Costa Rica on the fly – From Marlin to Machaca

We were visiting Quepos in Costa Rica with plans of fishing for more marlin and sailfish in the electric blue waters of the Pacific coast of this beautiful country. It was our fifth visit, living & loving the Pura Vida. A suggestion was made to consider a day of freshwater fishing for machaca.
Isn’t machaca a side dish someone asked? We laughed, but since it really didn’t translate that well, no one else did. We were presented the opportunity to fish with a former Colorado guide (who isn’t a former Colorado guide these days) who created a business of fly fishing the local rapids from a modified drift boat. Sounds unconventional, dangerous and obscure…..how could we say no?
We unequivocally fish saltwater for large predatory fish on the flats and blue water, well most of the time anyway. In the past, exceptions have been made for peacock bass, salmon, and musky. I’m pretty sure we we wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to fish for golden dorado again either.  There was just something unexplainably appealing about traveling down class II and class III rapids while casting a 4 weight. Transport picked us up at our lodge at the very comfortable hour of 8 AM and we were on our way.
We were brought to a little bakery in Quepos for a fresh breakfast, coffee and a description of what to expect. “The river is teeming with machaca”, he said. Machaca is the very aggressive fresh water species known for their vicious hits and strong fight. They are related to the piranha and have very prominent teeth however they exist on a primary vegetarian diet. The locals refer to machaca as “mini tarpon” as they are acrobatic once hooked completing several leaps before landing. Our guide had a smug confidence about him stating that “this is one of the worlds best unknown fisheries in the world….you’ll see”.
After a coffee refill, we bought lots of snacks like handmade candy, a few pieces of fresh baked goodness in a take away bag and up the mountain we went. The chosen path was south on highway 34 from Quepos to the Rio Savegre.
It was about a 30 minute drive on the main road, a quick stop to pick up the transport team then a 35 minute offroad trek of spine crunching pot holes and nothing but dirt & bush. It seemed as if we were the only people to venture this far in the jungle but that was only because the plant life is so proliferative there. I was pretty sure that we just experienced what riding a runaway camel was like, our gear bags and fly boxes in the back of the truck were proof of this. Not one thing was where it was supposed to be and there was possibly a few items missing.  While our guide was getting the drift boat down to the water, we scrambled to organize our equipment. I tried to find some flies to use.
Just a hunch but we were pretty sure Machaca wouldn’t eat a 12 inch pink & white popper or a 6 inch baitfish pattern.
This was a saltwater trip for Marlin, Sailfish & Roosters so we weren’t really prepared for small freshwater fish. We found some Clousers, a few small DNA minnows and some other little baitfish stuff and our confidence began to increase.

Our guide walked up to the truck from the launch site and asked “what are you gonna do with those”?
“Fish for machaca”,I replied.
“They won’t eat those”.
“You know what they eat… they eat these!” as he holds a brown and black wooly bugger under my nose.

“Wooly buggers…Get out!” “
“The one and only” he replied. “You’ll see” he says as he walks down to the river gesturing with his hand for us to follow.

Down to the river bed we went to throw a few practice casts and begin the water portion of this adventure. Hopefully it wouldn’t be as bumpy as the first part. Looking down the river at the huge rocks and turbulent waters, we started to think it might be worse. The river was amazing with numerous scenic runs. Toucans and various species of native rain forest birds made appearances. This relaxing, leisurely drift was occasionally interrupted by tenuous swirls of breaking water moving with great speed and power. I was foolishly standing on the main deck in front for the early part of the rapids to shoot some video but thankfully, luck was on our side and no one went overboard….well not accidentally at least.
The casting was unconventional. The goal was to roll cast incorrectly (yes, to intentionally cast in a flawed manner) to create a splash in the water mimicking nuts falling off the overhanging trees. We cast and cast for almost three hours before we got our first machaca.  A little 1 lb. fish that didn’t jump. What a gyp!

It was an unusually slow day so as our guides confidence faded he started asking the locals who were fishing from the banks how the bite was.
They all held up stringers full of fish. What were we doing wrong? Initially we blamed the wooly bugger, who would fish a trout fly for a “minitarpon” but that wasn’t the fly.
The river was quiet that day and most of the fish we had seen on stringers were caught overnight and in the early morning. It was an unusual day for sure. After managing only one more machaca and maybe a few hook ups we were already nearing the river bed bottom.
Our arms fatigued after casting at least 500 times, we weren’t unhappy to see the journey coming to an end.
At least there was a nice lunch break under some shade during the day. It was a pretty disappointing day overall. If it wasn’t for a nice lunch and some great scenery we probably would have been very displeased. At least our guide was nice.
He apologized profusely for the lack of production but as much as he would like to think so, he really doesn’t control nature and it really wasn’t his fault. There are countless rivers and river tours in Costa Rica all of which claim to be the best.  To recommend fishing for machaca in on a drift boat we would have wanted the fishing to be way more productive than it was. We intentionally left out the identity of the guide and service as we didn’t want it to seem as if we were giving him a bad review.  The key is to sift through the hype to find the older established tours with established professional guides.

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