Tackle and Tactics
Mike Ladle

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I'm away for a few days so no more 'til I get back.

Costa Rica adventure 2.

Our week in Costa Rica provided plenty of action quite apart from the fishing. On one trip through a dry forest reserve in our hired four wheel drive we came to a bit of a muddy patch on the dirt road. Rich did his best to circumvent the problem but - you've guessed it - the car got bogged down. We were axle deep in a mixture of water, cowshit and mud - wonderful! It was a three hour walk back to the nearest habitation (bear in mind that it was nearly 30 degrees C and 100% humidity). He and I began the long task of digging ourselves out. We had no spade so the tyre lever had to suffice as a digging implement and Rich, stripped down to his swimming trunks, got down to the job. After half-an-hour we seemed to be getting nowhere and Lilian suggested that she and Ana might try walking along the track in (vain) hope of finding a farm or similar habitation (there were plenty of cows about - hence the cowshit). Rich and I continued our excavation and after some time we heard voices coming in our direction. Shortly the ladies rounded the bend in company of a Costa Rican cowboy on a horse. Leonis was a farmer and although he had no vehicle he was confident (rightly as it turned out) that his trusty steed could pull us out of the mire. To cut a long story short he told us that the river up ahead was in flood so we'd have to go back. He then helped us to traverse the mud bath again. What a hero! A sobering experience.

There were a number of other eventful days but none of it put a damper on the fishing or the wildlife. By far the commonest catch were ladyfish and we caught about two dozen of them. The aren't big but they go like turbo-charged seatrout. Jeez can they run and jump - the relationship to tarpon is obvious. They seemed much easier to catch than their Atlantic counterparts. There were also lots of puffer fish which fight harder than you might think from their portly shape. They were easy to catch on little legered crabs and had Ana squealing with delight as they yanked on the line.

The highlight of the trip was the two roosterfish - not big (best 4-5lb) but they had been the main objective of our trip and they lived up to all expectations. we saw a couple of bigger ones on the last morning but that's always the way of it eh!

If you have any comments or questions about fish, methods, tactics or 'what have you.'get in touch with me by sending an E-MAIL to - docladle@hotmail.com

Mud wrestler????.

Note Richard's healthy tan.'

'Howler monkey'.

Why do these animals never pose for the camera?'

Pacific scad.

Just one of the many species that we caught.'

Puffer.

This one took a plug but most of them were caught on crabs.'

Ladyfish.

Small shallow-diving plugs were murder for these fast moving fish.  I couldn't get a sniff on the fly.'

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

What a fish.  No one ever mentions the amazing colouration of the roosterfish.'

Smaller one.

Truly the high point of our trip, the picture doesn't do it justice.  We MUST have another go ASAP.'