Angler Christian Hampl pulled off an incredible feat this past May while fishing about 75 miles offshore of Golfito, Costa Rica, catching 10 marlin in a single day all by himself.
On his boat, Kamila, a 37-foot Ocean Yacht, Hampl and his crew headed out to a series of seamounts, where billfish pile up to prey on massive schools of skipjacks. And that day, the skipjacks were there in huge numbers.
From the 6th of May to the 5th of June, Hampl released 55 blue marlin. In the days prior to the big day, Hampl caught up to eight in a single day and was looking to beat his mark with double-digits.
On the big day, a strong, southwest wind delayed their arrival and they didn’t start fishing the seamounts until 10 a.m. In hopes of getting their first bill up and into the spread quickly, they started out by trolling two lures and two teasers with a dead mullet as their pitch bait.
Not long after they set their lines out, a triple-header of blue marlin mobbed into the spread, and Hampl managed to hook the one that ate the right rigger. They got the fish boat-side in a matter of minutes. After that first fish, it was white-knuckled action. They raised 24 blue marlin, released 10 and tagged seven of them. Since, Hampl was the only angler, they had several doubles and triples in their spread at times that they couldn’t catch, so their release-to-raised ratio was fairly low. All of the fish were caught on stand-up gear with circle hooks, and most of the fish were caught through bait-and-switch, but a few of them also took live bait.
Throughout the day, the weather worsened, and right around 5 p.m. Hampl released number 10. At that point, the wind was blowing fairly strong and the plans of staying over for the night were aborted.
Kamila and the crew headed back into port, reaching it by midnight. Double-digits and all.
On July 15th, Hampl beat his last record with 14 Pacific blues.
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