Good Eating

Got some on Fly today!  Anglers were knocking out triple digits with my custom tie "Hot Wax".  

Capt. Mitchell Blake

Pink Panga does it again

"Unofficioal" dates for next year's Los Suenos Triple Crown Tournament Series have been released, so I have been on the computer for the last two days booking up our season for Costa Rica Peak Season December through April 2015.   We still have a few openings, but January and February are almost full.   After I get back from snook fishing this afternoon I will be glad to respond to your e mail requesting dates for your trip for next year.   Do it NOW.  Word has gotten out about the crazy fishing that we are having out of Los Suenos.

I did take a few hours yesterday while on business in Quepos to fish with the famous Capt. Roy Zapata on his Pink Panga.
                           
I've caught a lot of fish with Roy, but when he invited me for a "guide's day off" and go bottom fishing for grouper, I had my doubts.   I've never seen a depth finder or GPS on his boat, but with a hand held GPS and within eye sight of 5 other boats not catching anything, Roy would pull up on the spot and tell us to drop 'em down.   Live sardines went to the bottom and it wasn't a long wait.  Here are the pics......I just don't have the pic of the nice 20 pounder that I caught.

After busting off a couple of Roy's light snook leaders, I put on a little heavier leader and took a couple turns on the drag.  At that point, I was wearing my white boots.   A lot of my buddies are eating grouper tonight......

 

Roanoke Reports

Upper River:
"Caught 95 shad today and was off the water at 1:30. I had a good time fishing with Joe, and looking forward to catching 4 or 5 tarpon with him in July!!!  He is a quick learner on placement and retrieving . I fished with Henry (cuz) yesterday, caught'em  really good for a couple of hours."
 ----Capt. Greg Voliva

Lower River:
"Triple digit half day on the stripers!"
-----Capt. Mitchell Blake

.....and here in Costa Rica

"Sailfishing is still red hot 20 plus sail today and 6 nice groupers for dinner" ---Capt. James

Seriously, if you want an opportunity at the best sailfish and marlin fishing that Costa Rica has seen in 20 years, you need to book your trip NOW and while the fish are still here.  Dragin Fly April openings are: April 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 29, 30.   May is getting full.  If none of these dates work, tell us when you want to go and we will find a boat for you.

It is not too late to get in on the action that is happening right now!  

Signs of life at the coast?

From Capt. Chris Kimrey, it sounds like Spring is trying to spring.

Yeah man...This was my Saturday trip 2 drum and 24" spec plus Sunday we had nice black bass and plenty of horn dogs in the ocean.====Capt. Chris Kimrey

Thanks for the video of the trip Jeffrey!!!!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3gi0ZN0Pbk&list=UUl-cqJbdBZkmRUxg9lmdjrA

The FAD trip March 2014

Day 1 was rather uneventful,  unlike previous overnight trips on the Dragin Fly, some of them anchoring up on the Furuno Reef for night time bottom fishing and day light hunting for black marlin, or making the big run to where the sailfish are gathered up for  100-shots a day, our first day on this trip was pretty laid back.

Everyone slept in at Los Suenos.  At noon, I picked up Jeff and his dad Ken.  Berto, Marcos and James were already loaded on the boat and scratching their head as to where I was going to put all the food and gear I was unloading out of the van.   The plan was to make it to the Furuo in time for some deep dropping groupers and live baiting for giant cubera snapper, maybe even a shot at a black marlin and for sure plenty of sails along the way, but it seemed that the fish had taken the whole day off.   Only one sail bite on the way to the reef and a clean bottom machine upon our arrival indicated that for whatever reason, there was not a lot of life on the Furuno.   A bit disappointed, we put out some lures and trolled away from the sunset to our final destination,   the FADs/sea mounts about 100 miles to the southeast of Los Suenos.

These sea mounts have always produced fish, and lots of them.  Read about the report to a similar underwater mountain that the Dragin Fly made last year: http://blog.downeastguideservice.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

Within the last couple of years, very enterprising sportsfishermen have invested a lot of time and an awful lot of money in anchoring FADs or Fish Attracting Devices in 1500 feet of water, submerged from view of anyone who doesn’t know that they are there, but close enough to the surface to be a substrate and catalyst for an explosion of life that normally gathers around the area due to the rich upwelling and abundant bait.   The result is a concentration of bait, primarily bonito and baby yellowfin tuna, and a concentration of the predators that feed on them.    In essence, over the past year, this area has proven to be the absolute best blue marlin fishing on the planet.
  
