Tuesday, July 30, 2013  

Catching them top to bottom

We was 5 for 8 on sailfish today  went bothom fishing the last hours  catch 4 groupers  

FREE fishing on the Dragin Fly

A hand full of sails, scattered marlin and consistent tuna fishing is making for great fishing in Costa Rica despite people's fears of the "Green Season".    To alleviate their concerns the Dragin Fly is offering a FREE day of fishing for any group that books three days, now through December 15.

That's right, if you and your friends are serious fishermen, from now through December 15, if you book three days on the Dragin Fly we will give you the 4th day absolutely FREE.

This offer is also available to our booking agents, so be sure to contact the agent with whom you normally book with and make sure that they are aware of this offer.

Different Day, Same Report

We were 3 for 3 for sails and 1 for 2 on blue marlin again yesterday, but things slowed today, we only found the dolphin.

July Fishing in Costa Rica

After catching 2 nice yellowfin tuna about  100 & 45 Lbs yesterday our guys call it a day and quit fishing about noon. 

 today we was three for three on sailfish and one for two on blue marlin  

---Capt. James Smith  Dragin Fly

pics from last week

Mini-sails

This is the rainy season in Costa Rica?

Proud daddy with his son's first sail.

And momma with her first sail....

The perfect sized blue marlin for a fly rod that never was...... Tuna-Time

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marlin and tunas

I wrapped up business here in CR a day early and was able to get one more day on the water.   With no one sharing the boat, I invited the crew to bring along their family, hopefully finding those tuna again, but while we were looking, I was going to try and catch what came up on the teasers with my fly rod.....hopefully a marlin.

I had my 14 wt rigged up with a larger fly than we might normally use for sails.   On the short baits, we even rigged them up without hooks, hoping to get a shot with the fly before they faded back and ate one of the long rigger baits or shotgun that did have hooks.

We were on a nice color change and found a big log, loading the live-bait tubes with  bonito which are like tuna candy......if we can find them.   After a little live baiting around the log and no luck, we continued down the edge and it wasn't long before a nice blue marlin piled on one of those hook-less swimming ballyhoo.   Unfortunately, even without hooks, this fish got bill wrapped and gave us a great show until finally pulling off.

Back on the troll a lazy sail swats at a teaser, then fades back and eats a bait.  Congrats to  Glenda, Berto's wife, caught the first billfish of the day and proved that she was no "gato negro".   A few minutes later we had another sail up, but would not eat the fly, so we pitched a ballyhoo and caught Berto's son his first sailfish.    Then it was our lawyer's turn with a sail that ate the shotgun.

With that many billfish around, I thought for sure that my shot was coming up.  I slipped up to the bridge and was chatting at James, checking out the spread and noticed that Berto still had a couple of live bonito bridled up to circle hooks and waiting in the tuna tubes for their opportunity to go swimming.     Live bonito are not only candy for tunas, but marlin love them also.  

I was just commenting to James that I better go back downstairs and cut those bonito off the hooks because if we raise a marlin, Berto would probably "forget" that I wanted to try one on the fly and would toss the live bait before I got my chance with the long rod.

James agreed that I was probably right, but no faster than the words get out of his mouth were they followed by "Marlin, left short teaser".   I scrambled down stairs grabbed the fly rod and had the fly in the water at about the same time that damn bonito of Berto's hit the water.  

I can assure you that my freshly tied fly and leader was a lot less attractive than that live bonito and the perfect-sized 120 pound blue  marlin agreed, instantly inhaling it.    Berto was trying to hand me the rod with the reel in freespool and the look that I gave him said it all.   "You catch the damn thing".

As his nephew is catching his first marlin, I am disassembling the fly rod, making the point that there is no reason to have it rigged and ready if I am not going to get a chance to use it.

As we are backing down on the little blue.....did I mention that he was the perfect size to catch on a fly.....one of the other 2 boats fishing out of Los Suenos called us about a school of spinner dolphins and tunas about 7 miles away.   They were looking for marlin and we were looking for tunas, so we exchanged GPS positions.   After releasing the blue, we left the billfish bite and started steaming towards the tunas, passing the other boat about halfway there.

