64. Here Fishy Fishy

Monday 1/31/22- It is the end of January, and to many people that means many different things, but to people in the tax prep world (like I have recently become a part of), this marks the beginning of filing season.

Tax Doing Taxes GIFfrom Tax GIFs

Granted, those first few weeks can be pretty slow since people are still getting their paperwork together- but this is besides the point. Any day now I could start getting cases assigned for me to work, so I was kind of excited about that. I’m still doing quite a few classes on all things tax related right now too. As I was working this morning, the internet suddenly went out. This happens once in a while, but usually within a few minutes it comes right back up. Today, though, it didn’t. Of course! Work could be coming in and I would never even know it. Well, nothing I can really do about it, so we just went on with our day. By bedtime it still hadn’t come back on, and honestly when that is the case, you don’t know if it is going to be out for days, a week, or what, so now what do I do?!

Tuesday 2/1/22- When we got up this morning, early as always, the internet still wasn’t back on. Ramie got on Whatsapp (the main way to make calls and communicate here) and messaged the internet company who replied quickly. They said that there was an issue and they hoped to have it up by the end of the day. While this was bad news for me regarding being able to work, it was good news for me in another way! Paul, a classmate of Ramie’s, contacted him a while ago to let us know that he would be visiting Costa Rica with his wife and daughter and might want to meet up one day. Earlier this week he had contacted Ramie to see if he had any contacts to go deep sea fishing, and if he would be willing to set up a trip for him and his family, and Ramie could come with. Ramie spent a few days calling around to various fishing charters and ended up booking one that could take up to 4 adults. I didn’t figure that I would be going with due to work, but since the internet was down and we didn’t have a clue when it might come back up, I decided that I might as well go with them instead of being bored sitting at home with no way to work.

We had to meet Paul, Erin (wife), Naomi (daughter), and the fishing crew at the marina in Quepos at 9am. Quepos is about an hour drive from Uvita, and we got a call from Geiner yesterday saying that he wanted to meet us at the house today. He was able to meet us early enough that we could stop and chat with him before we had to be on the road. We met with Geiner at the house around 7am to go over some more of the last few detail type items. He would have a partial crew working for a few more days, but he’s really gone as far as he can on most things until the rest of the subcontractors (windows, cabinets, electrical) do their part. He did want to talk to us about our plans for the fence and gate, though. He has a crew to work on those things so he wants to hear our ideas, get the materials ordered, and get working on that. We discussed the ideas we had in mind for the gate and fence around the property, he had a good understanding of what we were looking for, and then we got on the road to Quepos.

We made pretty good time driving up there and got to the marina a little bit early. We got a chance to hang out and look at all of the beautiful boats down in the water. There were a few sailboats and quite a few fishing boats, but we were shocked at how many luxury yachts were docked here. Man, there is a TON of money sitting in this little section of ocean!! 

Before too long Paul, Erin, and Naomi showed up, then not long after that the owner of the fishing boat showed up to bring us down to his boat and crew. Robby was our Captain and Kenneth was the first mate that would be helping us fish. It didn’t take long to get the boat untied from the dock and moving out to sea. We would be “driving” fast out into the deeper water for about an hour, at which time we would slow down to trolling speed to start fishing. We were told that unfortunately the tuna were too far out, it would take another extra hour to get out that far, but there were mahi-mahi, marlin, and sailfish being caught in the area we would be going. Once we got out of the marina, Robby turned up the speed and before long we were flying across the water. 

The engines were loud so it made it difficult to talk. We watched as Kenneth got all of the fishing gear ready, artificial bait and real bait rigged up, fishing poles ready to be casted, etc. Kenneth also told us that the water was rougher today than it had been the last few days. We were really bouncing around today, and I guess it was almost completely smooth earlier this week. It wasn’t so bad, though, and we actually had a very enjoyable ride. Erin and Naomi went down below and were napping as we were heading out to sea, the rest of us were just watching the ocean go by. Once we got to the fishing grounds, we slowed down significantly and Kenneth casted out the “bait” and 7 lines. And now, we wait! 

