Fishing above the Clouds for a Fish that Shouldn't exist.

3,000 meters above the jungles of Costa Rica sits a unique environment called the cloud forest. It's a place where high altitude meets the humid air of the pacific ocean and happens to be home to an unlikely species of fish. Crazy thing is these fish just shouldn't be here but uh let's rewind a bit. A few days ago I arrived in the Dota region of Costa Rica to make a film on where coffee comes from. It's a topic that I find really interesting and that video will be coming to my channel sometime later in the year but whilst I happen to be out here I couldn't help but check out one of the region's many maintenance rivers. So I don't actually know anything about what lives in the river behind me and this could very well be one of those videos where I don't catch anything or it's right at the end where I catch something but I've got two rods with me a fly rod that I've never used before a little lure rod that I have plenty of time so I think we're going to start with this first chuck a few spinners around. Okay this is kind of exciting actually this is my official first cast in Costa Rica. If you ask pretty much anyone what kind of fishing this country is famous for they'll point you towards the ocean as it's famed for its saltwater sport fishing. Fresh water on the other hand well there's a lot less information especially up here in the mountains but it's exactly that the mystery which intrigues me the most. I think this is all flowing far too quickly. Yeah as beautiful as this is it's definitely running way too fast through here I can't keep the lure in place for very long. That was fun but it's definitely way too fast flowing we're gonna head down the pool also this is Bradley by the way he's apparently my videographer for the afternoon. This is way better we've got all the rapids that have come down it all slows down on my feet it's kind of cool. I just saw a fish take a fly oh nice I just snapped my rod. Thankfully I have another one but it's a fly rod and I've never done any fly fishing before I brought it for another fishing trip we're doing tomorrow but I guess I'm gonna have to break it out for now. I don't know how that just happened I must have cast too hard although okay fly fishing time. It was frustrating not knowing what hit the lure almost as frustrating as trying to tie up a fly rod for the first time in the dark. A completely pointless exercise as you can't really even use it without being able to see the fly on the water but it did have a silver lining. Oh fireflies fire oh my gosh I've never seen them that that bright before I'm gonna give this two casts I don't think I'm even gonna be able to see a bite. I was still yet to find out what I'd managed to hook into that was gonna have to wait till tomorrow but getting a feel of a fly rod for the first time whilst being surrounded by fireflies that was pretty flipping cool. Well I didn't catch anything that is gonna have to wait for tomorrow I suppose sorry I might have missed that bite but so cool just to see so many fireflies I don't know if you guys can see them they're everywhere it's crazy. Morning Bradley. Morning Tom. Ready for this? Because I'm not I feel tired. We were on our way to meet up with a guy called Royner a Costa Rican dude who kindly agreed to take us higher up into the mountains to fish for a species that really didn't belong there it was quite possibly the same type of fish I'd hooked into the day before a fish commonly known as the rainbow trout. The thing is with trout they're normally found in much colder countries North America Canada Scotland so driving up the side of a mountain in Costa Rica feels a bit weird thinking we're gonna catch them to be completely honest. Oh my oh my god this is the highest we've been by far dude. You're saying we're gonna need oxygen tanks high altitude trout fishing. How you doing? Roy nice to meet you. Michael? Michael. Michael nice to meet you. Let's go catch some fish. We will. In order to survive trout need cool oxygenated water something most of this country is no good for but up here in the cloud forest I could feel that the temperature had plummeted a mixture of the altitude the humidity and the forest canopy shielding against the sun. I still couldn't get my head around how they got on here in the first place but I was looking forward to seeing a trout in person. This is so beautiful down here it's incredible it's quite cold I think it's about seven degrees right now which is slightly bonkers to think about but the water looks absolutely beautiful stunning a lot more water than where I was fishing yesterday as well. This one right down there just sitting in the flow. Should we have a quick cast? Yeah one two good. Yeah nice what do you think fly rather than lure? So this is it fly fishing redemption. I feel honestly kind of privileged like when I picked up fishing five six years ago this is not something that I thought was going to be uh well I didn't think I'd be doing this let's leave it at that. What do you think man? Yeah these. Trout typically feed on flies and insects that live along the water's edge using their keen sense of sight they pick out the tiniest specks as they land or struggle towards the surface and by fly fishing that's exactly what we hoped to imitate. It was cool finally seeing one in the flesh but now it was my turn to try and catch. Try to cast it that way yeah the current is going to help you but if you go right here it's going to get away easily so you cast it the other way the other side and then it come down all the way here okay okay uh I should warn you right now I've never caught on a fly rod before this is first time. I had hoped to have gotten some more practice in before reaching Costa Rica but life, busyness, the usual and so here I was three thousand meters in the clouds learning the basics of fly fishing and honestly I could think of worse places. I think my lead is definitely too long for this tiny little stream. We'll cut it it's pretty difficult yeah yeah okay here I use it as long as the rod yeah yeah so when you get wet like that yeah let's try to do it fast like three times keep it dry like that yep oh and then cast it well see I think I've got some of the basics of fly fishing down but uh yeah the fish has spooked out of this area so we're gonna keep moving see if we can find some more I'll give it my best pressure's on to not mess this up it's very active it's kind of efficient I have to say buddy hey yo look so I think you're doing it like too hard you know too hard yeah just trying to go slow see ah yeah you let the loop form before you're then bringing it back okay okay yeah yeah and then it kind of rolls out okay okay it's like a rhythm yeah I see you see any fish no we've gone through yeah it was almost a hundred years ago that these fish were introduced into Costa Rica not directly into the mountain rivers but instead flown over as eggs from North America as part of an experiment to see if they could be kept in farms for the purpose of