The fishing off Los Sueños, Costa Rica continues to be consistently good, even in what is normally considered the off-season. The offshore action isn’t limited to those distant seamounts, either. Capt. Brett Holden filed this report from a recent trip just 20 miles offshore of the popular resort destination, which is located on the country’s central Pacific coast.
On Tuesday, July 18, we left our slip in Los Sueños at 10 a.m. for a short day trip in our Viking 52 Express, Booby Trap. With me was my wife Monica, my son Brett Holden II and our mate, Woody Porras. Monica was determined to catch a blue marlin on 20-pound-test tackle, and it turned into a very memorable day for us all.
On our first stop, she had a bite and ended up catching her first striped marlin. It was a beautiful fish and it only took about 8 or 10 minutes. We reset the spread and started trolling along a current line of debris and floating logs when we raised a nice blue marlin, about 300 pounds. The fish crashed the teaser, then peeled off and ate Monica’s pitch bait. We knew she was in for a fight but 20 minutes later, we had the release – she had done it.
Knowing that we had a shot at a grand slam, we headed for The Corner, a spot where the sailfish action had been consistent over the past few days. After a short run, we started trolling there and in just 10 minutes we had our sailfish release. It was Monica’s first grand slam and she did it all on 20-pound-test stand-up gear.