Erin was the one who really wanted to go deep sea fishing, so the plan was that she would get to catch one first, Ramie would get to go 2nd, I volunteered to go last since I was really only along for the ride, but Paul insisted that I would go 3rd, and he would go last since has gone deep sea fishing several times in the past. 

Bert Ernie GIFfrom Bert GIFs

After a little while, suddenly Kenneth jumped up and grabbed one of the poles with the real bait to set the hook. After some excitement, unfortunately, the fish got away. When he reeled it in to re-cast, there wasn’t even a bite out of the bait. I guess that first fish wasn’t too hungry. Some more time went by and again, Kenneth jumped up to set the line on another bite. This one he was able to set. In the process of getting it ready to hand off to the first fisher, suddenly the line snapped. DAMN! That was a big fish and when the weight suddenly let go, the rod and reel came back and smashed Kenneth in the chest. He jumped around cursing and in pain for a little while before reeling in the line the rest of the way and putting that pole away. Of course, a good fisherman always has spares ready to go, and he put a new lure on a new pole and casted again. After he had all of this taken care of he told us that this very rarely happens and he had just changed out the line earlier this week. Also, unfortunately, the lure that he lost was about a $60 lure. Damn! Well, we were currently 0 for 2, the fish were winning.

Once again we were going along for the ride, waiting for another bite and finally it came! Kenneth grabbed the pole, set the hook, and said he needed the first person up to come take the pole. Well, at this point Erin & Naomi were still napping, so Ramie was nominated to go first. He sat in the chair, Kenneth handed him the pole, and told him to keep the line tight. He could try to reel the fish in some, but for now the need was to make sure there was no slack in the line until Kenneth could get the rest of the lines reeled in. While Ramie tried to reel in the fish, Kenneth reeled very fast on the other lines, got them all out of the water so there was no risk of getting tangled in our fish, and kept checking on Ramie to make sure things were going ok with the fish.

Once all 6 of the other lines were in the boat, captain Robby was able to slowly start backing the boat toward the fish behind us in order to help the process of reeling it in. Somewhere between the time Ramie first started reeling and when Robby started backing up the boat, Ramie realized that all of the reeling he was doing really wasn’t doing anything. The fish was pulling so hard that the drag wasn’t even pulling it in. Things went much quicker once the boat was moving toward the fish. While the fight was still real, it once again became keeping the line tight so the fish wouldn’t be able to unhook itself. They don’t use barbed hooks down here, so if there is any slack left to the fish, he might be able to spit the hook out and never even make it to the boat. After what felt like forever but was probably less than 15 minutes, the fish was almost up to the boat and we could see that it was a Sailfish. He would jump out of the water and continue to fight right up until Ramie had it right next to the boat. At that point, Kenneth reached over to grab it and haul it in. 

This was a feisty one! Kenneth fought with the fish for another few minutes, trying to wear it out so we could grab a few photos and let it go again. Sailfish, while a close relative of Marlin, are actually not good to eat, unfortunately, so it was catch & release with this guy. Kenneth was finally able to get the fish in the boat, we snapped some photos, and then they let it go again. Both Ramie and Kenneth were soaked with smelly, slimy fish water but Ramie had a blast! This fish was probably about 70 lbs, and as I mentioned, put up a heck of a fight. Ramie said that his arms were definitely tired, but the adrenaline made it worth it! Bucket list item checked off!

Once the fish was let go, Robby brought the boat back to forward trolling speed and Kenneth got to work putting out the 7 lines again in the hopes of bringing in some more! When all of the lines were out and looking good, Kenneth went to go make us some lunch. He made some delicious looking sandwiches for everyone, and when I declined he looked sad and rejected. I told him that I don’t eat bread, but I would make myself a lettuce wrap. He shook his head, told me he would take care of it, gave me the universal sign for “wait here for a minute” and went back down into the galley. After about 5 minutes he came up with a gourmet looking salad using all of the same ingredients he used on the sandwiches, minus the bread. He even put the leftover pineapple from the morning snack on it. He asked if this would work; it DEFINITELY would work. To be honest, this salad was probably better than you would get in most restaurants, and I told him that. Who would expect that on a deep sea fishing charter?!

