What do you do when your father, grandfather and uncles were legendary big game fishermen in Panama, you lose your father as a youngster, and don't start any big game fishing until you're a woman of 53?
You find the best teachers, captains and crew then fish where there is an abundance of the type of fish you want to catch.
After catching billfish on conventional tackle, my next challenge was fly fishing for sailfish. This led me to Captain Jake Jordan who runs a sailfish fly fishing school in Guatemala. After catching many sails on fly - with one being world record weight of 150+ lbs. on 20# tippet - I was eager to try for a marlin. As Jake says, "Catching a marlin on fly compares to hunting an elephant with a sling shot."
The bait and switch method of catching sails on fly was developed on the Schmidt's' boat, Caiman II, with Web (Doc) Robinson in 1962. The first regulation (fly casting - no trolling) sail on fly was caught on the Caiman II by Doc who went on to catch striped marlin in Mexico using this method. My challenge was to come full circle and catch a marlin on fly using this technique.
On March 24th, 2007 I traveled to the Galapagos to fish with Jake for striped marlin on fly. For three days, no fish were raised during my rotations. On day four, March 29, we were fishing about 45 miles southeast of San Cristobal Island. At 1:41, during my last rotation of the day, a stripe came in. I made the cast and got a bite, which was the first for me during the trip. I set the hook and the battle began. The fish jumped at least 40 times. I worked the line hard, taking line aggressively whenever I could. Thirty six minutes later, the leader was in the rod guides and I had caught my marlin.
We were able to get it into the boat for a quick picture before releasing it. Alan Starr, our Captain, Jake Jordan and Ecuadorian Braden Escobar of Sportsman's Addiction agreed that it was 200lbs. The current world record for a woman on 20# fly tippet is 170 lbs. I had caught my marlin but it was also of world record weight, and the first marlin on fly by a woman in the Galapagos! Thank you Jake, Alan & Braden and mates, Fernando (Tonto) and Julio.
Now, I am back to the question, "What do I do now?" Well, it is sure going to be fun finding out! - Suzanne Schmidt Goldstein
For more: www.schmidtfishing.com.
