Giant snook and rooster

Our friend Jerry "Bubba" Hallstrom sent me these pics from some recent trips that he's booked, I had to share:

That's a snook!!!


And that's a rooster!!!

Photos courtesy of bubba's Costa Rica Fishing Report
1-800-9SAILFISH

OK, OK, here are some pics.

We got another BIG black marlin yesterday, that's two big blacks this week. We jumped off the striped marlin, losing another opportuntiy at a Grand Slam. Also some pics of some recent sails.

Now that's cold!!!

Capt. Ray went up to Drum Inlet to get on some of the red hot drum action in the suds. While there, they ran into a couple of seals. That shows you how cold the winter has been.




Meanwhile in Costa Rica......after catching the black two days ago, we raised a blue marlin and a striped marlin yesterday but couldn't get a bite out of either one of them, just enough sails and dolphins to make the day.

Snook fishing has been tough.

Lizard fish and black marlin

The snook have not been very kind to me recently. I saw a couple two days ago, taunting me. One was a little guy, just a couple of pounds, munching on shrimp in the surf, he was big enough to eat the rapala I was throwing. The other snook, crashing sardines, was the one I wanted. No bites.....other than a lizardfish. I didn't know that lizardfish existed in Costa Rica, surpised I didn't catch any pinfish.

On Monday Lucky Larry, Joe and Joey came into town and I road along with them. They've been fishing with us down here for many years and had been warned that things were a little slower than normal. Although we did have a double digit day of sailfish releases this week, these guys have come to expect a dozen sails/day as the norm.

The evening before the trip, Joey had been whining about never catching a black marlin and was considering heading to Panama or Australia in the next year to check that off his list. The morning started with a couple of quick dolphin and a sail, then a dry spell, another dolphin and another sail. After catching the second sail, at about 1 o'clock, we picked up and rain to a nearby school of tuna/spinner dolphins.

On the way to the tunas, we saw a couple of free jumping sailfish and something else that made a huge splash. Things worked out just right with the tuna, catching a couple on poppers and spinning rods and 3 on cedar plugs. With PLENTY of meat in the box, we're back on the troll to the free jumpers.

Just as Berto gets the fish cleaned up and the sushi iced down, the right long pops and Chela drops back and hooks a fish, handing the rod to Joey, it was his turn.

The fish never jumps, we get everything clear and get on top of him. Joey starts putting the heat to him, forcing the fish to make a move and that move was up. With the leader in the rod tip, the 400 pound black marlin skies airward. Fifteen minutes later, we've got him on the leader again for a really good look.

Congrats Joey, so should I cancel that Panama trip?

Wahoo in Costa Rica, Carolina Style

The sailfish bite continues to improve, most of the boats had a dozen or more shots yesterday. On the Dragin Fly, everyone caught a sail and a wahoo, that's right, we caught 5 wahoo yesterday.

After having several wahoo bites on ballyhoo and losing them because of the hoo's razor sharp teeth cutting the mono leader used for sailfish, Capt. James put out a big planer and slid down some of Capt. Joe Shute's wahoo lures rigged on wire. It didn't take long fishing Carolina Style to get on the bite, adding 5 wahoo up to 50 pounds to a handful of sails.

another marlin....BOOK NOW FOR NEXT YEAR

Things are still slow, but we have caught 3 marlin this week. The one yesterday came from live baiting, which is what we've resorted to. Just not getting many sailfish bites on the troll. Using live bonito on circle hooks, it's a good way to get bites, but you also get a lot of sancochos (missed fish). Sometimes the sails will grab the bonito and just hold it or kill it, not really eating it, glad the marlin ate. 5 sails for 17 bites and the marlin, not a good hook up ratio, but at least we're catching some fish.

We are taking advance reservations for fishing days on the Fly Boats for next year. We can sort out arrival/departure dates, accommodations, tours, etc, but I strongly encourage you to make your fishing reservations NOW!!!!!

There are currently NO FLY BOAT OPENINGS for these 2011 dates: Jan. 26-29, Feb. 6-10 and March 2-5.

For fishing in NC this year, things are also booking up, please make your reservations in advance, but always call us on short notice, we'll try and find a quality guide for you.

No that's a school of drum

Nice pics of what Joe Shute has been doing on the calm days. Capt. Ray had a little of this up at Drum Inlet. Although we're still in Costa Rica, some of the guys are still getting theirs. We got 4 sails today.

two marlin in one week....

.....that's better than it has been.




Also, despite the cold stuns, not all the trout are gone.

No tsunami here in Costa Rica

I was on the way to go snook fishing this morning when the tsunami warning came up. I can just see it, me, standing in chest deep water, fishing rod in hand on my head that wide-brim funny hat with the lures hanging off of it, staring up at a 20 foot wave breaking over my head.

