| My little sister just graduated high school and is about
to move away to college. Before she moved,she wanted to make another trip
down to Costa Rica. When I asked her what she wanted to catch, she said "Marlin".
So, away I went to research areas along the border of Costa Rica and Panama
that should be holding good numbers of Blue and Black Marlin this time of
year. I decided upon Crocodile Bay Lodge, which turned out to be a great
decision, even though the fishing was a bit slow.
They went down last Sunday, 3 days ahead of Sarah and I. We
were to arrive on Wed night to fish Thur and Friday. This would be my 6th
time to visit Costa but my first to travel to this part of the country. It
is by far my favorite place in the country. Imagine Jurassic Park meets the
pacific and you have the right idea. Once you land in San Jose you have to
charter a plane to take you to Puerto Jiminez, a tiny town on the edge of
the Gulfo Dulce.
The Capital San Jose by air
Jurassic Park
My sister, Ali, who is quite an accomplished fisherman, already
has a pretty impressive amount of species on her list which includes numerous
Sailfish, Short-Billed Spearfish, Dorado, Tuna, and Wahoo, decided that she
wanted to try and catch a good sized rooster the first day. We bump trolled
all day with little to show for but a nice strike that resulted in a missed
hookup. Around 2 in the afternoon, I decided to break up the monotony by
throwing a plug from the bow of our 33' Strike. This would be the best move
of the day. After a few casts we see a big boil in front of the boat and
birds began to dive. My first cast was chased by a huge rooster, I reeled
up and cast again. All I saw were the dorsal and huge mouth of a BIG Roosterfish.
I tossed the plug again and a big Rooster crashed the topwater, I set the
hook and passed the rod off to Ali who proceeded to get spooled on the #15
spinning setup I was casting.
The captain put the boat in gear and we began to follow this
large Rooster. After a 45 minute tug of war with 3 runs that pretty much
spooled the reel the gears shattered and the reel was rendered almost useless.
Ali got the fish withing leadering range and our mate pulled the huge Rooster
into the boat for a couple of pictures before the release.
Retrieving the plug
On the Scale
Ali's #40 Rooster
I am one Proud Brother
The next morning we decided to go offshore and look for some
Billfish. Early on we ran across a huge pod of feeding Spinner Dolphin and
Frigate Birds, this usually means one thing- Tuna!
The captain put us in front of the feeding school and I tossed
out a bridled blue runner on a #30 outfit. Within a few minutes I feel a
good fish pick it up, freespool.....and set the hook, then passed the rod
off to my girlfriend Sarah. The fish immediately made a solid run making
Sarah feel the pain. After a 15 minute battle on #30 test, Sarah gets a beautiful
#50 Yellow Fin Tuna up to the boat.
Congrats Sarah on your biggest fish yet, she wanted a bill, but the YFT will
have to do for now.
We picked up a couple more football YFT and had a huge Yellow
destroy a moldcraft teaser and then decided to head offshore for so me bills.
Ali with a Football YFT
After an hour of pulling teasers we had a bill in the spread
attacking a widerange. We made the pitch but the fish wasn't interested and
drifted back into the depths. A short while later we have another nice sail
in the #120 range destroy a widerange, we made the pitch and fish-on. We
put my sisters boyfriend Patrick on the rod and a short while later he had
his first bill. I managed to snag a couple great action shots.
We ended up missing another bill and called it a day. The next
morning we took a ride over to check the pointbreaks out. We ended up at
Matapalo, a great right point break. The surf was small, about head-high
but clean and fun with no-one out but myself and Oscar, a local Costa Rican
Biologist.
The lava reef is a little shallow on the inside...
After a couple of hours of great surf, the lineup started to get crowded
and the surf dropped. We decided to get a bite to eat and go hit up the
rain-forest zipline. We also found a little estuary that had a nice population
of crocodiles.
It was another great trip, not the best fishing ever, but we
had some great tuna steaks and landed a beautiful Rooster on light tackle.
Till next time-
Gabe
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