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"Great
fishing adventures begin with great planning... understanding my
customer's unique set of travel requirements is the key to matching
them with the perfect destination".
Fred Stephens |
Raised in a small coastal beach town in San
Diego County during the 60's I lived a typical beach childhood. Fishing,
Diving and Surfing with my school buddies were my main interests.
In 1972 the Mexican government was busy completing the thousand mile-long
highway from Tijuana to the tip of Baja or Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
I was fourteen at the time.
One of my best buddies, Gary Taylor, who was sixteen, had just received
his drivers license and his mom's 1969 Dodge Dart. Gary invited me
to go on a Baja fishing and surfing safari somewhere about half-way
down the Baja peninsula (500 miles) to a secret spot he had read about.
Both of our mothers were divorced single parents, Gary's mom talked
my mom into letting me go.
I had read many
stories about Baja fishing adventures including Baja legend Ray Cannon's
book "Sea of Cortez" so my imagination was completely running
wild with dreams of giant fish. In the days leading up to the trip
I couldn't sleep a wink. I didn't know it at the time, but I was about
to begin a life-long travel odyssey. |
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That trip completely changed my life.
The feeling of freedom out on the Baja was unbelievable. The ruggedly
beautiful terrain was so unusual, arid desert conditions right to the
beach with lava formation points and empty white sand bays. I caught
White Seabass, Calico Bass, Sand Bass, Corvina, Halibut, Yellowtail and
Bonita right off the beach standing on the rocks casting a chrome Crocodile
lure.
We surfed seemingly endless perfect waves that unpeeled for over a mile
and walked the beach back to the point to ride another, all alone. When
the surf went flat we dove for Lobster and Abalone... along with the
fresh fish we cooked on an open fire every night in our tent camp on
the beach. |
Over
the last thirty five years I've fished both the Pacific side of Baja
and the Sea of Cortez extensively. I still get just as excited about
every trip, just like it was the first time. Baja has always been a
special place to escape for me.
Getting an early start traveling
in Baja really gave me the itch to explore new places which set the
stage when the opportunity came-a-knockin' to go to Costa Rica in 1983.
One of my friend's fathers owned a small ranch in northwestern Costa
Rica or "Guancaste", this time
our focus was much more on fishing. I had made arrangements in advance
to fish from one of the two professional sportfishing operations in existence
at the time on the west coast of Costa Rica, El Ocotal Resort. |
The fishing was unbelievable! We fished across the
Gulf of Papagayo at the Bat Islands. I caught everything I had always
dreamed of catching, Black Marlin, Sailfish, Dorado, Yellowfin Tuna,
Wahoo, Roosterfish, Cubera Snapper, Grouper and a long list of others.
The water was 85 degrees, the air was 85 degrees and the sky was
crystal clear day after day.
The manager of El Ocotal, Rick Wallace, an American, arranged several
beach barbecues for us with some of the locals and had us over to
meet his family, we became friends. During our stay Rick gave me
some good ideas about organizing and guiding fishing groups to Costa
Rica, which seemed like a distant dream at the time. I was in the
construction business, a long way from being a sportfishing travel
guide. |
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I returned home from Costa Rica on a mission to become
involved in the sportfishing business and guide anglers to Costa
Rica and El Ocotal. Again, a trip had become a life changing experience
for me.
In the beginning it was
hard to get anybody interested in Costa Rica or Central America
because of the problems with Nicaragua and El Salvador to the north.
Rick Wallace came up with the idea of creating an escorted group
trip that people could book into with set departures and I would
be the "escort" or "guide" myself,
since I had been there. And so it began, for years I put together
all kinds of groups and would go with them as the guide. I would
travel from Los Angeles or Miami with them to Costa Rica and be there
to handle everything. Usually the groups consisted of between 16
and 24 people, limited by the number of boats available at the time.
It grew into a successful full-time business.
Over time people became more aware that Central America and Costa
Rica specifically was a safe place to go, so the escorted group trip
became less and less appealing. It became obvious that I needed to
expand my horizons and get involved with more destinations that I
could send people on their own private fishing trips. Thus the beginning
of Adventure Sportfishing in 1990. In Costa Rica alone, I have traveled
the entire country by land, sea and air and have fished every mile
of coastline of both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts including Cocos
Island 315 miles southwest of Costa Rica on the Pacific side. I currently
handle reservations for all the best sportfishing operations throughout
the country.
Since 1990 I have traveled the globe in search of great fishing
locations, many are very exotic but the services and reliability
of the fisheries along with the extremely long travel time sometimes
do not justify the travel costs.
My goal with Adventure Sportfishing is to offer the best available
saltwater fishing operations within close proximity (short travel
time) to the U.S. I arrange the services for every customer's trip
as if it were my own because I want them to have the best possible
chance to have the trip of a lifetime. |
Here's what some
of my customers and associates are saying: Testimonials
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