Several guides got together and headed to the
southwest part of Costa Rica to try the
sailfish-on-a-fly venue. It was only a three
fishing day trip but took five days over all
with party time in San Jose, the capital, for
a night on the way down.
This style of fishing is really quite different
from the flats fishing I am used to. You troll
flies with no hooks, "teasers," and when the fish
appear the teasers are pulled out of their mouths
and the fly is tossed in. The fish are all hot
and bothered and jump on anything at that point.
From then on, the fight is like any other large
jumping fish, you bow to them during the jumps
and have a hard pulling fight after they tire of
jumping. At least this is the theory, as I only
got one jump on one fish and Unk never got a shot
at a fish.
We had a heck of a grand party the first night, as
a first class hotel was included in the package.
The trip was pricey even after Ted Johnson got a
special deal from Crocodile Bay Resort. Ted runs
Leisure Time Travel out of Crystal River, FL and
he lead the trip to check out this new, to him,
lodge.
Next morning, with large heads, we boarded a small
airliner for the hour and a half trip to the
southwest corner of this beautiful country. The
weather was spectacular and the view of the mountains
and waterfalls would have been worth the $90 (included)
flight itself. We got in just after the headache
from the night before was in full bloom and headed
out to sea in a 33 foot Striker fishing boat for
six hours of trolling.
Unk and I were armed with about three dozen flies,
between us, and two very heavy 15-weight rods we had
put together for the trip. This armament ended up
being a massive overkill as the fish were few and far
between and, from what I saw, our normal 12-weight
tarpon rods would have done perfectly well.
The method of trailing teasers included having three
of them out. Two were dragged from the back of the
boat on conventional rods and one was from an outrigger
managed by the boat captain driving from the top deck
of the boat. There were three guys on the boat fishing,
one "up," a second on deck and the third bothering the
captain or napping. The on-deck man had a job to do
before he could take up his rod and join in tossing
at fish if there were multitudes; he had to pull in
the teaser that was not being hit. The mate would
work the "hot" teaser up to the stern while the other
two were pulled out of the water. The primary fisher
would toss his fly out in the water as the final teaser
was pulled giving the fish just one choice to bite.
Again, that is the theory.
I was up after a couple of half hour periods had passed
without a fish and things finally got going. Up came
two sails on the teasers. One was pretty big but the
other was only about five feet long. We were told all
the fish would be in the 100-pound class, thus the big
rods. I was using one of my "innovative" eight-inch
new flies and the fish jumped right on it. The hook
set pulled it right out of the fish's mouth but the
second bigger one jumped right on it. The two of them
tag teamed the fly about a dozen times without me being
able to get the hook to grab. This was all going on
about twenty feet behind the boat so seeing the action
was easy. Finally, I just let the line go the next time
the little one grabbed it hoping the fish would turn
away and I could pull it back into the mouth. It seemed
to work and the line went tight. Out of the water came
the little fish and back at me came the fly. The fish
all left. Looking at the fly, it had been mauled and
looked like a tennis ball without a hook showing. The
trailing hook was hooked in front of the popper head and
the massive amount of material used in tying the fly was
balled up around the front hook. I would have had to
wait until it was digested to have set that one.
We went back to the empty sea for several more turns
until I got back up again and another fish came up.
This was a fair sized marlin and he started attacking
the teasers. My rod was now going to be the correct
size after all. The captain got his teaser out of
the water and the boat mate teased the hot one up
to the casting distance with fish in tow but something
was wrong. The other teaser did not come out of the
water and a fly other than mine was drifting back to
the fish from my left. The on deck fisherman was putting
his fly out instead of removing the other teaser. I
tossed mine to add to the mess and the mate got really
confused, just like the fish did. The fish hit the hot
teaser again and then went back and chomped hard on the
other "cold" teaser leaving the two flies with hooks
floating as he departed the situation, never to be
seen again. Any more lines out and we could have netted
the fish. That was the last fish to be seen for the rest
of the day. We redefined responsibilities that night
so that would not happen again and the rum made it into
a good laugh.
The next day ended up with not a single fish coming within
range of even the teasers. There was some conjecture that
El Ni`no was making the water too warm but I had had enough
of that type fishing.
Our last day was set up to be on a smaller boat and we
would try for snook or roosterfish. The manager of the
camp offered me another day on the Striker and I was not
too cool in saying, "no thank you." This was to cost us,
as he was hurt. The offer was for a freebee and the big
boat cost a lot more. Anyway, Unk and I were set up with
some guy who had never guided before last month and may
have never had fly casters on his boat either.
The day started with the "guide" asking us where we
wanted to fish. We said, "Where the fish are." He
countered that he was not sure where that was. Great
start! He took us to some place that he though might
work and wasted the first two hours. Not wasted, really,
as the water and wildlife were spectacular and the
mountains all around to look at. Big red parrots were
calling from shore and all sorts of none-catching-type
fish were flowing by. Of course, the guide did not know
what kind they were.
We tried to get the guy to take the boat out of the harbor
to look for better fish but he was not checked out in waves
or some such thing. We noticed an area were jacks were
breaking the surface and talked him into letting us catch
something. For several hours we drove into the schools
of feeding jacks and caught something every time we got
a fly into them. The wind was blowing and the boat driver
had no idea of where to put a boat with a console T-top
so we could cast. Unk did what was necessary to throw
every chance he could but I passed up many shots. I did
not catch things I did not want to eat. Consequently,
Unk set new records at "other than fish" catches. He
got the boat, the antenna, the captain and even once
hooked his own upper lip. It was rough out there and
the driver was going from afterburner to idle but Unk
fought on while I held on.
The roosterfish is a big black-stripped jack with a long
multi-finned dorsal fin. This guide was trying to bring
them up the same way they fished sailfish, by trailing
a teaser of sorts. He used a live fish on a string and
bumped it along the bottom. We stood by with a fly
either dragging in the water or with it in hand waiting
for a fish to arrive. Late in the day one did and I
never got a shot taken as it happened too fast for me
to figure out when or where to toss. I was waiting for
the guide to pull the fish out of the water and he dragged
the rooster and fly right up to the boat and never pulled
it out. I was supposed to throw the fly behind the fish,
I guess, as anything in front would have tangled in the
teaser line. That was it for the day and the trip.
The lodge was a spectacular place with all sorts of
fancy things like hot tubs and pool bars. The rooms
and food were super. It was a family place or nice
enough for a wedding party…one was going on when we
arrived. The newly weds headed off to a beach house
up the coast and the families stayed for some fishing
after the party. We, on the other hand, treated it
like a fish camp and got banished to the far side if
the dining room as rum soaked stories and toasts did
not fit in a Christian wedding very well.
The flight out went well and we got home safely. I,
for one, did not really like the venue but seeing it
once was worth it. I guess other times or without
the warming ocean this year, the fishing is really
good. If you get off on big fish trolled up behind
nice boats and living in fairly inexpensive luxury,
this is super place to do that. I prefer living in
a hammock with hard tack for food and stalking fast
fish on a flat in clear water. That is not to say
I will not go back for a party with friends. You
don't need fish for that. ~ Capt Scud Yates
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