If you’ve come to the Lake Arenal area to fish, there are two ways you can approach it. You can either hire a boat, equipment and a guide at the dam area, or you can imitate the locals and fish from the shore with improvised gear. In either case, you’ll be trying to catch the famous guapote – a also known as rainbow bass – and range in size up to about 16 lbs. The guapote live in deep water where they make dens. They make for delicious eating, especially in ceviche (see a sample recipe below). The other type of fish you’ll find in the lake are machaca, which average around 9 lbs. These are bonier fish, and the locals often fry machaca and eat them whole – bones and all.
If you want to fish like the locals, you can use an empty water bottle, a piece of wood or a plastic ring from the hardware store to make a reel. Wrap your line around the reel, and then cast the line out from the shore. Be advised: The lake is quite deep, and often drops off sharply so don’t wander out too far from the shore. Here’s a simple rule of thumb in trying to gauge where to fish: the lake’s underwater terrain usually mimics the topography of the surrounding land. If you’re in an area where the land slopes steeply toward the shore, then you’re likely to face a similarly steep drop-off underwater. The areas where the land’s “fingers” extend into the lake are the spots where the guapote like to make their dens, and are an excellent spot for trolling.
One other local quirk to be aware of: Technically, you need a license in order to fish in Costa Rica, but there isn’t an office in the El Castillo area where you can buy a license. So, as long as you don’t catch more than 40 (is that the right number?) fish a day, you should be OK.
Once you’ve caught a few guapote, you might want to make your own ceviche. Here’s a simple recipe you can try:
Ceviche ingredients:
5.5 oz sea bass filet (the freshest you can get)
1 tsp white onion
1 tsp finely chopped red pepper
1 tsp finely chopped cilantro
1 oz lime juice
1 avocado slice
Salt to taste
Preparation:
Add the pepper and onion and salt to the lime juice. Dice the sea bass into bite sized chunks and marinate it in the lime juice for two hours. Serve the sea bass pieces with cilantro sprinkled on top and the slice of avocado. (Some people prefer to marinate the fish overnight. If you choose that option, don’t add the red pepper or onion to the lime juice until 30 minutes before serving. One note: don’t marinate the fish longer than overnight. The lime juice continues to “cook” the fish and makes it too mushy if it’s marinated longer than 12-14 hours.) You can eat the ceviche on top of saltine crackers, add mayonnaise and ketchup and some Tabasco sauce if you wish. Rock Costa Rica
