I graduated to making fishing a personal experience when we moved to Moravia, Iowa. Farm ponds dotted the countryside and you can believe that Terry Prough and I knew where we could catch bass, bluegills, bullheads and crappies on a moment’s notice. Our best fishing days were any day (except Sunday) through the summer, but at the end and beginning of the school year our day for fishing was…Saturday! It was nothing to roll out of bed before sunup in order to be on the bank of our targeted pond by daybreak. It is one of life’s great mysteries, “What makes it easy for a kid to get up early to go fishing when every other day it is nearly impossible to get a kid out of bed for nearly any other reason?”
Some of my best fishing was during our five years in Alaska. One day I fished in a city park in Soldotna during a pink salmon run. With the Good Lord as my witness at one point I made 13 casts and 13 catches. That’s a good day for any fisherman! One year right after our church’s annual District Assembly, Gene Bryner and Dr. Gordon Whetmore and I fished the Cook Inlet. We limited out on both King Salmon and Halibut. My prize of that day was a 43 lb. King!
More recently, three years ago or so, Dean and Colleen Heath and Colleen and I enjoyed a week of luxury in Rick and Roxanne Robinson’s Hawaii home. Rick arranged for us to have a day fishing for tuna. We fished from daybreak until mid- afternoon before the action happened, but when it did it was like thunder and lightning combined! It took about forty five minutes for me to land a one hundred and twenty one (121!) pound Ahi Tuna.
Just saying…I really love to fish, and, have had some success!
You may have read an earlier blog where I told of my first Costa Rica fishing trip. What was supposed to be a blissful one-day fishing experience turned into an amazing nightmare! Our little boat was cast about on the gray Pacific like a cat playing with a helpless mouse. I did something hard for me to be proud of. I voted with the majority…to abort the trip and head for land.
My next Costa Rica fishing experience happened just down the road on a river very close to where we currently live. This needn’t be too lengthy of an account, but in my few minutes of fishing from the bank, I had a classic encounter with…fear! After a handful of casts, my lure got hooked on the bottom. Lures are hard to come by down here, so I waded out knee deep and gave deeper thought to going the rest of the way to retrieve it. Thought better and returned home to find another lure. Upon returning I made a few more casts and then moved upstream. The tide was coming in and what appeared to be a driftwood log surfaced maybe 15 feet in front of me. My next thought was, “That’s not a log. It has knarly bumps and a long nose and eyes.” Yep. That was my first encounter with a Costa Rican crocodile that was at least ten feet long! The fear hit me pretty hard when my mind skipped back to wading out knee deep earlier in order to retrieve my lure.
This past Tuesday Josh and I spent an entire afternoon fishing from a charter boat. Nothing dramatic. I did have two great strikes, but didn’t land either.
Jamie’s parents are visiting with us and Pat really loves to fish, so we’ve been out twice. I took him over to where the croc made his appearance. We made several casts from a safe distance and saw two more crocodiles, one big one!
Christmas eve, we went to an area where a river dumps into the ocean. Pat decided to fish the surf. I was drawn upstream. Fishing is pretty serious for me and often draws me beyond the familiar. After a good hour of casting into the mangroves lining the shores of the river, a native Costa Rican came fishing his way back to where I was. He could speak pretty good English and gave me some good tips about fishing for Snook. The better advice was, “You be careful fishing back in here. There is a very large resident croc! Pay attention!”
Okay, so I’m alive and in good condition. Pat and I hope to fish again this afternoon. No fish yet, but I hope to give you a good report soon.
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