After chugging from the Furuno with lures that got no bites below a rising half moon, we arrived about 1 am, still several hours before light, so the boys set out the sea anchor and I set out some bonito on glow sticks in search of a lost sword.    Nether the glow sticks or the sea anchor performed as advertised and as light approached we were about 6 miles from the spot.   We put out our standard sailfish spread,  5 swimming ballyhoo, 2 short teasers  and 2 Laceration Lures rigged with j-hooks that replaced the toothless teasers that normally swim on the long riggers.   We were there for marlin and if a marlin took a swipe at a teaser, if at all possible, I wanted to have a hook in it.

The sun was just breaking the horizon and still 4 miles from the FADs when the first sets of sails wiped us out yielding a pair of double headers.   As we got closer to the spot, birds started working and bonitos started sipping on the surface and slapping our ballyhoos, popping clips on both sides and creating mass confusion in a tightly wound cockpit.   James pulls it back a little so we can clear up the mess when the right rigger holding a pink Fishina pops and a blue marlin in the 200 pound class starts peeling line off of a 50.    After a spectacular show and 200 yards, most of it in the air, she pulls the hook.  We quickly set everything back out, but now only with two ballyhoo and a skipping bonito down the middle.    Now we’re marlin fishing.

Almost instantly the left short teaser gets crashed, then the ballyhoo beside it pops out of the clip with a little 150 pound blue on the other end.   A quick release and before we can get ‘em out again we’ve got another lure bite that shakes off really quick.   We pull off a sailfish on a lure,  put it back out and send it to the top of the rigger.  Just as it arrives, a 300 pounder piles on it, this time staying connected and putting on a helluva show.      The blue marlin action is red hot for exactly two hours, the same amount of time it would take any other boat that left before daylight from the closest port to reach us.  When its all said and done, we’ve released 2  blue marlin from 6 raised along with 6 for 9 on the sails.   The bait goes down  and the bite dramatically falls off other than an occasional half hearted slap at a lure or bait, there’s just not much to it until just before sunset.   
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Part 2
With the sun getting lower in the sky and  bonito popping on the surface again, clark spoons on planers are deployed and we began to close the circles around the FAD.  As the pound to two pound bonito come in the boat, they are bridled onto circle hooks and returned to the water.  They bolt for faux liberty until their tether comes taunt and is strung through the rigger clips.   The bonito pull against their constraint and plane initially towards the bottom, then to the surface pushing a wake and angling away from the boat.   Fresh baits are caught and replace the ones that are fading, now skipping lifelessly on the surface, still good enough to get a bite, but a lively bait will get bit first. 

In these last two hours of light, while live baiting, the best of our 5 afternoon blue marlin bites creamed a 5 pound yellowfin tuna that I had just caught while jigging a spoon, bridled up and sent to its death.   That baby tuna did not have time to figure out what had happened when the biggest blue of the day gulped it down, then proceeded to dump a Tyrnos 50.    After gaining about half the line,  she went on another scorching run and a half dozen bounding leaps for freedom before her reward of a straightened hook.   There is a time when to apply pressure,  and there is a time to just enjoy the show.  Although this big blue marlin was lost,  the show was work attending. 

At the end of our first full day at the FAD, we were 2 for 8 on blue marlin bites with another 3 that we did not get a bite out of and 10 for 14 sails.   Not a bad day of fishing and we were going to wake up pulling a marlin spread right on top of the spot for our second full day.
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Part 3
Yesterday we were greeted with sailfish  for sunrise,  how could it get much better?    Blue marlin before breakfast.     Dawn was just cracking, way too early for aperature and shutter speed to have the ability to capture an airborne blue marlin, but we were not going to wait for cameras.   The guys were getting breakfast together, Jeffrey and Ken were just rolling out of the bunks and I was putting out a marlin spread.  Two lures, two teasers, two skipping bonito.  We were not fishing for sailfish today.