feeding the local communities it was the elevation of the cloud forest that created perfect conditions for the trout to be farmed and for the most part the experiment was a huge success so the guys are explaining that down there is actually a trout farm right next to the river and that is predominantly how these fish have escaped and populated the streams and it just so happens to be such a perfect ecosystem up here that you know decades later they're actually thriving in the water they don't get big like they do presumably in the farm itself but they do get quite beautiful it was by using the mountain rivers as a constant flow of clean water that ultimately led to their escape in the rainy season these small streams can flood overwhelming any man-made structure built along its banks and so it's not a question of if the trout could escape but how many and how the ecosystem of the sun's starting to poke through so beautiful i hope that also means we'll be able to spot the fish a lot easier which might be useful i was having a hard time on the last pool being able to actually see what was my fly and what was loaded bubbles because of the glare really all right i'm going on a little adventure i'm going to see if i can get to a little pool around the corner it might not work out but it might and that would be sick okay this is happening ah things we do for fishing gotta catch my breath a little bit that took some doing to get over here but this pool i mean it's full of trout i have no idea if i'm gonna be able to make it happen but we'll give it a go okay here we go tom will short master fly angler incoming reaching the back of this pool was important as that's exactly where the fish are all holed up however it was tripled the distance of any cast i've made so far that day oh how good it would feel now to get a bite i'd have honestly cast there in seconds with a lure rod and probably caught but i was in too deep now trying to catch on fly ah so close let's get in there it's hard not to get frustrated when you're really trying i mean that is my life in a nutshell i'm just currently trying to navigate my way back to the guys over there it's uh yeah but trying to be positive it's really cool it's exciting trying new things i think as we get older we're kind of a little less um motivated to try new things out fear of failure i may well fail today that's okay but i'll love it whilst i'm doing it and try not to slip into this raging torrent whoa yeah we're not going down there hi bradley you're next you're up yeah yeah so i know the question you've all been waiting for who is bradley well even if you didn't want to know you're going to is he's the lovely chap who's made it possible for me to create my own coffee two blends of which happen to be sourced right here in costa rica roasted by bradley and his team a few miles from where i live and enjoys well wherever you want to enjoy it i won't go on too much but it's genuinely really good and i'll leave some links in the description below if you want to check it out for yourself with the sun beaming down on the water and with michael having seen a nymph at the edge of the stream we all decided to switch tactic away from the dry flies that float on the surface to weighted nymphs that fall through the water guided by a little bit of red foam it made a lot more sense to my brain as in a way it was blend of lure and float fishing two things i've done a lot of back home and it didn't take long before the switch started to pay off there we go there we go there we go oh yeah no way i might need some help netting it despite being excellent predators for their size trouts are actually quite sensitive you have to take good care of them when caught turning them to the water as soon as possible which in my mind only makes it crazier that they don't just seem to be surviving here in costa rica but positively thriving that's a wicked feeling tactic i've never used let's see if we can catch some more one thing i hadn't been able to wrap my head around yet was how in a country that prides itself on protecting its native ecosystem this fish is the exception in costa rica you can't even think about cutting down a tree without mumps of red tape and yet these little cold water killers are swimming freely through the mountains the truth is before then there weren't many fish up here in the first place typical native species like snook or tropical cichlids just don't reach these altitudes leaving a gap in the food chain that rainbow trout have happily Mike and Roy in the catering services well it's not so bad i thought that was going to pour out then so what does pura vida mean pure life pure life good life like but it means a lot of things you can say just say hi how are you it blows my mind thinking about the fact that a week ago i was in the uk trying to find out if there's anybody in costa rica that might be able to take me fishing and then it was my local tackle shop it was harry over there that suggested a guy called richie who knews roiner and then here we are what where else in the world do you find that other than fishing okay we've been refreshed we've been fed we've been watered by the incredible generosity of these two guys if they're still there i might as well fish for them i guess we're not fishing there just spooked you think possibly i'm not sure it's actually getting so warm i'm dipping this water sounds quite delightful don't let it see me don't let it see you yeah okay man go right there yeah i'm gonna try and go around there i was quite determined to catch net and release one by myself i've really appreciated all of rowing this help so far don't get me wrong but i wanted to get a close-up view of a rainbow train for myself as well as hopefully a much bigger one oh yeah yeah oh it came off yes yes yeah good good good yeah awesome one more time one more time again i can see some fish i can see so many fish out there i spooked off it having never really used one of these rods before sat here on my little rock in costa rica i kind of started to understand it fly fishing forces you to slow down to think but also take in the scenery around you and enjoy the peacefulness of it all i didn't even know that was on i'm gonna try and build up a cast to the other end of the yeah that was good yeah i think i lost it how on earth didn't i lose that look at that look at the colors in that thing that's just insanely beautiful well we've caught a few of the smaller fish in the river but uh we've got one last spot left to go and check out and supposedly it's where the monsters live you see there's one other place traits can be found in costa rica a place where they grow to some impressive sizes and for a small fee you can catch yourself some they're strong go on bradley yeah i'm not entirely sure how i feel about that but ultimately that is why traits are in costa rica that's why they're imported their breads and for tourists like me and locals alike it's putting in your belly i suppose thank you so much for watching and i'll see you in the next one