The report, pics to follow.

This trip to the seamounts  is an example of why when planning an overnight trip, plan on at least a couple of nights.  Most of our trips are 4 nights and 3 full days of fishing, a grueling trip, but no better opportunity in the world to experience the kind of morning like what we had today.  An abbreviated version of 3 nights/2 days (chugging there and back overnight) is perfect and allows you to go where you may need to go in order to get the best fishing.   The trip we took was too short.

 

Our departure was delayed a day due to a generator rebuild and repaint that took a few more days than planned.   Pat Renfro, one of my partners in the Dragin Fly,  had plenty of patience watching our investment come out shining like new.

We headed out mid morning yesterday.   There is almost no one fishing this time of year, the "green season", despite a beautiful day and reports of great fishing on day trips.   We were hoping to run into the tunas and catch enough of them for the trip and to take down to the lodge where I will be tarpon fishing TOMORROW!   By late afternoon we should be arriving at our first seamount for the afternoon bite.   Everything went as planned, found the tunas, caught tunas.  At the seamount, we did have a couple of squalls and the seas built up before calming down overnight.    We saw only one blue marlin and missed it.  

Today, after a nice night and a morning with calm seas,  we got up at daylight, had coffee and hot breakfast while steaming to another seamount.  Arrived.  Fished.   Fished some more.  Caught bait.  Live baited.  Nothing.   Honestly, we were pretty bummed out, having to be due back in Los Suenos by late afternoon.  

On the way home we passed by the seamount that we had fished the afternoon before with only one bite.     I’m glad that we did.   First bite on a lure we pulled off.   Second bite on a pitch bait.  Sancocho.   And another sancocho. 
Side bar:  What is a sancocho?:
A sancocho is when you miss a fish and you reel in only the mashed head of your bait.  Sacocho is the name of a soup made out of mashed vegetables, not pure' like mashed potatoes, but squashed, kind of like the head of your ballyhoo.   Sancocho can be used as a noun or a verb, for example, I sancochoed the last three sailfish, but I’m going to get the next one.   It can also be used to describe one who makes many sancochoes, also called a sancochero. 

Wow, talk about feeling low, finally we are getting some bites and we cannot keep them connected, but the next bite on one of Joey's lures and a few minutes later, Pat has his first blue marlin release of the day.    


Another bite on a Laceration Lure and Pat beats me to the rod, shortly later he has his second blue marlin release of the day.


I am putting out the same green Pedro and we hook up again, this time I have my release.


 We then started doing a little more switch baiting, pitching bonito on circle hooks to marlin that are now coming in hot on the teasers.  With three blue marlin releases really quick, we were tickled to see our fourth fish come tight on a pitch bait after the poor work we were doing earlier in the morning.   Pat has got the hook up and it's a striped marlin!  Pat is having an amazing day, I miss a blue on the pitch bait, but Pat cleans up and catches his third blue marlin of the morning.  The next fish to pop a rigger clip was on Pat's side of the boat and was another striped marlin.
Pat is now holding 3 blue marlin and two striped marlin releases by 10:30 in the morning. 

Our thoughts wandered to a grand slam,  Pat has two of the 3 necessary billfish releases to qualify for a grand slam, with a pair of sails, he could accomplish what few have ever done, a double grand slam in the same day!

We still have got to be back at Los Suenos by dark, so we  make bait, filling the tuna tubes, hoping to run into that school of tuna on the way to the edge, where there has been a decent sailfish bite.   things are going just as planned, we find the tuna and now everyone in the lodge and the village is having tuna.
  

Up on the edge where the sailfish bite has been firing off,  is also where the black marlin live.  All we need is a pair of sails for Pat’s individual double grand slam in a single day, but a black, now that would be something.   I think that they call 4billifsh species in a day a Super Grand Slam? 

 Here we go, into the fleet of 4 or 5 charter boats and we quickly raise a sail.  Pat makes a sancocho.  The pressure is on.

Pat cleanly hooks his next sailfish giving him one grand slam, only one sailfish to go when BAM, the left teaser explodes with a marlin bite.   I felt a little guilty by pitching a marlin bait to the hole in the water where a nice black or blue just creamed the teaser, but I did it anyway.   I pitched my marlin  bait at the same time Pat’s hit the water, I may have even beat him, but either way, I wanted in the game…….and I got the bite, dropped back, nothing, he came back for it, a bite again, dropped back and hooked up.     We clear the lines and Pat brings in his pitch bait just as my fish jumps, it’s a damn  SAILFISH (that ate the marlin bait) and the marlin is still behind the  boat, but Pat’s bait is out of the water and the marlin fades off.   My sailfish jumps off, serves me right, and we never see the marlin again.   We can only guess if it was a black or a blue, up on the edge like that, chances are…….

Back to Pat who still needs a sail to finish his double grand slam and he’s having a little trouble connecting, missing the next two fish in a row, then he hooks up solidly.   My rigger also pops and we have a double header of sails.   Release on both and we are heading to the dock, leaving that marlin for another day.

Blue marlin, sailfish for me today, hopefully a tarpon TOMORROW

In short, we were 4 for 9 on blue marlin, 2 for 3 on striped marlin and 3 for a bunch of sailfish.  Oh, and the tunas.