My return from Nicaragua

[Fish to Live-Live to Fish]

Hi Larry,

This is just a follow-up to my previous post dated last month. I have just returned from my fishing trip to Nicaragua and things didn't go as I had planned (big surprise huh?).

I traveled from Nicaragua to Bluefields via commuter plane, then a 1 hour Panga (25' open fiberglass w/ outboard, 6' wide) ride through the inland waterways to Pearl Lagoon where I had hotel reservations and a fishing guide.

The next morning I was informed that Grandma had died last night so Brady, my guide, would be in mourning with the family (who also owns the hotel). So I hit the streets along the waters edge to see what I could find. On only my second try, I found George.

George own a very nice panga and was available for charter for a couple of days so plans were made to go fishing. It turns out that George was knowledgable of the Pearl Lagoon area, but he was not a fisherman, and I needed someone with experience as this was my first ever Tarpon fishing trip.

We often saw Tarpon surfacing and tailing but couldn't get a hook into one of them. When, on the second day, I finally managed to connect with one, it was far larger than I had planned (or wanted) and the battle lasted only a couple of seconds and my line went limp as this 100 lb+ Tarpon launched itself into the sky to let me know that I had lost.

In the two days I spent with George, we got rained on several times, the panga trip across Pearl Lagoon was more than 1 hour and no padded seats. We caught a lot of Catfish while chasing the shrimp concentrations and a few Jacks.

Just witnessing so many huge Tarpon in one small place made an otherwise disasterous trip worthwhile. And YES Larry, the locals in Bluefields are still looking for funds to replace their soccerball. I feel that I learned so much on this trip that I have to return to put this knowledge to good use.

If anyone is thinking about or in the planning stages of a trip to the Nicaraguan Caribbean coast, please contact me for more tips and local information.

Thanks for the heads up Larry.
Jack Olson

[dahlberg]

Thanks for the post!
Glad you made it back!
best,
L

[bwebbrph]

Larry

When you were in the Bluefields area, did you notice about 50 miles off the coast are two little islands? Corn Islands, respectively Big Corn and Little Corn. I became aware of these islands only AFTER having visited Nicaragua and volunteering in a makeshift medical clinic in the center of the country. It appears that fishing for kingfish, dolphin, jack, snapper and barracuda abound nearby.

Accommodations appear to be a little better than what you had on the mainland. Suggestion: go to casaiguana.net (which is the only advertised hotel with fishing services I could find). I am trying to put together a guys week long trip to just hang out and maybe do a little offshore fishing for my buddies and me.

If anyone else has been there fishing, please advise as to whether a week on Little Corn Island would be worth the time.

P.S. Hey Larry, I too got sick (dysentery) in Nicaragua. Only time, I have actually prayed to die. But I guess the Good Lord wasn't finished with me just yet.