Legendary Encounters

My First Sword Duel - A famed angler relives a great achievement.

When asked my fondest fishing memory, the evening of July 19, 1976, fills my mind. After hearing weeks earlier that several anglers discovered a fishery for swordfish off Miami Beach, my excitement level literally boiled over.

I used to fish both coasts of Costa Rica quite often in the late 1970s and early 80s. Back then I found superb fishing for big snook and tarpon on that country’s Caribbean coast and for sailfish and marlin in the Pacific.Although nowadays one can choose from many excellent lodges and resorts with knowledgeable captains, I recall with a lot of fondness those less-complicated earlier years when many local guides eagerly learned how to fish us fly anglers.

The tension in the old Beechcraft was palpable. We had been in clouds for sometime and now the radio beacon from Iliamna had lost its reassuring drone. To the left there was a boulder field and to the right more of the same. I braced as John Wood, my friend and pilot, dove for the co-pilot seat. Just 24 hours earlier, eight excited fly-fishers had met at Denver’s Stapleton airport for the trip of a lifetime.