Tuesday, April 01, 2008
A Successful Costa Rica Trip

I just recently returned from a very successful Marlin University down in Playa Carrillo, Costa Rica. The fishing was pretty darn good -- we saw a marlin every day on our boat, the world-famous record setter, The Hooker, with Captain Trevor Cockle. We even caught three blue ones on the last day ... and still lost the mini-tournament! (I had made the mistake of counting released sails at 100 points and all marlin at 200. The crew on Wet Ass II scored two blues and two sails to take first place on time! Trevor never let me hear the end of it.)

After the students left, my wife came down to join me for a little R & R.

Capt. Sonny Kocsis on Wet Ass II volunteered to take us fishing for a couple of days -- no charge (Thanks, Sonny!) -- and we readily accepted.

The first fish of the day came up on the left long and eagerly got up to catch the sail. (I'd been watching and teaching other people how to do it for four straight days and really wanted to get in on the action myself!) The fish ate; I dropped it back; and he was on - a perfect hookup. It was too easy. Just as I hooked my fish, a striped marlin swarmed into the spread and our guest angler. Sonny's brother-in-law, Rolando, hooked the fish. Of course, we started charging off in reverse after the stripey -- he was closest and a marlin no less, so that's the one we wanted to catch first.

The stripey streaked off in the opposite direction of the sail, and line melted off my spool as we chased down the marlin. It took a good five or six minutes to catch up with the greyhounding fish, and by the time we got a release, my sailfish was jumping over a half-mile away! The circle hook hung in there, though and I finally got a release after reeling in several hundred yards of 30-pound. Joy.

I then proceeded to go on a five-swing losing streak. The next two sails came up and ate perfectly; I dropped back five seconds with the line falling off the tip perfectly, smooth as a baby's backside. But the fish were slicker. When I lifted the drag lever to strike and started to wind ... nothing.

After missing the second fish, I decided to let the next one eat a little bit longer. Sure enough, another fish came up and ate the shotgun bait (I know he ate it because I saw it), and I really let this one chew!

After about five seconds, the fish raced off like a rocket on me and I let the damn reel backlash. But I calmly told the captain what was happening and started reeling immediately after pushing up the drag to get some line on the spool and wind over the mess. That worked great, and when the line came tight, the hook pulled. Or so I thought. I reeled in the rig and found an open swivel. The mate then told me I was feeding them too long.

In the meantime, our first-time angler was hauling back on the circle hooks, pumping the rod the like a madman and hooking everything.

The following day the fourth and fifth fish just kept my streak, and the jokes, flowing. During the two days I heard several comments about my need to attend the next Marlin U. Ha Ha! Very funny.

The truth is I wouldn't have done a thing differently on any of the fish that I missed -- except for the backlash incident. The whole scenario just proved the point that we hammer into every student -- you try to do the same thing every time, smoothly and in a timely manner. Let the fish take the bait without knowing you are there and set up easy on him. He will either be there or he won't.

It sure sucks when he isn't.

Dave Ferrell
POSTED BY MarlinEdit AT 10:13