Dragin Fly Costa Rica • Sport Fishing in Comfort for Sailfish, Marlin, and More/Fishing Reports

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Tuna Time

Wow.
Awesome casting poppers at 40-80 pound yellowfins for hours.
My arms are jello.
Unbelievable day

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 11:01 AM

Sunday, June 26, 2022

good day trip

5 mahi mahi 5 yellow fin tuna 1 sailfish and I blue marlin today

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 8:26 PM

Saturday, June 25, 2022

back from 3 days at the seamounts, day trip report tomorrow

A little marlin fly porn from the seamounts and Jake's report

2022 Costa Rica Blue Marlin Fly Fishing School week 2, June, 19-25

My long time client canceled their trip at the last minute, so I wound up inviting a friend to join me for a short trip to “Marlin World”. We left my Los Suenos condo at 3:45 pm on Tuesday June 21, boarded the “Dragin Fly“ at which time Captain James Smith headed out toward some offshore sea mounds at 4:00pm. The seas were rough with strong wind so we were in and out of rain storms all night, thank god for that awesome sea keeper. At 6:15 Roberto served dinner of Meatballs with a green salad then at 7:30 everyone except me and the captain went to sleep. Today I had a big lunch with my friend and I ate a salad that was bad, however once I got rid of that I went below into the air conditioned cabin and fell asleep.

Wednesday June 22 we woke up this morning at 5:00 am while breakfast was cooking. The sun was shining with light to moderate wind and two to four foot seas. Captain James Smith along with mates Berto and Aramis put out the teasers at 5:30 while our cook, Roberto made coffee and a delicious breakfast.

At 5:48 my friend hooked a hot blue and 12 minutes mutes later he released his first blue marlin ever on 20 pound IGFA class tippet, this was a fish of close to 200 pounds.

Thirty four minutes later he caught his second fish of the day, another red hot jumping blue marlin this fish was in the 150 pound class, again on my TFO BW-HD fly Rod, a Mako 9700 LH fly reel, while using a Cortland Big Game Billfish Line, with one of my marlin flies using a Gamakatsu, octopus 8/0 hook, using IGFA 20 pound class tippet.

At 7:32am my awesome fishing buddy landed his third fish of the day, this one was bigger, close to 250 pounds. It jumped a lot and took about 11 minutes for him to catch an release that awesome marlin.

At 9:14am I hooked a bigger Blue on the same gear except a RH retrieve Mako fly reel. This fish was over 250 pounds and fought valiantly. After a 30 minute plus tough battle I wound it in and Berto removed the fly from our fourth blue marlin if the day.

At 10:22 we raised another hot blue, my fishing partner made a great cast and that big marlin piled on the pink and white Jake Jordan Marlin popper fly. That marlin ran about 30 foot stopped and shook the hook loose and the fly came off, we re-teased that fish however the marlin was gone. Four out of five caught in the first five hours of our trip!

Our next marlin came up at noon, it ate the teaser Bonita and never came in for a cast. At 2:10 pm we raised a blue marlin that would not tease in, bright sunshine and calm seas since 11:00 am. Between 2:15 and 5:00 we raised 5 blue marlin, none of them would tease close enough to cast a fly at.

At 6:20 we deployed the sea anchor, took a hot shower and ate a delicious dinner. After dinner the crew caught a bunch of squid 🦑, so we will have fresh calamari for lunch tomorrow, we were asleep by 8:30.

Today we raised 12 Blue Marlin, 5 of them ate the fly, and 4 were caught and released all on 20 pound IGFA class tippet. 12-5-4

Thursday, June 23: we woke up at 5:00 am to cloudy skies with

15 knot wind and 3 to five foot swell. We started fishing at 6:00am while we ate breakfast, after a half hour we had not seen any fish so captain James headed off shore to a structure who’s was 20 miles away. Between 7:55 and 9:10am we raised three blue marlin, the first spit the hook on the hook set, the second broke the class tippet when the fly line got wrapped around the reel handle as the fish took off on the initial run. When that fish broke off the angler handed off that rod and picked up a rod out of a rod holder, stripped off line and then made a cast to the other half of a double. This marlin started to pull off line and eventually went slack, when he wound in the fly line the butt section of the 60 pound test leader had broken at the loop to loop connection. This was the leader which I had caught my big marlin on yesterday and I didn’t check it!

It is now 10:30am and we are 160+ miles offshore it is raining with 20 not south wind and 5 to 6 foot seas. We haven’t raised any fish since 9:00 am.

