On December 28 client Eric was on board the Explorer with his sons and they had a fabulous amount of action. They caught five Black Tunas, five Jacks, and a feisty little needle fish.
December 24, 2010
Tody client Steve Mears on the Wanderer released 250lbs Blue Marlin, and over on the Cabo, Captain Vibert and client Dick Stacey caught 8 tunas and a Porgy fish.
One last note for everyone who is buried in snow right now: Nosara Weather Report…..Low of 75f, High of 95f, 60% Humidity, No Rain.
Pura vida!!!
December 23, 2010
Looks like the Blue Water has arrived! Clients John and Mary in the Wanderer caught 12 Yellowfin tunas rounding 10 to 25lbs. They also caught a 30lbs. Dorado and a 50 lbs. Hamberjack!
Over on the Explorer clients Andrew and Jay on the caught 7 white tunas and 8 black tunas. Looks like things are about to get hot! Pura Vida!
December 22, 2010
Client Steve Mears and his son joined Captain William and Alex for a day of billfish hunting, and the trip was a great success. Check out this 250lbs. Blue Marlin!
These majestic fish are incredibly challenging to catch and release, but the Wanderer is well-equipped to safely handle these marine monsters. Hopefully the blue water will continue to approach the shore and these kind of catches will become more frequent as the season rolls on.
If you want to catch the fish of a lifetime in Costa Rica, go with the best boat for the job: Captain William and First Mate Alex are ready to make your dreams come true on the Wanderer.
December 20, 2010
The wedding went off without a hitch on December 21, but their final trip on the Wanderer the next day would be the final test of the newlyweds’ luck.
Clearly the heavens smiled on the couple as their last trip was the most productive of all: 12 yellowfin tunas (10-25lbs.), a 30lbs. Dorado and a beastly 50lbs. Amberjack.
I am proud to say the wedding was a great success. Everything went smoothly and the families had an unforgettable experience in Costa Rica. On behalf of the entire FishingNosara and Nosara Paradise Rentals family, congratulations and good luck in your life together.
December 19, 2010
There is an old saying in fishing that “Great catches start with a lot of problems.” Well on December 20 the Wanderer spent most of the day offshore looking for more billfish, but by days end were staring at the humbling reality of striking out.
As a last ditch effort, Captain William took the wedding party trolling over the inshore reefs looking for the giant lunkers that dwell in the sandy coral bottoms. With only minutes left on the full-day trip, the line screamed as it was nailed by this 70lbs. Broomtail Grouper.
From strikeout to sandwiches, these kind of catches are what make fishing so much darned fun. I think that John’s face (Right, blue visor) says it all.
December 18, 2010
The Loughran Bridal party was on board the Wanderer and, not to be outdone by the boys, they piled up the fishbox by catching a wide variety of tunas, Jack Crevalles, and Amberjacks.
With the big day looming on Tuesday, the soon-to-be-newlyweds knew that their were still some big fish waiting for them.
December 17, 2010
The highlight of the month for the Wanderer was welcoming Rick and Mary for a magical week of fun, fishing, and taking the plunge (into marriage that is, not the water). The happy couple and their families spent the week at Nosara Paradise Rentals and enjoyed five days of fishing on the Wanderer.
On December 17 they got things off to a hot start with a few white tunas and Yellowfins, then they nailed this meaty 20lbs. Cuberra Snapper. With the fishbox already full of these tasty fish, Captain William pointed the Wanderer offshore in search of the big billfish.
Using our High-Speed Marlin Spread they pulled in this beautiful 250lbs. Black Marlin. Despite the moisture on the camera lens, you can tell this is truly the fish of a lifetime…and this was only the first of five days fishing!
As always, this big billfish was live released unharmed.
Maria Eulogia and Me: Part 1 – First Contact
Article by Matthew Jorn
In mid-November 2010 I was in the Orlando International Airport waiting for my flight to Costa Rica. Just before boarding I bid farewell to my iPhone’s trusty 3G connection with a final swoop through my RSS reader so that my flight time might be passed reading the news. The top story on every news service: Nicaragua Invades Costa Rica!
Of course the headlines were a bit overblown; in fact Nicaragua had made a move a few kilometers across the northeastern border in an apparent water rights feud for a muddy little creek. The story seemed distant and small at the time; within seven days I would be neck deep in it.
Some context: For three years I have been closely involved with FishingNosara, a charter fishing organization near Nosara, Costa Rica. The quality of fishing in this area is truly amazing due to the closeness of the underwater ledge and the light human impact on the fishery. While the rest of the world struggles with overfishing, pollution and other 21st century problems, the Playa Garza-based Captains are still catching great fish less than ten miles from shore.
