There have been three previous commentaries about Costa Rica, and this is the final of that series. Our grandson and I offered that we would be willing to share the $475 cost of a four hour Pacific Ocean costal fishing trip with another party. No one agreed to that offer, so I told Grace at the resort diver’s shop that the two of us would pay the full price for the fishing trip. It was a wonderful decision!  (I hope I have provided the correct link. Go to the Hilton Papagayo dive shop and ask for Grace or Auxi, and they will schedule your fishing trip.)

“Nacho” and “Marvin” pulled the “Vahia” in close to the resort shore and grandson and I waded the short distance to get on board. We cruised out to some reefs to do some bottom fishing, but had limited success. We did manage to catch a few fish in an hour and a half. Our grandson was pleased that he caught a poisonous lion fish (or scorpion fish). I was more impressed that he caught a “keeper” grouper that was eventually cooked by the resort for our dinner.

Paying the full price for the trip gave us the option of selecting our fishing experience. We told the captain we wanted to switch to trolling, and we had wonderful success. It was about fifteen minutes later when a feeding frenzy was seen and the boat was put into position to show the lures being trolled to the predator fish feeding on millions of one to two inch “sardines.” We soon had three hookups and landed three “black tunas.” Great fun!

Fifteen minutes later there was another fish on and our grandson was able to fight and land a nice-sized (eight to ten pound?)  Jack Crevalle. He then landed another black tuna, and fifteen minutes later landed what I think was his favorite fish. It was a four or so foot- long needle fish. (It was a very large needle fish according to Wikipedia.)

The boat crew was even more excited that a large tuna was following the needle fish, but failed to strike the lures they put out. Grandson fought and landed the sixth black tuna, and we trolled through a final feeding frenzy that hooked up three more black tuna.

I told Marvin that I thought we had a successful trip, and he replied something to the effect, “Very successful!”

Marvin and Nacho cleaned the Jack Crevalle and “keeper” grouper for our evening meal and took us close to the cove of the resort. Our grandson and I waded onto shore and were taken to meet a chef from the resort. The chef acknowledged he would prepare “fish soup” from the Jack Crevalle fillets and would also cook the grouper for our dinner.

I was a bit skeptical about whether we would really be given a meal from the fish our grandson had caught, but I was proven wrong. We arrived for our reservation and were each served a bowl of soup with bite-sized pieces of Jack Crevalle in broth topped with shredded zucchini and carrots. We were then served the breaded and fried whole grouper on wonderfully flavored mashed potatoes. Our grandson was understandably proud and impressed that he had caught fish that were prepared for our meal. Others at the restaurant knew we had been out fishing and congratulated our grandson on his fishing success. Very impressive, and what a wonderful family memory!  Someone asked whether I had caught any fish, and my answer was that a family tradition is that the youngsters get to land the fish. I was able to play and land fish when there were multiple hookups, and that was fun also!

The day after our fishing trip the boat took out a single man, and he caught two black tuna. That was another indication that we had the good fortune to have had a wonderfully successful day!