know enough to know that different types of fish like different lures and different methods so that was a useless answer to me. Jigging is a lot of work on the shoulders and after pulling up three grouper I’d had enough for a while. I did appreciate Tom Jones holding some of my fish for picture for me throughout the day so I didn’t have to always get fishy hands! I was happy to take in the scenery and watch Brandon jig away. I was feeling a little sad that the grouper were too small to keep but died due to their air bladders when we tried to release them but felt better when a pelican swooped in and helped himself to the free meal.

After jigging, Brandon did some more surface skipping type of thing and caught the first decent fish of the day, a needlefish! She was a beauty and I couldn’t believe how sharp her teeth were! But she’s also not good eating so back into the water she went to go about her business.

Tom Jones decided it was time to try another spot and it a fun surprise to come up on schools of both bait fish and skipjack tuna jumping in the water. I dropped the bait line into the water and was excited when immediate tugs prompted me to reel; four bait fish were on the line! I practiced my casting skills and lo and behold, I caught a skipjack! Brandon caught three before we could get a picture of any of his because those hyper little skipjacks squirm and flop when trying to get them off the line. They are fighters! Tom Jones kept losing them back into the sea before we could take their pictures. After catching a couple more skipjack, Tom and Juan again decided it was time for us to move along and try more casting at the needlefish site. Nada. Brandon grew disappointed as they steered us back into the bay. If he wasn’t going to catch a rooster fish, he’d at least have fun reeling in and releasing all those skipjack! My disappointment was that the skipjack wouldn’t be good to keep and take home for stocking the freezer!

Tom Jones called a friend who’d been out on the bay the day prior and was told he had good luck at Saint Luis Island so he steered us that direction. This was one of his secret favorite rooster fish spots. The live bait went into the water and we trolled. And waited. And trolled. And waited. And nothing happened. The surroundings islands were beautiful but nothing was biting. The most interesting thing to happen was Tom Jones pointing to the much larger island just past where we were and giving us the history. It used to be a prison island, much like Alcatraz, and it was a particularly brutal prison. The prisoners were literally attached to a ball and chain upon arrival and over 25% of the prisoners died within their first year on the island. Now I was intrigued. The prison was closed in 1991 but he took us around to the other side for a glimpse of the prison dock and receiving cells where the balls and chains would be attached. He told me there’s a poorly written book called “Lonely Men’s Island” about the island hell. I can’t wait to find and read it.

Clouds were starting to come out and it was past 2pm at this point. With an 8 hour trip booked I kept expecting Tom Jones and Juan Gabriel to turn the boat back towards the dock but around and around we kept trolling. And then we saw a disturbance. Just off the shore of the prison island pelicans were swooping. Quickly Juan Gabriel headed that direction and both Brandon and Tom Jones grew excited at the siting of Jack Crevalle fins gracing the top of the water. I couldn’t see them but they all did. Lines were thrown into the water. Lots of fins gracing the top but no bites.

And then we saw the boils. The boat veered towards the frenzied water and, holy crap, it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The water boiled with a jack crevalle feeding frenzy. Hundreds of fish, thousands based off of the view on the fish finder, were right in front of us. Moving to the side we could see hundreds of backs and fins jumping out of the water. Coming at us were gaping mouths.

This time the lines were almost immediately bit the moment they hit the water. Brandon quickly landed one while I was reeling. Good lord they were a lot of work! The rods were light which made the fish feel heavier. Without a fighting chair I had the rod braced against my thigh as I pulled my rod up and reeled down, pulled up and reeled down, over and over; cussing at the fighting fish for being such a pain in the ass. And cussing at it more for being such a pain when I realized they were’t even good to keep and eat! After much cussing and struggling I landed my first jack crevalle of the day! Now this was fishing!

The bites came quick but my next fight wasn’t as tough. A Spanish mackerel! They must have have been in a pair because Brandon reeled in another almost immediately after. Now these could be good eating!

Over and over our lines were tugged and the hard fighting jack crevalle were fought. I think I reeled in five. Trying to take little breaks in between to rest my body and absorb the awe-inspiring scene around us. We lost track of how many Brandon reeled in, it was ridiculous how quickly these fish were on the line. Brandon seemed to just be tossing the lure into their frenzied feeding mouths like a kid’s fishing game.

Tom Jones and Juan Gabriel were equally excited about the craziness of this giant school. After a while though we went back to troll for a rooster fish again. And again it was to no avail. I was glad to see that these guy’s definitely weren’t trying to cut our day short; in fact it was going long.

With the roosters not biting we saw the jack crevalle boils return and went back to reel in more. I was feeling more and more confident with my casting and landing skills with each fish. However excited I was, the real treat for me was watching Brandon’s excitement and how much fun he was having. The day had felt so disappointing earlier, I was jubilant to see how it had turned around.

It wasn’t until the sun was starting to sink, a solid ten hours after we’d set off for our fishing trip, that the fish finally stopped biting as quickly and the boat turned to head back to Puerto Paquera. We’d caught bait fish, grouper, needlefish, skipjacks, Spanish mackerels, bonitos, and more jack crevalle than we could keep track of. Icing on the cake? Our car was still where we’d parked! Which was apparently a bit of a miracle since it turns out we parked directly at the FRONT OF THE FERRY LOADING LINE where line up to get on the ferry throughout the day. How I hadn’t noticed the “ferry line here” sign directly in front of the car that morning was a true testament to how rushed I’d felt when we arrived. Upon our departure, a line of cars was formed behind us even then, waiting for the next ferry. Oops.

Tired and smelly, oh so smelly, the debate was real over whether to stop for dinner on our way back to the resort or go clean ourselves up and then go back out to find dinner. It was getting later and the dirt road down to the resort is pretty annoying to stopping for a smelly dinner it was. We stopped again at El Chile but made sure to sit outside on their lawn area to keep our fish blood stained shirts out of their main restaurant. We liked our Casados more than our dinner there the previous night and I enjoyed my refreshing sandia y limon (watermelon and lemon) juice.

Finally back at the resort, a dip in the pool was as refreshing as my jugo de sandia. We are exhausted but still reeling over what an incredible experience our jack crevalle feeding frenzy was. Tomorrow is our last full day in Costa Rica and we are ready to be wrapping up this little adventure.