Legends of Billfishing

In the last few weeks there have been 2 major tourneys in Pacific Costa Rica: the first leg of the Sueños and the Rockstar out of Quepos. Approximately 50 professional boats in each, fishing 3 days or 300 boat days. The reported Marlin catch was about 70 total or 1 fish per 4 boat days. If this was, for example, the Big Rock or one of the Gulf Coast tourneys that might seem like a lot of Marlin, but this is Costa Rica where daily double digit shots on Blue/Black Marlin is the norm. In fact, these results are the reality in the dry season (January, February, and March). The water begins to warm, which the Sails will abide, but the main body of Marlin seek cooler water. Understanding this historic reality, in conjunction with my Capt. Tommy Lynskey, last November we took a shot and deployed a deep offshore FAD on a remote seamount. This week, leaving Fishhook Marina here in Golfito at 5 pm, we cruised all night to arrive at this virgin locale at first light... The sonar showed massive schools of bait in the area and as we set out our bait rigs they were immediately covered with Bonito, rainbow runners and YFT, with flying fish scattering about. This alone does not guarantee the Marlin are present as our inshore FADs that produce April thru Dec. are also full of bait but only produce Sails with few Marlin bites... However, this time, after loading up on a day's bait and setting out our standard bait and switch spread, within 15 minutes we had our first Blue Marlin crashing a short rigger teaser. Over the next 2 days we raised over 30 Marlin, fought 14, released 10 plus 9 Sails. We leave again tomorrow night with Josh Jorgensen and his BlacktipH team to return to the spot for 4 days to test the best of the new spinning rigs on the bite. Watch for the videos over the next few weeks. Also the story of our Marlin Hunt last October with Sam White, editor of Marlin magazine, will hit the newsstands with video links in the upcoming March Issue. True happiness does not come with spending money on things, it comes from spending money on experiences. Contact us now and come get some...