Fishing With Chris

We were out for a half day today with some folks from Maryland and things had been going kinda slow for most of the morning but that was about to change once we started working a little known rock not far from the Quepos harbor. Our target was big Cubera snappers, but there are schools of roosterfish and various other snappers here as well as some big broomtails.

We put out a few live baits (lookdowns and sardines) and started working the rock in slow circles stopping here and there to let the baits settle. It wasn’t but a few minutes before my bite came, a nervous bait followed by the bite and then it was on. As soon as I locked up this fattie freaked and headed back for his hole, but I put as much pressure as this spinning rod and the 50# braid could handle and was able to slow him enough to jump on the throttles and get us off of the rock. The slob grouper had busted my ass pretty good in the process of getting him off of the bottom and once he was a few feet away from the rock, I offered the rod to whichever of the 2 clients wanted it, but after seeing the hell that had broken loose in just getting him off of the bottom, both clients denied the rod offering and I have to say, I was silently exuberant as it is my job to hook up and pass the rod, but this time, I was to do the slaying myself.

This fish, as you’d imagine, was able to take line with ease whenever he tried and after getting us out of the 70 feet of water and into 140, this fish made three runs toward the bottom, each time I got him close, he’d simply swim back to the bottom. I can’t say how long the fight lasted, or how big the fish was, but I sure was excited about getting the gaff into this one and hauling it aboard as it is one of those that usually get the best of us and I was lucky enough to get this one on a spinner which makes it even more awsome!

Ok, folks, here is where you get to leave any feedback about fishing with Chris or other services rendered. While negative feedback will quickly be deleted, I will approve all positive feedback in a prompt manner.

The president came to town this week…bfd. He came to celabrate the completion of the bridge that is a hundred yards from my house, the bridge that took almost 6 years to complete. This is no ordinary feat of construction, no sir, this is a 2 lane bridge(1 in each direction) that spans a masive crevase in the earth where a 3 foot deep mangrove tributary creek trickles along below.

Did I mention that the construction of this engineering milestone took nearly 6 years and in those 6 years numerous lives were lost at the decrepid existing 1 lane bridge that should have been put out of its misery and replaced long ago.

Anyway, the pres was on his way so the locals were out rendomly paving some of the ‘trouble spots’ that Costa Ricas president might be likely to see during his visit. They even sanded the graffiti off of the month old bridge and painted the now silver handrail hoping that nobody would mention to the pres that the south side of the structure had already shifted leaving a larger than before gap in between the new bridge and the asphalt. Maybe they were able to arrange some flower pots to hide the blemish during the cutting of the tape…

…yes this was a proud moment for the pres, the marina that is being built by gringos in Quepos had to step in and fund and oversee the completion of this bridge because the Costa Rican government had managed to misspend all of the funds that had been alotted for the bridge over the past 6 years and his almightiness would stand right up there and shamelessly cut the tape dedicating the bridge to something, I’ll have to ask somebody what.

From my standpoint, this meant traffic jams in front of my house due to the pres first in the highschool 100 yards to the north and then at the bridge 100 yards to the south. I couldn’t see my lawyer because he was waiting for the president and I needed to find something to do and fast. I took my children and the woman who spawned them for a day in the boat to a nearby beach for some swimming lessons and scrubbing the hull, it beat the heck out of watching from my front row seat on my patio as the ticos patted themselves on the back for something that they had more to do with screwing up than with actually accomplising.

I did my first handful of charters with the new Kinembe II this past week and couldn’t be happier. We spent 2 days offshore and another 3 inshore and it was all action. The 2 days offshore were spent “meat fishing” and we did not look for any sailfish, but caught lots of wahoo, a couple dorado, a handful of snapper, 1 yellowfin tuna, a bunch of amberjack including my personal biggest at i’m guessing conservatively, seventy some pounds…but the highlight was the 400+ black marlin that we released on saturday. The inshore days produced good sized rooster fish, snapper and some jacks. For complete reports, check out These Fishing Reports on the Kinembe II website.

Our bitch, Mateu, the owner of Costa Boats finally “finished” the boat and when it was delivered I was not surprized to find that he did not do nearly what he was expected or even what he was paid to do. The compass and VHF radio are not here, the two rod holders that were paid for as was the installation fee are nowhere to be seen. The washdown pump had been wired on the negative, but the positive wire went nowhere, though he assured me that it had been working…it had never been connected.
These are just a few of the goofups, The name is not even on the side of the boat even though he was provided with the art on cd. Matt (the bitch) speaks mostly french, and while he speake english just fine, he likes to act like he doesn’t understand when it is something he doesn’t want to hear.

