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If you love pain, agony, and extreme exhilaration, all at the same time, pack your bags (of fly fishing stuff) and your billfish gear, and get down here for the annual MARLIN run outside our Golfo Duce, here in S.Pacific Costa Rica.
We have very good numbers of marlin, and some sails, outside RIGHT NOW, but August and September will give anglers with a death wish a very good shot at a marlin on fly.
Lots of juvenile baitfish, mostly bonito, outside and hanging at 7-10 miles off Mata Palo and Punta Banco, the two points that mark the end of the Gulf and the beginning of the open Pacific.
Now is the time. There are more marlin caught , and released here in these next two or three months, counting July, than during our entire ¨High¨season of January to May. More sails then, if you´re scared to be hooked up to something bigger (sissy).
In August of 2000, out on a Sunday joyride with two of my captains, the first thing we came upon , about 10 miles out was another boat, a friend, who told us via radio that he was circling a buoy with a lot of line entangled on it, with a swarm of baitfish below, and a whole bunch of marlin attacking them.
I started rigging up my 12 wt. Capt. Ian asked me what I was doing, as he readied a 50 Penn with a big marlin plastic.
My reply? ¨What am I going to lose, a fly? A leader? Let´s go for it!!
first pass , with two mullet rigged chuggers, and we had a beauty come up. Ian pulled the bait! Said it was too BIG !!!
I told Capt. Jose to make another pass. The other boat was now hooked up to a big one, and we could enjoy the fight , and jumps, from our boat.
Second pass, Jose had one come to the long bait. We use only two rods for fly fishing. Spinning rods with 40 lb. test mono. One is set close, on the second wave. The other on the fifth wave.
Ian had the short bait already pulled, and Jose was doing a great job of *beep* off that marlin, jerking the bait just as she was about to grab it.
At about 30 ft. I called for neutral, Jose yanked the mullet out, and I cast a blue/white bucktail W/ popping head, about 15 ft. ahead of the fishs´shadow.
Only two strips/pops and she whaled it from the side...POUNCED on it!
I really didn´t need to ¨set¨the hook, as it was a circle hook rig. Far more effective on hookups with fly gear, same as conventional.
The fish went straight away from us for a bit, then turned underwater and came right at us. Typical marlin trick. Ian, watching the bow in the rod, thought the fish was still headed away off the stern. I was clearing fly line , hoping I didn´t lose a finger. Ian wanted to turn, but I saw the fish PASS THE BOAT, not 5 ft. off the port side. ¨No, No, Ian, stay STRAIGHT ! It´s ahead of us now!
Way, W-A-Y, into the 350 yds. of backing, she came full out of the ocean. Again. Again. Again!
I was in the bow, reeling like mad, hanging on.
I fought that fish for 4 hours, getting the leader through the tip and the next two guides THIRTEEN times. The outer covering of the flyline, a bright orange, had melted off in many places due to the heat/friction built up by the constant pressure.
we estimated the fish to be a little over 300 lbs., maybe 350. We didn´t know the record for blue marlin on fly. Finally , I tried to roll the fish, then Ian would rush it with the boat, and maybe we could grab the bil, or at least the shock tippet.
No way would the 20 lb. class tippet stand it.
We tried that maneuver three times, almost making it each time.
If we´d had one long enough, we could have put it under the animal´s bill and slowly guided her to within Jose´s reach. By the way, he wasn´t looking forward to grabbing that nose!
The last time she changed direction the leader passed across her bill, on the 20 pound, and she was gone.
We later found out that the record , at that time, was 280, and we all agreed that that fish would have given me the World Record.
what she DID give me, besides very sore arms and shoulders, was a memory that will last the rest of my life as one of my, if not THE, greatest moments in my angling career.
GET DOWN HERE !!!!! FEEL THE RUSH !!!
Contact me at : [email protected]
P.S.: We also fish conventional tackle.
Good Fishing, WHEREVER You ARE !!!! Capn Bob