At 1:30 pm the seas continued to build, we are now over a sea mound 170+ miles offshore in rain and 5 to 8 foot seas. The weather improved and The wave height decreased and at 2:01 pm we raised a red hot 100+ pound blue marlin which pounced on the well placed pink and white fly and took off down sea. After a great 15 minute fight in pouring rain my angler wound in the leader and caught his fourth blue marlin of the trip. Berto removed the fly and we watched that marlin swim away. The weather is tough but the fishing is good, however the wind continues at 25 with choppy seas and rain squalls. Never saw another fish today and quit for the day at 5:10 pm. After deployment of our sea anchor we relaxed and planned tomorrow’s strategy while eating dinner. After dinner we hit the bunks and went to sleep by 7:30.

Today we raised 4 Blue Marlin, all 4 ate the fly, my angler broke off 2, pulled the hook on one and caught one Blue Marlin on fly. 4-4-1.

Two day score is 16-9-5

Friday June 24: At 4:55 am in the dark James started the engines while the crew retrieved the sea anchor and made the coffee. We washed up and got ready for day three, while we headed back over to the sea mount which was six miles away. After one hour of fishing while scoping out the area with our new Omni sonar the captain decided that we needed to move inshore to another sea mound roughly 35 miles away. The weather this morning is overcast with a 10 to 15 knot breeze and 2 to 4 foot seas. We are cruising at 22 knots on mild seas and will be fishing again by 7:45. At 7:58 am in bright sunshine, we raised a hot blue which gobbled the fly and raced away. About a hundred feet out the fish let go of the fly and was gone. At 8:42 another marlin crashed the teaser in the bright sunlight, however that fish never teased in for a bite. At 9:20 am we raised a blue that would not come in. At 10:12am we raised another lazy blue marlin, this fish stayed around and chased the teasers but would not tease in and eat the fly.

At 11:49 we raised a red hot pacific blue marlin which teased in and ate the well placed pink and white popper tube marlin fly. The fish took off and felt the one pound of drag pressure and began to go through a spectacular series of jumps before settling in for a battle. After twenty one minutes my angler closed the deal and we released that 200+ pound beautiful blue marlin. 5-2-1 at noon. At 1:12 my buddy hooked another hot blue, that fish put on a great show with lots of jumps then kicked it into overdrive and broke the 20 pound class tippet.

At 2:24 we hooked a Striped Marlin that went crazy, it jumped many times before finally breaking the tippet. Then at 2:45 another blue hit the teaser but wouldn’t tease for a cast. Another blue was raised at 2:59, didn’t bite and another came up at 3:09, again no bite. After 4:00 pm it started to rain and we pointed the “Dragin Fly” and began trolling back toward Los Suenos. At 6:00 it was pretty dark and fishing was finished for this trip. We showered, had a delicious dinner and went to bed at 8:00 pm.

Todays score was 7 blue marlin and 1 Striped Marlin raised, 3 blue and 1 Striped Marlin bites, and 1 Blue Marlin caught. 8-4-1
For the trip we raised 24 Marlin

We got 13 Bites

And we caught 6 Blue Marlin on fly!

24-13-6 trip score!

I Love My Job, ❤️
Capt. Jake

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 10:56 PM

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

from the day it did not suck

Water color still nasty but we catch some nice yellow fin tuna today

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 1:57 PM

Every day is different and not every report is great.

I wish I had a report for you today very nice guys wanted yellow fin we went everywhere looking for those tuna we never got out that Red tide is everywhere today. what a difference a day makes.
then we tried the bottom fishing and that was even worse
got skunk today

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 11:31 AM

Sunday, June 12, 2022

The day before yesterday was a little better but we are having a significant red tide event.

Slow fishing lots of Red tide all over
5 yellow fin tuna and 1 sailfish today

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 9:21 AM

report

lost a couple of days getting that generator worked on again but I think we are ready to roll.
Yesterday was a tough day, just one tuna and a lot of red tide that we could not find the end.
Hopefully this dirty water will move along and the good fishing will return.

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 9:01 AM

Sunday, June 5, 2022

bottom fishing

We don't do it often, but when we do......it's either 350 feet of cranking nothing or red hot. either way, after a few drops.....unless we break out the electric reels....everyone has had enough. But if the drops are good and the elecrric reels come out, get ready. XX snapper, 6 big groupers and a bunch of other bottom dwellers.

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 11:44 AM

Saturday, June 4, 2022

June 3

2 sailfish and 7 nice yellow fin tuna today

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 6:46 AM

Friday, June 3, 2022

June 2

Thank God for all the yellow fin tuna slow bill fishing 2 yellow fin tuna 2 mahi mahi and 2 sailfish yesterday

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 8:34 AM

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

May 31

3 nice yellow fin tuna and about 6 mahi mahi

posted by Capt. George Beckwith at 10:18 AM