The bonito on the end of the rod I was holding was finding the right wave to ride when a big splash appeared on her tail.  I dropped it back .  Nothing.  Then she crashed it.  A short drop back and I locked it up, walking into the salon with the rod hooked to a 300 pound blue marlin on the other end.   Anyone want a blue marlin for breakfast?     No shit.  Just like that, less than 5 minutes into it.   Release.  Put em out and do it again.  We were 2 for 3 on marlin BEFORE the sun broke free of distant storm clouds and began to burn off the haze.  The bite momentarily slowed and we were able to take in the day.   

Off our bow a blue marlin chasing bonitos brought us back to attention and as we passed the spot,  she popped up behind the long skipping bait and Ken made the perfect presentation, drop back , hook up and release of a nice 200 pounder.    Another one came up, then faded away.    Thirty minutes and a couple of sailfish sancochos later we had our first marlin slam a lure, come  tight and Jeffrey made quick work of his 3rd  blue marlin of the morning,  a little 100 pounder.

After doubling our marlin catch from the day before by 8 am, James isn’t going to spend the rest of the day circling round and round and hoping for them to start biting again.    Besides, it’s starting to get crowded.   A sea plane has just landed and dropped off it’s anglers directly on their sportfishing yacht.  Why waste all that time steaming to the fishing grounds when you can have the plane drop you off right on the boat? Apparently the guy who put these FADs out, is the one that arrives in his personal fishing location via aircraft.
  
We steam towards another one of his FAD's, 30 miles to the south east, with enough time to be back for the evening live bait bite if there aren’t some marlin around this 2nd spot.   
Two blips on the radar indicate that we are not the first ones to arrive at this FAD.   Two other boats apparently spent the night on this one.  It will be interesting to compare reports from two similar locations, 30 miles apart.    From about 3 miles away, we can see the two boats together, then a huge mass of white water erupts between them indicating that a big blue marlin has just crashed back down to Earth and one of them is hooked up.

As it turns out, the Foxy Lady, a private boat from Los Suenos was hooked up with their 3rd marlin of as many bites for the day.  Under normal circumstances, pretty good fishing, but with an hour or more between bites, James made a couple of loops, then slipped off to cover ground and look around. 

About a mile away, the right short pops the clip and Jeffrey hooks a 200 pound class blue marlin.  About  20 minutes after that release, her big sister shows up and again eats the right short.  Jeffrey makes a perfect sancocho and comes back only with a smashed ballyhoo head and a sore thumb. Fortunately the marlin did not fade back far, ignoring the lures rigged for a fish of her size, instead, she eats a tiny ballyhoo swimming on the left long.   This time, Ken shows his boy how to do it, with just the right amount of drop back, locks it up and hooks her up.   She puts on a great show then goes deep and Ken and her are at a stand off with 100 yards of 30# in between.

Ken makes a bold move and cranks up the drag, then again, and again, finally forcing her to the surface for another aerial display  and the release.   Ken said that is was a lot easier to crank up the drag on a big marlin without fear of losing her, you just have to catch a couple earlier in the day. 

The other boats had left the FAD all alone and with marlin in the area, we suspected that they would gather up around dark.  As it turns out, other than a couple of teaser bites and a sailfish, Ken’s 3rd blue marlin was our 6th and last of the day out of  8 blue marlin bites of 11 raised.  There was no sunset blue marlin bite at our new FAD.
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Part 4

The afternoon bite at the 2nd FAD was dismally disappointing….unless you like jigging up 3-7 pound yellowfins drop after drop…….which is a lot of fun on spinning tackle and braid.  

As the sun set a huge migration of flying fish were passing through the area at an unfortunate time, for them anyway, but perfect timing for the thousands of  voracious yellowfin pups.   The sun was gone and all the gold  had turned to silver except in the westernmost sky.   The surface of the water  100 miles off the coast was breathless,  not a ripple, so calm that the line seperating heavenly bodies of sky and water was blurred.  And soon there would be no safety in this heaven or hell for the flying fish.  

