Human Flower Project
Najaf, IRAQ
Austin, Texas USA
Chichen Itza, MEXICO
Monday, July 28, 2008
Fishing with a Plastic Mimosa
Fly-fishing will never be the same in Costa Rica, as Peter Gorinsky masters the art of tying floral lures.
Machaca caught
with a floral fly
Rio Niño, Costa Rica
Photo: Peter Gorinsky
Costa Rica’s shiny machaca sure looks like a cannibal. And for all we know about fishing (nada), it may be – but January through March, when the jacaranda trees, mimosas and others bloom along Rio Niño, this toothy fish goes vegan – it prefers flowers to flesh.
We were thrilled to find James Proseck’s article several weeks back in the Sports section of the New York Times (not usually good trolling for human-flower stories). Proseck described a fly-fishing trip in Costa Rica with guide Peter Gorinsky, who this spring began making flowery flies as lures.
“Gorinsky dropped the anchor and pointed to a shaded spot against the bank,” Proseck recounts. “One could see fish’s mouths poking out of the water to take the drifting flowers. In some cases, the fish were eating the flowers with forceful and splashy abandon.”