Thought I'd pass along a short report from my recent trip to Costa Rica. I spent a day fishing in the jungle for Machaca with a friend. As it turned out, we were a few weeks early for prime Machaca fishing, but we got a few fish and had an interesting, fun day on the water. These fish are a lot of fun to catch, but there's a few things you should know before you go.
We booked a day with a local guide. Great human being and very knowledgeable. He lives right on the river and guides fly fishing at lower water and white water rafting at high water. We floated in a regular river raft. No frame, so we were sitting on the sides and casting. As far as I can tell, rafts with a frame and casting platform are not a thing in Costa Rican river fishing. It's mostly done from inflatables, drifting and casting. So, not the most comfortable experience, but definitely a jungle experience. If someone took a proper drift boat down there, it would make for some amazing fishing. The prices are similar to US prices. We probably could have negotiated down a bit, but just paid the going rate.
Machaca are primarily fruit eaters, and they become particularly aggressive when the chilamate fruit (https://osa-arboretum.org/plant/ficus-insipida/) are in the river. When we fished, there were only a few of these fruit ripe enough to drop off the trees, so the fish weren't really in high gear. The way to fly fish for them is to use a fly that looks like the chilamate fruit: Basically, it's a cork shaped into a 3/4-inch sphere and painted army green. The fruits fall into the water and the fish attack when they hit, so the key to catching Machaca is to fling your fly hard onto the water so it sounds like a fruit falling from the tree. This isn't your elegant dry fly fishing. It's literally pounding the water with your fly: Cast, wait 2 seconds, back-cast, and slap it back down on the water. We were using 7 wt rods, which was appropriate for these hard fighting fish, but a bit much on my casting arm. It's constant slap-backcast-slap-backcast-slap all day long. So not particularly relaxing, but when you get a fish on, they are great fun. I would recommend a fast 6 wt if you go yourself, and definitely bring gloves (see my hands in the pics), both to protect your hands from the sun and to avoid blisters from the constant hammering of your casts. My buddy started to develop a blister on his casting hand.
Below are a few pictures of the river and some fish, including a double that my friend and I caught. Altogether a fun day. Glad I did it at least once, and added a new species to my list.
We booked a day with a local guide. Great human being and very knowledgeable. He lives right on the river and guides fly fishing at lower water and white water rafting at high water. We floated in a regular river raft. No frame, so we were sitting on the sides and casting. As far as I can tell, rafts with a frame and casting platform are not a thing in Costa Rican river fishing. It's mostly done from inflatables, drifting and casting. So, not the most comfortable experience, but definitely a jungle experience. If someone took a proper drift boat down there, it would make for some amazing fishing. The prices are similar to US prices. We probably could have negotiated down a bit, but just paid the going rate.
Machaca are primarily fruit eaters, and they become particularly aggressive when the chilamate fruit (https://osa-arboretum.org/plant/ficus-insipida/) are in the river. When we fished, there were only a few of these fruit ripe enough to drop off the trees, so the fish weren't really in high gear. The way to fly fish for them is to use a fly that looks like the chilamate fruit: Basically, it's a cork shaped into a 3/4-inch sphere and painted army green. The fruits fall into the water and the fish attack when they hit, so the key to catching Machaca is to fling your fly hard onto the water so it sounds like a fruit falling from the tree. This isn't your elegant dry fly fishing. It's literally pounding the water with your fly: Cast, wait 2 seconds, back-cast, and slap it back down on the water. We were using 7 wt rods, which was appropriate for these hard fighting fish, but a bit much on my casting arm. It's constant slap-backcast-slap-backcast-slap all day long. So not particularly relaxing, but when you get a fish on, they are great fun. I would recommend a fast 6 wt if you go yourself, and definitely bring gloves (see my hands in the pics), both to protect your hands from the sun and to avoid blisters from the constant hammering of your casts. My buddy started to develop a blister on his casting hand.
Below are a few pictures of the river and some fish, including a double that my friend and I caught. Altogether a fun day. Glad I did it at least once, and added a new species to my list.