They started as a trickle. Occasional silver streaks several inches above the water's surface.  They would stay airborne long enough for the eye to determine that the flier had scales instead of feathers, glide a few more yards, then disappear in a tiny splash under the ocean's skin.  If being chased from below, when air speed is lost a flier and it's glide nears the end, it will drop to the surface just long enough for it's tail touche water and propel it airborne again, never more than a foot or so above the water.

It was watching stones thrown and skipped across the surface by someone with a good arm, you could not help but to follow the flyers to see just how long they would stay airborne.  All of them moving the same direction, across the sea mount and right over the waiting tunas that were now aware of this school of flyer's unfortunate transect.

At first there was one or two in the air at any given time, occasionally a tuna would be waiting for the brief touch down of the tail and in a puff of white water it was over for the flying fish but the hole in the water left by the football sized tuna.  

A good meteor show starts off only as one or two at a time, beginning in the same corner of the sky and streaking in the same direction.  As the Earth drifts into the field of space dust, particles are ignited by the atmosphere at a much higher rates until at the peak of the storm, streaks of light continuously scar the face of the sky.

First one or two in the air at a time, then dozens could be seen in any field of view, all racing for their lives in the same preprogramed heading.   Tiny splashes on the surface of the water mark the spot where they take flight, but now the end of their path is more often marked with explosions of white water and jumping tunas who are now coordinating their onslaught on the migrating flyers.

 The numbers of airborne flying fish increases as panic sets in.    Despite the fading light and open ocean, the scissor tailed frigate birds begin their attacks from above, swooping down more than 100 feet to pluck the frantic flyers before they reach the faux safety of the water below, now teaming with ravaging yellowfin pups.

The Dragin Fly plows into the darkness against the continuous wave of flying fish streaking past both sides of the boat.  Instead of fading like a dying ember, dissolving back into the water at the end of their flight,  now each flyer disappears in a starburst and the gullet of a baby yellowfin.

Adjusting for current, the time of our transit and calculated overnight drift,  James plugs in a course that will put us on our original FAD by sunrise and hopefully a repeat of this morning’s action before chugging the 100+ miles back to Los Suenos.

Dinner of yellowfin sashimi, jumbo shrimp on the grill and chicken lasagna and everyone crashes.  I put out a single rod with a flashing green light, glow stick and deboned bite-sized yellowfin.   Absolutely no wind and a very slow, long roll to the sea and the quiet hum of the generator produced a  symphony of snores.  I waved off James and Berto on the first two watches, but at 2 am, I had to lay down.  Marcos popped right up and I apprised him of the surrounding boat movements, only two of us within sight of eye or radar and we all had the same drift.  Peaceful night.   When James cranked up the engines, we were two miles from our spot.  

I would like to tell you about the big sword that I hooked and battled from a dead drift while everyone slept, but that was only in my dreams.   It would make the perfect story, but for us, this story ended much as it started…..pretty slow.   Ken  did hook a 400+ blue marlin before the sun rose.  For the first time on this trip,  the 70 year old sport took the chair to finish the job.    And he finished the job. 

After getting the bimini within reach of the rod tip a couple of times, she made another bounding run, tearing giant holes in the water and throwing white foam and spray 10 feet in the air just like she did on her first run.   When things settled down, Ken just bumped up the drag to make sure that she knew he was still there and he beat her down.
 
I say the story has ended.  I’ve tallied the totals.  For 2 days and a morning at “The FADs” , we raised 25 blue marlin, getting bites out of 18 of them and catching 9.   Throw on top of that a dozen sails.    Right now we just picked them up and are running towards Los Suenos, we’ve still got several hours of trolling and about 100 miles to cover .  Who knows what King James might run into along the way.  

Pics from the trip

GPS tag deployed in sailfish prior to our trip 

Blue marlin with a face full of Laceration Lures

Jeff withe a nice little blue

and a giant sail 

This sail took the a swipe at the wrong lure

Blue Marlin for breakfast? 

Wake up Berto

 

 And don't forget the sails.......