We all got to enjoy our lunch uninterrupted, which unfortunately meant that we didn’t get any fish on the lines. It didn’t take too long, though, after lunch was all put away for another bite. The routine was the same as before. Kenneth got the hook set and made sure the fish was on, then called up the next person. This time it was Erin. He coached her just like he coached Ramie, making sure to keep the line tight until Kenneth could get the rest of the lines in. Kenneth then started to work on the other lines once again, and Ramie went up by Erin to continue encouraging her and keeping her reeling. Once the other lines were in, Robby started slowly backing up again, and before long the fish was near the boat and we could see it was another Sailfish. This one didn’t have as much fight when Kenneth brought it into the boat. He said this was far more normal, typically the Sailfish don’t fight as much as Ramie’s had. That is more of a Marlin characteristic. Kenneth got the fish up onto the boat, we got some photos of Erin with her fish which was slightly larger than Ramie’s, about 80 lbs, and then they let it go. Kenneth had finally dried off after the first fish, and now he was soaked again, as was Erin.

Once the fish was set free, Kenneth once again got all of those 7 lines back into the water and ready for the next fish. We continued trolling along, and had dolphins swim up near the boat several times. It was very cool to see them up close and swimming right along with us. We saw dolphins and sailfish jumping out in the distance, and had a nice time just out on the boat-- but that really isn’t what one of these charters is all about, is it? It was getting close to time to pull up the lines. Kenneth told us that we would have to start heading back in about 30 minutes, since we had an hour ride to get back to the marina. Then, wouldn’t you know it, we got another bite! Kenneth grabbed the fishing rod and tried to set the hook. He would set it, and reel some, then set it again, and was jumping around the boat trying to keep all of the lines from being tangled. He seemed to be having a much more difficult time with this one than he had with the other two. Was it a different type of fish? Was it a more feisty fish? We all waited watching Kenneth struggle to get everything under control with this one. I looked over at Paul and asked “are you sure you don’t want to take this one?” and he reassured me that I was up. 

Unfortunately, after all of Kenneth’s struggling, the fish got away. He looked so disappointed. Yes, it was disappointing that we didn’t get another fish, but not because I really wanted to be able to catch one, it’s not really a bucket-list item for me, but it was just disappointing to be so close and have it get away. The way I look at these fishing trips- I just go along for the ride. I will let other people go ahead and catch the fish first and I’m ok with that. If it gets to be my turn, I won’t say no- but it’s not something that I really really want to have happen, it’s just a bonus if I do. Don’t get me wrong- if we are getting tons of bites, I will for sure take my turn, but if I don’t get a turn, I won’t feel left out.

By now, it was just about time to go in, and there was no point in casting the line again. He reeled all of the lines in, and started putting things away. Once everything was inside the boat, Captain Robby turned up the speed and off we went back toward land. We could tell that something still seemed to be bothering Kenneth, and once he was done putting everything away he came to talk to us. He said that we never should have lost that fish. Unfortunately the Captain didn’t do a very good job at keeping the boat going straight. That’s why he was having such a hard time keeping the lines from getting tangled. If we had just gone in a straight line and kept everything straight behind us, things may have turned out differently. In Kenneth's opinion he was doing it on purpose so that we could get back to land. Yes, it’s unfortunate.

Our fast drive back was much smoother than our fast drive out there, the waves and wind had calmed down a lot. It was a nice boat ride back, we watched birds and other boats heading back into shore. There were a few jumping fish or dolphins out in the distance again. When we made it back to the marina it was getting pretty close to dusk, it was time to get on the road back home. Paul and Erin had about an hour drive back to their resort and still had to get their COVID tests done so they could head back to the US tomorrow. We had an hour drive home, and a doggy that had been cooped up in the house all day. After just a few more minutes of chatting, we all went our separate ways. Ramie said it was really nice to catch up with Paul since they really haven't seen each other probably since graduation. We made it back home in time for a late dinner and discovered that the internet was back on. That’s great, now I actually get to start work tomorrow!