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I mean, where do I begin with this post. I guess let’s start from the beginning, with how I ended up fishing in the first place. If you read my blog, which I hope you guys do, then you know last week I went to Costa Rica with a large group of thirteen. It was composed of my family, Matt’s family, two of my cousins and Matt’s sister’s boyfriend CJ. Way back in December when my Dad and I first starting planning the trip, and booking excursions, like our day in Manuel Antonio National Park, which you can read about here, we reached out to Matt’s family to see what activities they’d be interested in. Instantly CJ and Jessica responded with inquiries about fishing options. Both CJ and Jessica love fishing, from ice fishing in New Hampshire to fishing tournaments around New England, they were excited to take their fishing skills international, and I’m usually down for whatever might result in dynamic blog pictures.

On top of his love for fishing, CJ explained to me that Costa Rica’s warm Pacific water provides an ideal environment for fish like Sailfish, Mahi Mahi, Yellowfin Tuna, Marlin and most importantly the Roosterfish. Again, I really didn’t care about fishing and to my knowledge, it seemed like it would be a leisurely activity so my Dad and I signed everyone up for the excursion and then things got interesting. 

Again since we were such a big group of thirteen we ended up needing three boats. Boat one was assembled by my Dad, my Mom, Tessa and I. We instantly called ourselves the leisure boat or as I like to call it the blog boat. Boat two was assembled by my brother, my two cousins, and Matt. We thought this would be the helpless boat, as neither my brother nor Matt knows how to fish, so this boat was relying on Olivia and Bernadette, my two cousins to get all the fish. Boat number three was assembled of CJ, Jessica, Matt’s parents and Ryan (Matt’s brother). We called this boat the competitive boat because both CJ and Jessica are competitive fishers and we thought for sure they would have the most success. So we all boarded our boats and went our separate ways, and it was all downhill from there. 

So back to my boat, the four of us boarded our boat and our captain, who speaks only Spanish thank goodness for my AP Spanish years, asks me what fish we are after. My Dad instantly says Roosterfish as that was the fish CJ and Jessica were most excited to catch, due to the fact that it was regional to Costa Rica. Little did we know what we had just signed up for. I mean stay with me here it gets good. Boat number two requested to go fishing for Mahi Mahi and boat number three requested to do both.

Okay, fast forward two hours into our five-hour fishing shenanigans, aka the moment I was starting to relate to the Life of Pi book in all the wrong ways. Sitting on our boat with our three fishing lines out to sea with no bites, no shade, and gigantic ocean waves was making me crispy. And guys I was literally crispy so sunburnt and dehydrated, to say the least. The four of us rotated taking breaks from our non-active fishing lines to shoot some blog photos, while our boat was rocking and rolling with waves fit for the movie Castaway. Finally three hours into fishing we caught our first bite. We get our cameras ready to see the fish but again the joke is on us because these fish are big, beautiful and strong. Long story short, It took us over an HOUR to reel in the fish…I repeat an HOUR! Okay now we are on hour three, we finally see the fish get our picture taken with her release her back to see. Around this time I mentally decided to retire from my fishing career. 

But our captain says we must persist so Tessa and I head to the front of the boat and snap more pictures before arriving at our next reef to fish at. By hour four we are the definition of a hot mess. The waves are getting rockier, the sweat is unmanageable and the sun is set at high noon. As Tessa and I were huddled at the front of the boat looking for shade we synonymously get hit by a few big waves. Tessa and I are officially done and are trying to figure out how to get this boat to shore when I couldn’t hold it down any longer.

 Just like that, I turn around and threw up everything I had eaten for what felt like the last four days. It was rough, it was gross but we ended up catching one more Roosterfish, which Matt attuned to my chum #gross. Anyway, we ended up catching and releasing two Roosterfishes which is almost unheard of within our five hour time fishing. Apparently, you could go out fishing for a Roosterfish and end up with nothing at all.

We were happy our sweat, throw up and dedication resulted in at least two beautiful fish. As soon as hour five struck our boat headed back in towards the docks and the four of us were exhausted, sunburnt and drenched in sweat as we waited for the other boats to pull in. Low and behold boat number two pulls in with my brother, Matt and my two cousins. They ended up catching a total of 23 little fishes as the group decided to skip the entire concept of Rooster fishing and settle on more of a booze cruise than my Life of Pi adventures. Actually head over to Instagram stories to see the fish Matt caught vs the fish we caught, I mean our experiences could not have been different. I was on deadliest catch and he was on below deck, to put it nicely. 

Even though I don’t think I’ll be jumping on the opportunity to fish anytime soon, it was a memorable day, to say the least. Oh and I felt like my outfit was on point for the excursion. I wore this tiered gingham vineyard vines beach dress on top of this bathing suit, oh and don’t forget a big floppy hat for sun protection. Without that hat, I would have turned into one gigantic sunburn. All and all Quepos Costa Rica is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been and I honestly can’t wait to share more pictures with you guys soon. 

Okay, now I want to hear from you! Do you guys like fishing and if so where is your favorite place to catch fish? Let me know in the comment section below. 

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