Anyway, the petty stuff aside, the boat kicks ass! The twin Yamaha 4 strokes purr like kittens and move the “Kinembe II” along at mach 3 or somewhere thereabout. I have been connecting the electronics and getting her ready to fish over the past few days and in fact am on my way out the door now to rig the outriggers and mount the teaser reels.

Even though the bitch is playing games, I am very happy with the boat and look forward to a lot of fish catching in it.

Blog what? I don’t really get it, but what the heck, let’s see if anybody really gives a rats ass what i have to say.

I guess I’ll be writing about fishing alot as that is my work and what I do most. I s’pose I could mention the kids now and then, I’ve got two of them these days and they come with a mother too, I forget her name.

Guys, check out my other sites and send them around to anybody you think might give a damn, and of course anybody interested in fishing vacations. And don’t forget to visit some of my sponsors adds to participate in my ‘nickle at a time fortune’ plan.

Leave some coments once in awhile so I know that I’m not just typing to myself here and I’ll try to post something interesting once in awhile.

So, we’re just over two weeks into the one week project and the “salesguy” from Yamaha calls to tell me that the dual engine control that is on the boat won’t work with the new Yamaha motors.

(me) “But you told me when I bought the motors that the controls were universal and would work even though the boat had previously had Evinrudes”…

(salesguy) yes, Mr. Bernstel, I know and I apologize, but you will need to buy the new Yamaha control – $700″…

(me) …”No, you will need to make these controls work with the Yamahas or else I will need to cancel my new Yamahas and buy Etec motors from the Evinrude dealer to match the ‘universal’ controls in the boat”…

(salesguy the following day) …”Well, Mr. Bernstel, after furthur inspection of the boat, it seems that if we just make some modifications blah blah blah, we should be able to make the controls work with the new motors…but we will need some new cables as the ones I told you were universal are not universal after all”…

(me) just shaking my head in disbeliefe.

They don’t call it “Tico Time” for nothing. An hours turns to a day, a day to a week, a week to a month and so the story goes.

The fact that the week originaly needed to complete the additions and changes has now turned into over two is just par for the course. We are after all in a third world country and it is obvious why it’s third and questionable how the country rose to it’s current third world rank. I have learned to believe in de-evolution.

If you have nothing better to do, go check out some Costa Rica scuba diving tours.

Things went ok for the most part this past week in San Jose, let’s hope the coming week goes as well. The boat is almost ready and the shiny new Yamahas should be mounted by mid week and with a little luck the boat could be here in Quepos by next weekend. Since we are in Costa Rica and things hardly ever work out in the planned timeframe, we’ll give it 3 weeks.

Last nights wether was more than expected and riding to the pier this morning i saw some of the damage. There were 2 50-60 foot sailboats lying on the beach as was one of the “BlueFin” boats. The “Bendicion” was another boat that broke loose from its moring and ended up on the beach but was removed last night. Another 2 boats, the 30′ “Golden Marlin” was on the bottom and the 24′ “High Tech” was upside down. That is the fishermans nightmare, I’ve been there and i don’t wish it on anybody.

So tomorrow afternoon we’ll be meeting at the Costa Boats (San Jose, Costa Rica) showroom to hopefully purchase a new boat. I met with Mateo, the owner, and his staff last week and looked over a 2 year old 25′ “Samara” that we were able to agree on what I think is a pretty fair price for the boat in its condition. Additionaly Mateo agreed to handle a few of the blemishes and shine her up a bit at no charge.

The plan is to get to the showroom and then head over to the workshop where they are touching up the minor details and get an idea of how fast they are moving. If all goes well, they have it about done and we will move on to the motors.

With a little luck, by friday we at least have decided on what to put on her…1 big one or two smaller ones. There are pros and cons to both, the most obvious is with the one big motor if something breaks, you aren’t moving. Enter the “kicker motor” option which pretty much just hangs a few thousand dollars off the back of the boat with the hopes of never actually needing to use it. And should the need arise to return on the “mini” motor one day, it will be at a whopping 5-6 knots. That’s a six hour ride from 30 miles, leading into the thought of 2 usable motors. Twin motors have long been the standard among outboard boats in Central america because of the remoteness and risk in being afloat with a broken single motor. This is less of a concern here in Quepos with more boats out there and better odds of contacting help, but nothing’s guaranteed.