They ended up catching a marlin and missing another one on our numbers and I took out my frustrations by standing on the bow and casting my popper/fighting tuna until I was absolutely spent and could cast no more.    They were all cookie-cutter sized 40-45 pounders and great fun on spinning tackle........wonder how much fun that little blue marlin would have been on the fly......maybe next time, I've just got to tie Breto's shoelaces together to slow him down and give me a shot.

Pictures to follow.....

minisails and tuna---June 29

We took it easy going out this morning, heading into a short chop left over from last night’s storm, but once we got where we were going and put the lines out it, things laid right out into the typical Pacific ground swell.   We found a current line and it wasn’t long before we saw a sail, then another that everyone on the boat took a turn trying to hook, I guess the boys were out of practice.    A few minutes later we ran across another pair, after missing mine the first time, then dropping back and another miss, I finally came tight and so did James from the bridge. 

Cool thing about this double header was the size of the fish, these were the smallest sails that I’ve seen caught on a hook and line in the Pacific.   No wonder the boys had such a hard time getting them to stick.   A couple of years ago in February, about 80 miles offshore of Los Suenos, we caught some that were a few inches long with a dip net under the lights.   No doubt in my mind that these were spawned at about the same time of year, now probably 5 or 6 months old.   Nonetheless, it was a double header sailfish.    A little while later, we caught a bon a fide Pacific sail in the 90-100 pound class, so they’re not all small this time of year.

A blip popped up on the radar about 8 miles away so we started trolling that direction to get a clearer image.  About halfway there, James was sure that it was a huge flock of birds, hopefully over dolphins and tuna.   He knows that one of my favorite things to do is stand on the bow of the Dragin Fly and cast poppers at busting tunas.   Hopes were high as we approached hundreds of boobey-birds, much like a gannet, and a handful of high circling frigits. 

All the ingredients were there, but there were no tunas mixed in with these spotted dolphins.   We made a couple of loops and everything scattered and so did our hopes.   James wasn’t fazed, he saw another blip on the radar about 4 miles out, but after 20 minutes of trolling their direction we just couldn’t keep up.   James suggested we pick up the spread and run.   On the way there, the guys converted over a couple of the rods to cedar plugs and got out the flying fish for the 50’s, a trick that Capt. Brian Harrington on the Run Off taught us.   Not much cooler than seeing a big tuna crash a fake flying fish dangling from the end of the outriggers. 
I made my way to the bow with my favorite popper, actually a lure called a Ranger that skips across the surface when cranked REALLY fast.    Ask Capt. Greg Voliva what it will do to a school of old drum.  Pretty much the same reaction with tuna, except they often hit it in the air, which was the case with my first cast.  

There was a bit of breeze that had puffed up and we were trolling down sea with the dolphins, trying to catch up with the tunas.   With the Ranger and 65  pound braid, you can throw this plug a  LONG ways.  When it finally falls out of orbit and splashes down it bounces about 3 feet in the air.   I must have thrown it right on top of him.  After initial impact, the Ranger got a good bounce followed by a solid 100 pounder that gulped it down and fairly immediately showed me the bottom of that 12000 Shimano spinning reel.  I busted him off pretty quickly and was glad that I did.   

These were spinner dolphins and ahead of the pod of 100 plus black spinners were the tunas that were “airing out” and throwing a lot of whitewater.    It seems that if you were right on them, you got a bite or three, but they were moving really, really fast.   The would pop up here, then there,  kind of like playing Whack A Mole. 

Just as I was  regretting breaking off that big fish I was losing hope that we would get another bite.  I was almost at the end of my retrieve, my plug was racing back to the spread for maybe another cast.  I was getting tired.  The airborne 60 pounder chasing my lure woke everyone up.  At the same time that I came tight, both rods with the cedar plugs bowed right over…….we pulled off all 3 of them. 

The next pass I finally got a little redemption.  I didn’t see the fish, but I saw a pretty good hole in the water where my plug used to be.   I didn’t think much of this one until we got up and down and it just would not give up.  He gave me ALL that I wanted.  I thought that it was maybe a 30 pounder, but it turned out to be in the 50 pound range.   With some meat in the box, we went back for more, hooking a total of 8 between 50 and over triple digits.  The second and last one we landed was about 60 pounds, just couldn’t keep those big ones on the line

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