Roanoke Report

"Triple digit days on Stripers with light tackle and fly plus a wad of Shad!  Add in the Jacks, Bass, Bowfin and Gar its an anglers paradise."......Capt. Mitch Blake  

I think that we need to get Capt. Mitch down to Costa Rica......but it is some pretty good fishing.  Catching a fish like that on a little rod like that is a lot of fun.  Anyone want some?  Send me an e mail and we'll get you rigged up.

Off to the FADs

Story and complete report next week, maybe Sunday afternoon, which is when we are scheduled to return from our 4 day/3 night trip to the offshore sea mounts that we visited last year.  Check out a history of the fishing reports.  I'll bring the computer and hope to have some reports prepped for publication upon my return.

Anna will be answering phones/e mails while I sign off the grid for a few days.......

Is that a fly stuck in your bill?

Everyone got into the action yesterday.  My dad caught a sail on the fly, then his fiance, then Anna even caught one on the fly.   When they are coming in as doubles and triples and if you miss one you've got another one coming, it's really hot fishing.  In all we had 10 bites on the fly and caught 3.   We were pulling one baited hook as a back up and caught a dozen more sails on that one rod.......

Anna says that science is fun.  We were helping out the University of Miami and tagging some Costa Rica sailfish with satelite pop-off tags......we should have done this BEFORE the tournaments!!!!!   We didn't want an unfair advantage......

"Thanks again for the hospitality and especially going fishing with us on Tuesday. I learned a lot and I will be headed back this way again. Here are a few more pics from our trip.... So glad Jerry got his Mahi. Thanks again! See ya on the water back in NC." HT 

Roanoke Report

"Ran a trip out on the lower Roanoke last Saturday & had a nice limit of rock out of 50+ fish with softbaits on the bottom."   ......Capt Joe Ward

I still believe in miracles.....

James gave us faith again.  With two hours left, he found the motherload, we caught a dozen sails in less than 40 minutes, putting us in the chase for some cash.....but then the bite slowed when the fleet came over the horizon to calls of double and triple headers.   I missed the 4th from the back of the boat, then from the front of the boat while we were backing down to the three hooked fish.  Ended up in 6th for this leg and 5th for the Los Suenos Triple Crown.  Very respectable.

so much for that great hook up ratio......

....or at least mine.   With a 5 man team and only 4 anglers fishing each day, yesterday was my day to keep score......I should have stayed up on the bridge with James and the score card today.    Sea Angel won the daily with 31 sails, but it fell off sharply from there.   We were in 9th for the daily today with 19 sails and we are in 9th for this leg of the Los Suenos Triple Crown and we are in about 9th place for the championship.

Day 1 Report

Great hook up ratio and a good number of bites, but not enough to be on top, although we are within striking distance of the leaders who have 40 and 41 sailfish for the day.   We had 29 on the Dragin Fly.  Wish us luck tomorrow, we're still in this.

I guess that you heard about the albino blue marlin caught on the Spanish Fly?   Capt. Daniel Espinoza took the day off, with Juan Carlos running the boat for the first time.  What are the chances of that?   I hope we see that marlin tomorrow, we missed one today.

Tournament Training

You wouldn't think that sitting in a pink panga with no shade under the tropical sun for 6 hours is tournament training......but after you have spent 8 hours baking in a billfish tournament, you would understand the similarities.

Few small roosters, jacks and one BIG bite, a 35 pound snook.  Worth the wait.  

Another Roanoke Report

"Worst fishing weather in 7 years.  That said Gary G. and I caught 50 or so stripers in Jamesville on Saturday in less than two hours. "   ----Gregory S.

That's from one of Capt. Greg Voliva's regular customers who learned how to do it from him.  

Still crushing Stripers, Shad are fired up Light tackle or fly, game on!

From Capt. Mitch Blake......

inshore/beach report

Sailfishing is good enough that the guys have been spending part of the day sending sardines swimming.  It's been a while since we've had a cubera on the boat.  That was the first fish we ever caught on the Dragin Fly before taking her offshore.  The next two fish were blue marlin.....

The guys brought back some left over sardines and I baby sat them overnight in my new livewell rigged up in the mini van.  No snook...and fortunately no crocs.  I did catch a  jack, but not the big morning I was hoping for.

Wow

That's a pair of 40+ pounders.  ....but not from the beach.