November 22 was another day in paradise for me. I woke up early, had a hot breakfast for like a dollar, and headed down to Playa Garza for a day of fishing on my boat, the Wanderer. On board were myself, four clients from Florida, the captain and the two mates.
We trolled around early in the day and didn’t have much luck, so Captain William pointed the Wanderer offshore about 30 miles. I was in the cabin preparing some lures when I heard a shout from the deck.
“Matty!” It was Alex the First Mate. “Get up here…and get your camera!”
It looked like a frigate at first (being from Jacksonville, FL I see my fair share of naval vessels) but then I noticed two important details: 1.) It had what appeared to be the nets they use to catch field goal attempts at football games, and 2.) It was not alone.
Trailing from the rear of the 189 foot trawler were six smaller boats strung out on a cable like ants on a log. One by one they detached and made large ellipses around the central vessel. On the deck of the large craft was a bright yellow helicopter.
This is a purse seine, also called a circle net boat. You know that small green screen-basket that comes with aquariums so you can grab your goldfish? Imagine that but a few miles wide and 100 feet deep.
This commercial fishing is the equivalent of strip mining; in addition to catching their main target (Yellowfin Tuna) they also strip that whole expanse of ocean of everything bigger than plankton.
The effect on the ecosystem is disastrous from this kind of fishing because it completely circumvents evolution by not allowing any quarter for the smartest/strongest/fastest of the population to survive and reproduce. Because of this, international law restricts these fishing vessels to waters 100 miles off shore to limit their impact on the territorial fisheries of places like Costa Rica.
Their one weakness? Dolphins getting caught up in the nets. They tear up the equipment, endanger lives of the crew, have no meat value, and create a PR nightmare for the tuna industry; remember how the public demands “Dolphin-Safe Tuna”. The purse seine captains need a way to skim a school of tuna out of the ocean without pesky dolphins getting in the way, and here is the novel approach they’ve come up with:
Drop Bombs on the Dolphins from the Helicopter.
I don’t care who you are, that is just plain messed up. It does work though, because as I pulled back the zoom on my camera from the purse seine I noticed that a stampede of dolphins were evading that boat with all possible haste.
“I betcha that’s the same boat that attacked that charter boat back in August,” offered one of the clients.
We’d read an article where another sport-fishing vessel from Garza had run across an operation like this and was subsequently bombed, rammed, nearly scuttled, and whilst limping back to port was subjected to taunting and jeers from the purse seine crew about their “victory” over the sport-fishing boat.
Apparently the captain had also heard that story because he decided to join the dolphins; that it say, run like hell from that vessel. I did get a close enough shot to read the name off the prow with my camera: “Maria Eulogia”
Funny thing with helicopters is that you can feel them take off before you hear them, and this holds true even over the loud noise of the sea. The yellow chopper lifted off quickly and was over us in a flash.
It made several long, low sweeps of the area…I pointed my camera up the whole time even if I couldn’t keep the bumblebee in frame. If he wanted to sink us I at least wanted to have it on record. By the way, SD memory cards are waterproof.
For whatever reason the helicopter left us alone and returned to the Maria Eulogia. In less than a half hour the fast-moving net boats were also stowed and the vessel was out like a thief in the night with it’s illegal haul.
Back on shore the town was buzzing over the news of the Maria Eulogia. A news crew came all the way from San Jose and interviewed me for an exclusive story that night. It was beamed across the SKY Network to most of Central America and throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
I felt a naive sense of accomplishment in the knowledge that people in Costa Rica really care about their environment and are passionate about the fishery. Turns out the interest was more nationalistic than I first realized.
After a shower and a drink I was just about to nod off to sleep when a pounding came to my front door. Daniel, who had helped me upload the video to Youtube and contact the wire services, was visibly excited with news. He bounded into the foyer of Casa Capitan.
“You’re not gonna believe it! I just saw your footage on Repretel (a major Costa Rican news agency). The boat was Nicaraguan…this is all related to the border dispute.”
I didn’t know what to say but fortunately Daniel had already made a plan.
“I just got off the phone with Repretel. They want to send a camera crew on a little tuna boat hunt. We’re going out to find that boat again tomorrow!”
I slept well that night, knowing that tomorrow I was about to royaly piss-off:
a.) the Nicaraguan Government
b.) the Nicaraguan Fishing Corporation
c.) the Nicaraguan crew of a boat armed with bomb-dropping helicopters
d.) all of the above
and that good night’s sleeps might be very scarce in my future.
Coming Soon – Part II: A Reunion with Maria, Tuna Bloodbath, and The State of Costa Rican Journalism