Costa Rica Tarpon, and a world class eco tour

[Hypoxic1]

I want to begin by thanking Jim Sammons, and Ex Officio for taking Sandra and I on an epic journey which was truly life changing. After landing in San Jose we were picked up by private charter service and taken to a local hotel for the night.

At 0600 the following morning we had a private van pick us up for a short drive to the local smaller airport, where we were to board a private flight to The Silver King lodge at Barra Del Colorado. This lodge lies 9 miles south of the Nicaraguan border on the river not far from where it meets the Caribbean sea.

There are 12 rooms at the Silver King. All are built on stilts with an elevated wood path connecting them together. These rooms are all set up for double occupancy with most of the amenities you would expect at a fine hotel.

Fishing here isn’t cheap, about $ 3000 American for a 3 day package, which is all they book. I was only there for one day as part of the sweepstakes, to fish on Jims show.

On final to the airfield the strip looked like a postage stamp. I have a few thousand hours of private flying but was still impressed with our pilots professionalism and skill at putting it right on the numbers, not wasting one foot of runway. The field has a few resident dogs that like to lay in the middle until just before the planes is going to squash them.

When a new guest arrives the owners sister who runs the place, comes out by boat to the strip to greet the new arrivals, and send off anyone who may be leaving. The feeling is one of being very welcome immediately. They load up the passengers and the fresh vegetables the plane has flown out and off we go on the pontoon boat to the lodge. The run up river to the lodge is about half a mile and very scenic with the periodic crocodile if you look very close.

When we got to the lodge Jim and Will, the videographer and a few of Jims friends Joe, and Steve from the Pacific side, had already been out fishing for an hour so a skiff was arranged to take me and Sandra out to meet them. When we left the river it was about 5 minutes at 15 knots before we got to the collision line between clean ocean water and the brown river water. It was a perfect line as if drawn by a pen. They were another few miles north fishing a few hundred yards apart, using what the guides referred to as Sardinias, but I knew them as Pilchards when I was on the east coast. Im pretty sure all of the kayaks were Tarpons also…fitting.

About an hour after I arrived Jim hooked up and brought a nice 60 lb fish to the boat , took the video and pix then off it went. Clean release. I did see it jump a few times. Beautiful. When this thing is a few years older it will be a monster.

They fish till 11 or so then its time to go back up river for a dip in the pool, lunch, and siesta. The lodge calls everyone to the dining room by ringing a giant bell. Food is served buffet style and It was delicious.

During lunch I learned that there were guys from Finland, England, Norway, and Japan. Most of these guys were fly fishermen looking for that crown jewel, the 200 lb Tarpon. I saw that one guy actually was on the scoreboard from the past week with a 180 lb’r.

After lunch it is an hour siesta, then back to the boats . Sandra had tired of the yak deal so she stayed on the boat and Steve went back in the water on his yak. After about 3 hours of fishing I had reaffirmed that I did indeed know how to paddle in spite of being a Hobie guy, and it was very enjoyable.

The thing with tarpon is the drift, no trolling a dead bait. I had my rod setting across my lap, between my legs so I could thumb the reel and feel any hits on the line. At about 3 pm my line slowly starts to roll of the reel. Not wanting to be too eager I let it keep slowly casually peeling off and get on the radio to say “chris is bit……Chris is ON!!!” just as I set it. This was to call over the camera boat so they could film the action. I expected a huge run but instead I got a giant truck that didn’t seem to even care that I was hooked up. Its entirely possible that this huge fish didn’t realize it was hooked because It was pulling me around like I was hooked to a seal. After about 30 minutes the fish was about 5 feet from my boat, and about 5 feet down……no jumps……what the hell? Then Will kindly reminds me that this fish is a monster and real green still so I let out a little line so if it did jump it didn’t land on me. Jim rolls in and grabs the back of my yak to give the fish more drag then BOOM!! It launches into one magnificent jump that was nothing short of spectacular. About 5 minutes later I did something stupid and dreaded with the lever drag….bumped it outta gear and got a freespool backlash that wrapped around the lever before I put it back in gear. With all of the adrenaline I wasn’t able to diagnose the problem and the fish sounded and broke off. What the hell it was going back home anyway, no matter what. The guides estimated from the jump view that the fish was something on the order of 130 lbs. For sure the biggest fish I have had on a kayak. Losing it was a little disappointing but I was more concerned with letting the rest of the guys down as we were getting video for one of the shows. After that there were to be no more fish for us that day but Jim and the guys were staying for a few more days to complete the show. It was time for Sandra and I to have dinner with the group go to sleep and move on to other adventures for the week. I will be posting the rest of the trip on my facebook if anyones curious in the next few days.


Once again This was truly a world class experience with a bunch of great guys. Many thanks to Jim, Joe, Steve and the Costa Rica crew for making us a part of their adventure. Also Many HUGE thanks to Ex Officio for making this possible, providing us with some excellent clothing and the adventure of a lifetime!!

PURA VIDA!!