Fishing off Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, the experienced anglers of “Ladies Let’s Go Fishing’s” first-ever Central American trip were beginning to get a bit impatient. The lull aboard Moondancer, one of Parrot Bay Resort’s 29-foot sportfishing boats, had lasted nearly an hour, an unusually long time considering how good the costa rica fishing charter had been for the previous few days. Captain Steve Petras and mate Alex were doing all they could to raise the fish but it seemed they just weren’t biting.

While not billfishing off the Pacific Coast of the Osa Peninsula, one of the “Ladies Let’s Go Fishing” anglers, Jenny Laws, cools off during a hike into the rain forest at Matapalo.
As the only greenhorn aboard, I wasn’t too concerned and thought this would be a good time to grab a snack. Opening the hatch below the helm seat, I took out a banana I had packed for the trip. When I did, I noticed the horror in Captain Steve’s eyes and immediately the three “real” lady anglers aboard rose in chorus: “You brought a banana aboard?” Captain Steve was much too polite to chastise a guest but later admitted, “I smelled it the minute you opened the hatch.”

No one had forewarned me of the superstition about bananas being bad luck aboard fishing boats. Not wanting to be responsible for having marred my first trip out, I made a brief plea for forgiveness to the gods of sportfishing and ceremoniously tossed the banana into the sea. Not 10 seconds later, Steve was shouting that a sailfish had hit our teaser and seconds later we were hooked up. The action never stopped the rest of the day, and if you think this is just another fish story, I’ve got it all on videotape.

More next week