Tortuguero and the famous Eddie Brown

Anna and I took a little road trip to Tortuguero and Tortuga Lodge to fish with the famous Capt. Eddie Brown. We hopped on an early flight over, greeted by a great day, calm seas and no wind, which means that we can make it out the inlet to the best of the tarpon fihsing.

I say "relatively calms seas", there was a little swell, combined with an experimentation on new sea sick medication, Anna was a little green. She hung in there with tarpon rolling around the boat, but after a 15 minute battle with a big jack, the swelling seas were getting the best of her, so we headed in to drop her off by the pool.

I think that if she had known about the good bite that I was about to return to, she would have toughed it out, but we were both in need of a little down time by the pool. Capt. Eddie Brown and I headed back out and got on the right drift, getting a bite pretty quickly from a little 40 pounder, followed by a 60 and 80 pounder. Just big enough, but not too big.

Eddie suggested another drift, but with 3 tarpon in less than an hour, I was ready for the pool myself.

Coming back in the inlet:

The famous Capt. Eddie Brown:

After a long day of tarpon fishing.......................... Ah, yes, that's better.................................

Afternoon snook bite in the jungle with Anna.

For her anniversery........

......some like GOLD........

.......some like DIAMONDS......

.....but she likes SILVER......

on the way home from a couple days on the "other side". Pics and complete story as soon as we get back to civilization.

Meanwhile, Capt. James reports steady double digit days on sailfish.

Corvina and striped bass

I took a few cast along the beach this morning and actually got a bite. Nice corvina or locally called sea bass. It is really in the same family as red drum and speckled trout. In fact, it looks exactly like a speck, but no specks, very silver. Weighed about 3 pounds.

Below is a pic of a bigger corvina that Joel caught a few weeks ago.

I got inspired by the snook that Joel caught 3 days ago in front of Raul's house. That's Raul holding Joe's snook, close to 30 pounds.

Capt. Gary reported in from NC:

"Striper fishing and the water temps are heating up on the Neuse. Still putting fish on the deck on the Trent as well. Shad and panfish in the mix. March is looking great!"

Like the good ole days

That body of sailfish has moved within striking distance and good fishing has settled in with consistent double digit days on the sails. Also a few dorado making an appearance and occassional tuna schools, but they've been finicky.

Report and pics

Here are an assortment of sail shots.

We started out on the 26 looking for live bonito to carry offshore, we only caught 3, but in the hour that we trolled around, we caught 2 sailfish on the only ballyhoo that we had out there. James was ribbed a little bit about cutting us short, if he can catch 2 sails while fishing 0 teasers and 1 bait, imagine if he stepped it up and put out a full spread.......

We did run into a shcool of tunas and got a good bite out of one of those big sickle fins that nearly dumped a 50, pulling off when he made the turn and came back to us.

James arrived on the scene just in time to piss on the coals, we caught a heavy handful, then things slowed until the afternoon bite that James predicted fired up. We ended up with 28 sails on day one. Running into Furuno we found the tunas again and caught a nice 40 pounder with just enough time to get to the reef for a few drifts, catching a dozen nice yellowtails.

Not much too the nighttime snapper bite, but it was on at daylight, catching another 25 snappers, including a rock snapper and a 20 pound cubera. I pulled off a BIG cubera.

Loaded the tubes full of live bonitio, hoping for another chance at those big tuna, working our way back to Los Suenos. We caught enough sails to bring the two day total to 42.

The bite is getting closer to home every day, making this good fishing available out of Los Suenos.

Overnighter

Got back yesterday afternoon, pics and complete report to follow as soon as I get them downloaded and sorted out. The quick report, 28 sails on the way there, a great dusk and daylight snapper bite, catching 38 of them, then 14 more sails on the way home, plus the tuna.....

a flurry?

Yesterday was pretty darn good out of Los Suenos, 9 sails and 2 big blue marlin. Today we catch another marlin and 4 sails.

Fishing with Johny tomorrow, we'll see how that goes.....

Anna and I went snook fiishing yesterday, again no bites, but a great day at the beach. The tide got too high for fishing and everyone left. We had about 5 miles of beach all to ourselves. Sunburn? We ended up spending the night at a super cool hotel right on the beach in Bejuco. After margaritas in the jacuzzi, we waved off the drive to Jaco.

May be heading back to Drake.......more on that later.

From Capt. Gary on the Trent today

windy and warm. A dozen stripers and 4 big crappie, Several blow up on top but not takers. Water up to 47 Starting to get right. Word of a few shad a Pitch Kettle.

Yes there is fishing available in NC, drop us a line to make it happen.

Tuna keep saving the day

There are free-jumping and finning sailfish around, but they sure have been finicky with just a few bites/day. Those big tuna have saved the day a couple of times this week. Plenty of sushi.

some pics from the trip

Sorry, I was putting the posts up at www.draginflycostarica.com

More complete report there.

In short, it was a great trip, caught over 50 sails on the way there and back. Got side-tracked fora half a day with a school of big tuna.

Back to the grind.....

Off to Drake Bay

We're loading up and heading out at daylight tomorrow. Going to Drake Bay for what hopes to be some great fishing. Reports of a good sailfish bite are bringing us down there, but we've got to explore some of the inshore fishing that doesn't get much pressure.

Reports and pics to follow in a few days....

Finally got air conditioning in my little tico apartment......man it's been hot.

Decent day

They let me ride along today, I gave good demonstrations on how not to hook sailfish. 2 of the 3 we missed were from my efforts. In fact, I never hooked one. We ended up 8 for 11. Not a bad day.

James got word of a big bite to the south.....thinking about an overnighter, will let you know if we go.

George

Up and down. Yesterday we were the Fly Boat with the tough day, only 1 sail out of several bites and a tuna for dinner. Amazing how you can go from hero to zero so quickly.......maybe we'll be back on top today.

Here's a pic from Tag-A- Long Dan and Youth Day. Pretty work Merrit, your dad never could hit those teal.

since the tourney......

.....the sailfish have been there, but they've been finicky, only getting a few bites/day, although plenty of fish are seen on the surface finning swimming around. The offshore marlin bite has been steady, but still only a few bites/day. Today James headed back out there and it paid off, the best day since the tourney, the guys had 2 nice blue marlin, 4 sails and a couple of tuna.

meat fishing is a little slow

but the guys are getting a pick on the billfish, just complaining about the lack of fish fingers by the pool and tuna sushi.

Went snook fishing today and got a bite......but I missed it.