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NEWSLETTER #19 -
DECEMBER 2003
Leland Fly Fishing Travel Newsletter –December ‘03
TOPICS IN THIS
ISSUE:
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SF Shop Day,
Next Wed 12/17 – Alaska Featured
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Trip Report –
Crocodile Bay, Costa Rica
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Fly Fishing
Quips and Quotes
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Striped Bass –
New Delta Record On The Fly
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Fly Fishing
Travel Gift Certificates…..or just gifts
This is the
nineteenth edition of our monthly newsletter with
updates on great fly fishing venues and insights for
our traveling fly fishers. We want to help you
match the right location with your fly fishing goals
and objectives and properly prepare you to fully
enjoy the experience. We’ve been to most locations
and pride ourselves on our ability to research new
sites. Whatever unbiased information on timing and
locations we can provide comes at the same cost to
you as booking direct – i.e., no extra cost.
SF
SHOP DAY NEXT WED – ALASKA FEATURED
Fly Fish Alaska: a
slide presentation featuring the varied species
available in Alaska. Also, the best areas, times,
lodges, and locations with a focus on trophy rainbow
trout and fishing with the brown and grizzly bears
of Katmai National Park. Alaska shows will be at
12:30pm and 5:00pm. Also, at 4:00pm, we’ll be
showing our “Fly Fishing Earth’s Pristine
Destinations” slides. I’ll be in the shop from
10:30am through the evening and look forward to
meeting any of you that have a free minute to stop
in. In addition to the scheduled times mentioned
above, I’m also available for private viewing of
slides of any of our destinations on an appointment
basis (including our last weeks trip to Crocodile
Bay). Please hit reply if you’d like to arrange an
appointment and we’ll target your interests.
CROCODILE BAY LODGE, COSTA RICA – TRIP REPORT
(this is an
abbreviated version of our trip report on Crocodile
Bay Lodge – a full day-by-day dairy of our trip can
be e-mailed via a “word document.”)
We’ve added
Crocodile Bay to our “A” list of destinations after
receiving very positive reports from trusted travel
clients. This was my first personal visit. My
wife, Marte, and I spent the first week in December
fishing and enjoying Crocodile Bay Lodge on the Osa
Peninsula in the southwest corner of Costa Rica.
Looking at a map, the Golfo Dulce (the large bay
bordered by the Osa) is easily located just north of
the Panama border on the Pacific coast.
What it is:
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a quality
tropical lodge in one of the “most ecologically
intense places on earth, the Osa Penninsula” (as
described by National Geographic).
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People were
wonderful – from the maintenance people to all
the hotel staff and guides, everyone was eager
to accommodate and make our stay as pleasant as
possible.
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Food was “good
to great” and several choices were provided for
each meal.
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Accommodations
range from comfortable, air-conditioned double
queen rooms to three bedroom houses which can be
rented by a family or group of friends.
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Also, conference
facilities for up to 80 people are available.
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Rods and reels
(fly and gear equipment available for clients to
use at no-charge), boats and motors, and
virtually all equipment was top quality and well
maintained.
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A multi-purpose
destination. Most of the people we met during
our week were couples combining fishing with the
varied activities available including rain
forest tours (even repelling in the forest
canopy and waterfalls for the adventurous),
butterfly farm (on property), kayaking, beach
and rain-forest horseback rides, bird watching,
world-class surfing, snorkeling and diving,
botanical gardens, and gold panning.
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One of the
world’s best destinations for trophy offshore
sailfishing (both fly and gear) for fish that
average 90-100 pounds – a very large average
size sailfish. Also, the offshore fishing is
great for dorado and, during the right times,
marlin and tuna.
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Inshore (the bay
and coastline) provide trophy roosterfish,
snappers, trevally, snook, jacks, and skip jack
tuna.
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An area with
very defined weather patterns. The rainy season
normally ends in early Dec – unfortunately for
us, that would probably mean mid-Dec this year
as we caught the end of the rainy period. The
summer starts at the conclusion of the rainy
season and they have very little rain with
mostly blue skies through April.
