Costa Rica Machaca anyone?

[SeanO]

A student I work with is heading down to La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica to study Machaca fish next month. Sounds like they are primarily seed eaters and she will miss the the so called “Flower Hatch”.

Any advice as to lures/presentations/anything?? This is a 100% C&R study. If you happen to know of any anglers down there she could contact that would be great!

Thanks,


http://flyfishincostarica.com/?page_id=367

http://centralamericafishing.com/meet-the-fish/machaca/

[Darian]

I've eaten a lot of machaca in Mexico. Good but I like other stuff better. Haven't been to Costa Rica, yet. But, it's on my bucket list. Done some on-line research on fresh/saltwater fishing down there. Searching Google for Flies for Machaca turns up a bunch of info about lodges, gear (incl. flies/lures, etc.), how to and places to fish.

Sounds very interesting. Looking forward to reading reports from your student friend....

[Tony Buzolich]

Darian, I think the machaca you're referring to is the dried beef they hang down there in open air butcher shops

Sean, out of curiosity, what would be the purpose of your student's interest in this fish. Would it be considered as a food source perhaps like tilapia, or maybe just to gather more information for the sport industry?

Tony

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We caught small Machaca on small pan fish poppers on the Monkey River in southern Belize.

http://centralamericafishing.com/meet-the-fish/machaca/

[Darian]

Tony,.... We've been served warm, home made burritos by our Captain in the morning while fishing in the panga. I was told they were made with machaca. Whatever they were, they tasted OK but a bit dry. They were better with salsa.

[SeanO]

I've eaten a lot of machaca in Mexico. Good but I like other stuff better. Haven't been to Costa Rica, yet. But, it's on my bucket list. Done some on-line research on fresh/saltwater fishing down there. Searching Google for Flies for Machaca turns up a bunch of info about lodges, gear (incl. flies/lures, etc.), how to and places to fish.

Sounds very interesting. Looking forward to reading reports from your student friend....

Yeah it's kinda hard to research because of the ambiguities... Will for sure share some of the pics she gets. She is a research fish slayer! So we should get some good intel, at least for juvies!

[SeanO]

Darian, I think the machaca you're referring to is the dried beef they hang down there in open air butcher shops

Sean, out of curiosity, what would be the purpose of your student's interest in this fish. Would it be considered as a food source perhaps like tilapia, or maybe just to gather more information for the sport industry?

Tony

Tony, her study is purely of an ecological nature, any published results will not have any sport or subsistence fishery in mind. She is looking for genetic structure in the mainstem vs. tributaries for these interesting fish. I hope she can meet up with some local guides or anglers to get some samples though since I think they will be hard to sample!

[SeanO]

We caught small Machaca on small pan fish poppers on the Monkey River in southern Belize

Perfect, she will stock up on some.

Thanks, Bill.