I went yesterday and saw him, crashing bait and jumping completely out of the water, reminded me of a tarpon. I never got a bite, also reminding me of tarpon, but I felt that I was really close. I was supposed to pick up customers at 9:45 am, but the snook sucked me in and when I got to the van it was 10 am and the phone was ringing. Anna chewed me out pretty bad, but all was well, she got the guys a cab and I met them at the canopy tour, everyone was happy. I was determined to be back after him today, but the tsunami warning kept me off the beach.

It must have also shut down the bottom fishing, no luck there and another slow bite offshore. Some tuna showed up to the west, with some marlin mixed in, we'll be heading that way tomorrow.

Anna has me in the penalty box, it may be a few more days until I get another chance at the snook.

We caught 6 sails today

Maybe things are beginning to change.

I caught a wahoo

....and that was about it. I think that it's being chalked up to El Nino....same reason for the crazy winter at home? On day 3, 43 boats failed to catch 100 billfish, we didn't help the tally and scored a big goose egg......although I did catch a nice wahoo and dolphin.

In 3 days of fishing, we saw only 14 sails, got bites from 10 and caught 9, normally a decent day of fishing. To say the least, things are off a bit.

On the positive side, the roosterfishing remains good and offshore there is a lot of bait, maybe this upcoming full moon will help pick things up just like it did in January.

Congratulations to the Big Oh who won this leg of the tourney and the overall, taking about $100k.

The Spanish Fly was right there with us going into day 3, but they got the right bite, landing a marlin which was enough to move them up to 3rd place where they held by getting there first.

I see a little snook fishing in my future.

Day 2

We’ve caught everything that’s bit, just ain’t getting enough bites, but there aren’t many to go around. Caught 9, 2nd place has 12, but I’m looking at first which is just a marlin bite away. See about that mojo tomorrow, I did a little dance this afternoon and caught one with 30 seconds left on the clock. Gonna dance a lot tomorrow, I need my white boots.

First day report

How are we doing? I guess it depends on how you look at it..... We caught all that bit, but we only got 5 bites and saw 3 more that didn't. First place after Day 1 is the Big Oh with 13 sailfish releases, then it drops off from there with the 3rd place boat with 8 sails. James said something about concentrating on the 500 point marlin tomorrow.....we'll see how that goes.

Checking back in.....the rains from the night before dirtied our water, so the roosterfishing/jacks on the fly didn't work out, but we did beat down a sail on a fly, followed by a handfull of sailfish releases/day over the last couple of days. Tourney starts today and I hopefully will have a positive report this afternoon.

Roosters continue to chew

We had another great day with the roosters yesterday, plus about 30 jacks, many on the fly. It was good enough on the pangas, we are planning to check it out with the Dragin Fly today. Sailfishing the next couple of days and getting ready for the Tourney at the end of the week.

Overnighter Report

Great trip on the way out there with a steady bite of sails out to 75 miles, catching 3 on the fly, plus another 10 on bait. The sails were really aggressive, often with 2 or 3 fish coming on the teasers with great bites on the fly. Chela fixed up a dorado for dinner, then when it got dark there was a steady supply of squid coming to the lights. We understood why everyone wanted us to bring back fresh squid, a little butter and about 1 minute in the microwave....Que rico.

We ending up with about 150 squid, sending them back down on hooks and glow sticks in hopes of a sword, but no luck. We did catch 2 deep water sharks, black with big eyes, and 3 sailfish at night, the sails were 3 inches long and came up to the lights, catching them in a dip net. Very cool.

Nice trip back home with a wahoo bite, several dolphin and a couple of grouper that couldn't resist the fresh squid.

We didn't see the marlin that we were looking for, but congratulations to Chad and thanks for the pic of the marlin he caught on another boat that we booked for him out of Los Suenos.

Strange things

The good sail fishing that we had around the full moon has fallen off to a consistent bite of 5-7 sails and a couple dorado/day.....with the exception of Sunday, which was a strange day. It was the first day that I can remember that the Dragin Fly failed to land a billfish. It happens sometimes when you're trying to be the hero, sometimes you end up the zero.....also, it rained that night. I mean it really, really rained, more than I've ever seen in February.

Monday morning was dreary, rainy, cloudy and a bit breezy. At daylight, myself, Pat and Wayne were standing in chest deep water trying for my snook. No bites. Our panga picked us up from the beach and we headed to Punta Mala with a dozen live mullet and a couple of rods rigged with poppers. After about 30 minutes of slow trolling mullet and casting poppers, someone turned on the switch. For two hours we had spectacular topwater action on the roosters, hooking a dozen BIG roosters, catch 5 and about a dozen jacks, mostly on poppers, with vicious bites from multiple roosters competing for the popper.

By mid day the skies cleared and the bite died, offshore it was back to normal, with the daily quota of 6 sails and a dorado. Same today.

Tomorrow we're heading offshore to spend the night, maybe we'll find something really good.

Here's a picture of the groupers that we bagged on the way home the other day, nice to have something to eat other than dolphin each day.