What it’s not:
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The “pure fly
fishing destination” I was hoping for. I was
determined to spend my time fly fishing hoping
that I would find a “Belize type” snook, jack,
and snapper fishery with the added bonus of
roosterfish and the offshore options. The only
real inshore “sight and stalk” fly rod
experience (that appeared to be reliable) were
the schools of 2-4 pound black skip jack tuna
inside the bay. On a 7 or 8 weight rod, these
were great fish and could be taken by watching
for the numerous schools chasing minnows on the
surface in the mornings. We could get our boat
within 40 to 60 feet of the exploding fish and
put a cast into them - a fun way to start the
day when we fished inshore. My number one goal
was to take a large roosterfish on the fly.
While I did manage one small 7-pound “schoolie
rooster” on a popper, I realized after three
days of trying that the big rooster I was
looking for would be taken by live bait and not
by casting a fly to a sighted fish. However, we
did take two 30 pounders, one 40, and a
magnificent 50 pound fish on live bait after I
decided that I was no longer a “purist.” I also
took a beautiful 6# Golden Trevally on a clouser
while blind casting to rocky shorelines.
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Offshore –
originally, I didn’t plan to do any offshore
fishing because of my strong tendency to motion
sickness. And I was aware that the best
offshore fishing doesn’t heat up until January.
However, the dinner time conversation got the
best of me as I listened to the success stories
of the day and getting a sailfish on the fly
sounded exciting. Our first offshore day
resulted in a 25 pound dorado taken on a fly.
Three sails were raised and two were hooked on a
cast fly – one had the hook pull loose and the
second broke the class tippet after an
electrifying run. The second of our offshore
days was greeted with poor weather and the only
fish taken was an 8 pound skip jack tuna with a
cast fly to a school that was crashing bait. I
also learned an effective new approach to
preparing my stomach to deal with the motion of
the offshore boat!!
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It’s not Mexico
or the typical Central American country – Costa
Rica is a wonderful country that has set itself
apart from other Central American countries. A
forward thinking government has poured the
country’s resources into education, health
services and infrastructure. It’s the most
politically and socially stable country south of
our border. The people we found throughout
Costa Rica were a very positive aspect of the
entire experience.
Logistics: Left SFO
on American at 10:30am, connected through Dallas to
San Jose, Costa Rica landing about 9:00pm (Central
Time). Overnighted in San Jose and took a 50 minute
flight the next morning to Puerto Jimenez (5 minutes
from the lodge). Returning, left Puerto Jimenez at
9:40 and landed in San Fran at 10:45 that evening.
I think Continental has similar schedules connecting
through Houston.
FLY FISHING QUIPS AND QUOTES
“….the sporting
qualities of a fish are dependent neither on its
size or its weight, but on the effort of
concentration, the skill and mastery it demands from
the fisherman.”
Charles Ritz
DELTA STRIPED BASS RECORD
Last months
newsletter mentioned some delta striper results and
a “fantasy day” had by Paul Wilms. Well, Paul is
back and this time with what I think is a delta
record for a striper caught on a fly. While fishing
with Mike Costello last week, Paul released a 42
pounder. Those of you who have seen the Belize
video will recognize Paul – he’s the guy who modeled
the pink Tarponwear pants and had the big tarpon
almost spool him. Lots of big fish taken in the
delta this season. 20 pounders have been fairly
common and some 30’s have showed up – then Paul’s 42
(he was not wearing the pink pants).
SANTA AND FLY FISHING TRAVEL
If you’d like fly
fishing travel packages to be part of your holiday
season gift giving, we have an outstanding selection
and gift certificates to present. From father-son
type trips to couples fly fishing adventures (like
Ladies Week at the famous Three Rivers Ranch in
Idaho), there is a broad range of possibilities.
Gifts like these have to be customized to meet your
personal criteria. If you have some ideas to
discuss, give a call.
Either phone or drop
us an e-mail if you have questions or would like
more information about any of our destinations.
An enthusiastic
traveling fly fisherman,
Don Muelrath
Leland Fly Fishing
Adventures
888-347-4896
flyfish@napanet.net
www.flyfishingoutfitters.com
e-mail Josh Frazier
at
Josh@flyfishingoutfitters.com
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