I’ve been threatening to go fishing for months now, but hadn’t gotten my act together until this weekend.

I did make it out, and I feel pretty safe in saying that this kind of fishing is like no other in the world. It’s extreme, just like everything else in Burica. But this took extreme to a different level for me.

When Casey and I arrived on Saturday morning, I asked our caretaker to setup a boat to take us out fishing. He said that the water was too muddy with all of the rain that we’ve had lately, but we were not to be deterred.

The 15′ panga with a Yamaha 15 pulled up at high tide, to the front of the cabana, with some pretty crazy waves crashing on the shore. Just getting in the boat was difficult enough as it was tossed around by the waves.

We made it in without event and headed out. The swell wasn’t big by Burica standards, but in that little boat it was pretty crazy heading up and over the waves.

We made it around the end of the peninsula, inside the island, and over towards the border of Costa Rica. Having to get a little farther out from the shore and away from the muddy rivers so that we could see with our snorkeling masks, we found some rocks jutting out of the ocean 150 yards off shore.

We pulled the boat just outside of them and the waves were even bigger at this point. The locals that were with us asked how deep we could dive and when I said I didn’t know, they died out laughing! When i asked them in return, he replied with a giant grin, “15 brasos”, which is 15 lengths of a man’s body…90 feet!

He then says, “Don’t worry, you only have to go 30 feet to get these fish.”

I’m in good enough shape, I thought, and how hard could it be. So I jump in with the snorkeling gear and my pole spear and immediately noticed the crazy current that comes at the changing of the tides. It took some effort not to get washed in the direction of the rocks, but I was able to get a feel for it after a few seconds.

Then it was time to put my mask under water and see what was below. I did, and it was so murky that I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Remembering what the guys had said about the depth of the fish, I decided to dive down and for 20 feet I couldn’t see much. Then the cloudy water cleared and there must have been hundreds of fish around me!

The problem was that they were another 10 feet down and I was already out of breath. So I headed back up. When I resurfaced the current had washed me 30 yards from where I had started!

Then it was time for the boat to swing around and get me so I could make another pass. We did this several times and although I didn’t get a fish, I do think got the hang of it a little better each time.

The locals were another matter entirely. “Chombo” was the name of the guy who was diving down with us. He went down 5 times, got 5 shots, and came up with 4 fish! The guy just made it look too easy!

I did learn on this trip that the right time to go is January through April, when it’s not rainy season. Then you can spear lobster and fish near the shore, with better visibility.

This works out great since the swells for surf come the opposite months of the year.

Even though I didn’t shoot one, it was still a great experience and throwing the fish on the grill at night (I’m still not exactly sure what they were) while hangin’ in the Cabana’s hammocks is hard to beat.