Offshore Costa Rica 6/7/05

Just got back in from Costa Rica. Had a nice week long getaway for a little fishing and surfing. The surf was running pretty big the whole time, around 8-10 foot faces and pretty heavy. The first couple of days I spent surfing but did get a chance to charter a private 36' Luhrs Convertible.

I left the port of Herradura at about 7:00 am and headed roughly 15 miles out to a 3000' drop-off for some billfish action. Started out a little slow, but I was determined to not let the 5-7 foot seas get me discouraged. About an hour into trolling we had a big sail wipe out every bait in the spread without getting hooked. We had a lot of misses due to the fact that we were trolling ballyhoo bridled hooked above the eyes with circle hooks to prevent gut hooking the billfish. Shortly after turning around to run back through the spot of our last strike I get a sail on. I was using Tld 30 2-speeds for the small rigs and then 50W Internationals and 50w Tiagra's for the possible blue or black marlin that make their way into the spread. I fought the sailfish estimated at #110 came in within 20 minutes.

Released it and back to trolling, within a half hour we hooked up with another sail for my little sister. After she brings it in we take a picture and off it goes.

Next up was my brother who hooks up with a really nice sail going around #130+. This fish had other ideas in mind and decided to put up a fight, took us over half an hour to get her in. She gave us a pretty spectacular display right at the boat, almost jumping in.

After that sail was released I hooked up with another monster outweighing the others. Within half an hour we had a picture and she was off to make some other anglers day.

We really started to get into the sails and decided to try our luck with some tuna or mahi. We headed in about 10 miles to some structure and trolled diving plugs and other artificials. Within minutes we had a little yellowfin on and in the box. Next up was my little sister who boated a nice little wahoo.

Made another pass and I hooked up with an even bigger hoo. Next pass, same thing but with my brother picking off a nice hoo. Then my sister and so on. A few fish later I hook up a nice fish on a rapala. The fight lasted longer than most and I figured we hooked up a nice tuna but soon see the last fish I expected or wanted...Jack Crevelle. I was pretty bummed until we noticed what we thought was a fish chasing it. Turned out that I caught a Jack Crevelle and a nice wahoo on the same rapala.

Pretty funny ordeal. After boating our last fish we decided to call it a day since it was pretty rough and beating the hell out of us. We left the sails and the hoo's biting as we made our way back to the hotel and the pool. As usual, we had a great trip out of Costa and am now ready for PINS to start heating up. I will post pictures in the morning as soon as I get them developed.