Robbie Goolsby and group fished with us April 25 out of Tamarindo, Costa Rica, and had a super smorgasbord day. We started off the day with a nice 35 lb. wahoo, caught offshore in about 2000 ft. of water. The fish left a wide hole behind the short left teaser, and as we were in a turn to send out a bait, it hit the long rigger with a marlin lure in it.
Shortly after that, in the same area, we raised a sail on the short left teaser, pitched back a ballyhoo with a circle hook, and hooked and released it.
We beat up the area for about a half hour longer, but didn't raise anything else. We headed offshore and raised and released another sail in about 4500 ft. of water.
While in this area a 40 lb. dorado hooked up on the shotgun bait, a circle hook/ballyhoo on 20 lb. tackle. This was a tough fish that fought for over 20 minutes, but we landed it and were eating dorado sashimi not much later.
By this time we were over 20 miles from shore and started heading back towards Tamarindo. We raised a billfish on the short left teaser (very popular today--green and black silicone wide range clone) that took one swipe at the teaser then went down. We didn't get a good look at it when it first showed, so, thinking it was probably a sail, sent out a ballyhoo with circle hook on a 20 lb. test rod.
Within a couple of seconds the fish showed on the teaser again and we realized that it was a marlin, but by now it was too late, we already had the sailfish bait out. The fish wasn't that big, so we just left the sail bait there and the marlin took it and we hooked it up. It then went ballistic and while greyhounding around the ocean we saw it was about a 175 lb. blue. It took 45 minutes, but we finally released the fish, always a lot of fun to watch someone fight a marlin on 20 lb. gear. Fun for the crew, anyway!
Capt. Manuel Leal called me on his cell around 9:00 this morning and said they'd just released a marlin on the Capullo. Since they were doing a half day trip I'd assumed that they would be looking for roosterfish or something to eat close in. Turns out the inshore didn't produce much in the first half hour, so they trolled offshore. After about 30 minutes they got to the ledge, around 400 ft., and right off the bat raised a striped marlin. The fish came up on a bridge teaser and they pitched it a ballyhoo with a circle hook on a 30 lb. outfit. 10 minutes later they released the stripey.
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