Monday, September 28, 2009

Emalie the Bass Master

This weekend we did a little fishing, as always.

Saturday morning I woke up early and had a really good time out at my spot in Mckinny.
P9250341
P9250337.JPG
I also caught a few nice Bluegill:
P9220319


Sunday evening Emalie and I went to another pond in Carroltan, and she whooped my ass.
P9270352
P9270359
P9270356

I ended up with a few lowely baby bass....sigh
P9270350

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Rio Parismina, Pt. 2 San Jose and The Volcano

We arrived in Costa Rica on Sunday the 13th. We being 9 guys from North Louisianna and Texas united by a common love of the outdoors, good food and talking politics.

We were met at the airport by Christian, the husband of Judy the Lodge Owner (http://www.riop.com/). From there we checked into a hotel as we were not heading to the lodge until tuesday morning. This gave us a day to experince what the capital city of San Jose had to offer. After driving through the labyrinthian streets, dodging children and dogs, the smarter among us decided to book a guide to show us around tuesday.

Two of our troop, Kelly and Kevin, are trained and very successful geologists and, not to be too crude, had major wood for the surrounding area's volcanos. We made our way the next morning to Poas Volcano National Park. Though only a few kilometers away the drive took more than an hour due to traffic and the hilly nature of the terrain. We passed coffe plantations, banana farms, burnt out cars, and beautiful vistas overlooking the central valley. The higher you go into the mountains out side of San Jose the cooler it gets and the plants begin to change. In the lower elevations the flora is similar to central florida, but as you climb those plants begin to blend with evergreens and tree ferns, it gives the surrounding land scape an eerie primordial feel.
P9140056
P9140030
P9140032


After arriving at the volcano and completeing the halfmile hike up to the cone, we were blessed with an amazing view.
P9140047
The actual crater of the volcano, complete with sulferous fumes and a boiling acidic lake in the middle. It was truly amazing. You could hear the boiling and bubbling a mile away. After a few minutes of picture snapping and various incarnations of "Damn, look at that!" we decided to take a hike up to the old crater and look at the caldera lake that has formed there. As we climbed up the weather got even cooler and we were entertained by many different kinds of humming birds zipping through the gnarled trees.
P9140049
The caldera was quite impressive.
P9140051

After gazing at the natural world we found ourselves quite famished and asked to be taken someplace to eat, where catching a parasite would be less than a 50/50 chance. Our guide did not dissapoint. The food was good, clean, and very different from Mexican food. As I have been lucky enough to travel throughout Mexico and South America I have come to realize that only Tex Mex has the spiceyness that I am so accustomed to. Uruguayan, Chilean, Argentinian and Costa Rican foods are all very mild, making up for the lack of heat in other ways with textures and sometimes more earthy flavors or sweetness.
P9140061
P9140060
P9140059
P9140058
P9140062


all right all right...I hear you...enough about the cultural stuff right? You came here for some fish......Well....stayed tune next time for some Tarpon and pictures of the lodge.
For now I will have to tide you over with a nice bass I caught the day after returning home:

Caught this fella at my spot in Mckinny, on a funky little bug.
P9200318
P9200316

Monday, September 21, 2009

Rio Parismina, Costa Rica Pt.1 The Mujarra

I just returned from the steamy goodness which is my favorite Central American country. I could still smell the fish on my hands when I walked in my front door. To cover every aspect of what made this trip wonderful will take a few posts. Over the nxt week I will update my blog with pictures and stories and attempt to devote each post to one aspect of my trip. I will also post my normal fishing which, with the weather in Texas improving will increase shortly.

For now I think I will let the pictures do the talking.

This is the Mujarra. I caught 53 of them. They are without a doubt one of the funnest fishes I have ever caught. Known in the aquarium trade as a "black belt cichlid", these beautiful bruisers are like bluegills on crack. And they are everywhere. Down every creek, in every river surrounding the lodge (which I will get too later) these little monsters are biting anything that hits the water and fighting like hell when hooked. These pictures are the average size.
Mujarra on the Abel
The Solar Flare Boogle Popper was a very successful fly over the last week...
P9160101
Check out the hump on this guy!
P9170125
Sweaty and Smilin'!
The Jon boat is the best way to fish the rivers which are wide and calm. The top layers of water are fresh , but about 5 feet down the water becomes salty and brackish. The rivers also experience a tide of about a foot making some areas more or less accessable depending on the time of day.
P9170123
The flies and oen of the smaller fishes of the week
P9170121
A beauty of a Mujarra!
P9170213
Wide rivers filled with toothy critters...
P9170219
P9170216
My guide Fransisco
P9170217
A small mangrove snapper
P9170222
Shes a brick....hoouuuuse.....
P9170223
Theres fish in them there roots
P9170230
Another cichlid species? Note the white bar... (I wore the same outfit for 4 days! Stink bait!)
P9170228
P9180276
Kelly caught a snook! I was jelouse!
P9170118
P9170120

Rio Parismina is known for its snook and tarpon, and they are the main attraction, but I had more action and a better time exploring the various waterways just inland from the coast.

Next time: San Jose, Volcanos and The Lodge...plus FAST CARS DANGER FIRE AND KNIVES!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Green Sunfish Extravaganza!

Emalie and I made it out to a new spot in Frisco, not too far from Ikea. Its a small series of interconnected ponds with fountains in the middle. It has steeply sloping grassy areas and some nice landscaping with cypress and other bushes.

We got there rigged up and 2 minutes in Emalie has the best fish of the day and I have a distant runner up!

Emalie's beast:
Emalie
Huge green Sunfish!
My only respectable fish of the evening
Green sunfish


We managed to catch around 40 fish total in a couple hours, but besides the two nice ones early on, they were all about 2-inches in length! Its like we caught momma and pappa and all their progeny. It was a good time.

On firday I went out to Mckinny pretty late in the evening and right before sundown I caught a few blue gill and a couple of these guys, can't tell if they are hybrids or not:
Hybrid


Heading to Costa Rica on Sunday!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

VOTE FOR ME!

I have recently entered a really large Bluegill into http://www.moldychum.com for their "Slab of the Month" contest. My hefty Bluegill is competing with much heftier dorado, trout, steelhead and assorted other bad boys.

Go to the above link, look on the left hand side of the page, click on the picture of my bluegill (the only one in the list) and then scroll to the bottom of the poll and push "cast my vote".

Help me represent the greatest little fish!

thanks!