March 7
Had an awesome day out onthe water today! We had a nice couple from California out, and man were the sailfish and Marlin thick. We started the day off with a really big sailfish, seen below, and another mid sized sailfish. Good start, but we had no idea what was next.
About 10 in the morning, we had a really nice blue Marlin, around 300 pounds,come up behind our right diasy chain teaser. We just made a new daisy chain out of 6 green squids, 1 pink one, and then Islander large jet head pink chaser with a ballyhoo stuffed up inside of it. The Marlin fell completely in love with the Daisy Chain and chased it all the way to the boat. We are running the outriggers a little bit lower as the water has been flat calm, and because of that the daisy chain can't be taken out of the water without lifting up the outrigger. So here I am reeling desperately to get the teaser away from the fish, Marlin biting the tail of the chaser, eating the ballyhoo in the process. As the clip hits the rigger and I quickly grab the rigger and pull it up. The angry Marlin is right next to the boat, about three feet away, as Mike tosses out an islander and hits the marlin in the head with the pitch bait. He's not interested. As he goes down, he must have seen the short teaser on the other side which is another daisy chain, this one pink, with a black islander chaser. He decides that would work for him as well, so he nails it before I can get it out of the way. After taking off half the spool from the teaser reel, and again eating the ballyhoo in the chaser, he lets go for a second as he turns for another hit. I pull and pull and pull and then jerk up the outrigger and he is right there under it again, looking up at it, and me, mad I took away what he wanted! It was an awesome sight, 300 pounds of pure excitment, big fins lit up bright blue and that big eye looking up at you! Again, mike hits him with a naked ballyhoo but he's not interested in that pitchbait either. He aparently only wanted those teasers and so he swims away. On the way out through the back of the spread, he slashes one of the naked ballyhoo's on the long rigger, taking about 10 yards of line and leaving a just the head.
We are a little disappointed at the loss, but like anything else, you have to keep trying if you want to get the big one! We put the lures back out in the water, and about 30 minutes goes by. I am mesmerized, just watching the teasers ducking, bubbling, popping up for some more air, when I see a purple shadow below the right daisy chain again. I scream out to Mike, but notice he already has the long left bait pole in his hand and is giving somebody freespool so they can eat. Then it comes, bam the big Marlin under my teaser pops up his head and slams the teaser. I pull and pull and I'm screaming Mike, get a pitch bait out now!!! I see Mike's brother, our mate in training, running and throwing out the pitchbait, and I scream, "Where's Mike?!?!?"! Looking over at the other side of the boat, I see Mike with a bent pole and he's yelling "Stop, stop!!!". Not wanting to give up the Marlin, I let Jose throw out the pitch bait but the Marlin lit up blue goes for the other side. Seeing the pole that Mike had getting about half way down through the spool, I give Jose one last chance. He throws out the pitchbait on the other side, as I pull the teaser in to the boat, i see the pole he has get bent all the way down and bang, pops back up. No hook up, we stop and then have a sailfish dancing about 400 yards behind the boat. Nice, big sailfish, but we all have got the Marlin fever bad at this point.
I call out to another boat over the radio, Jerry with the Cowboy, to let him know our saga, and he starts harassing me saying I had a spinner dolphin behind the teaser or maybe it was a sailfish. The usual ribbing you get from another captain after seeing a huge blue but not having it bite. By 2 oclock, we had a great day, we had released 5 sailfish, including the double above but were going for a little more to beat Jerry. Jerry, the captain of the Cowboy, had 6 releases to our 5, and I don't like coming in second! So we are trolling along about 100 yards apart, he's harassing me on the radio, letting me know he's up one and then, to my horror, I see his mate run to the back of his boat and throw out the pitch bait! Oh no, I think, he's going to be two up! Sure enough, Jerry works his teaser magic, and soon I see a happy customer, reel in hand, and another dancing sailfish behind the Cowboy! Here it comes I think, as I hear his voice over the radio, "Gringo, 7 to 5, I win!" I'm thinking, "dang, no way", but I remember that it's not over yet. About that time, I saw a big shadow under that right daisy chain teaser. Knowing that the Marlin have been in love with that all day, I start yelling to throw out the pitchbait and I pull that teaser up as fast as I can! Mike throws out the blue / yellow islander ballyhoo combo pitchbait and CRASH!!!?!
We have a huge hookup on the 50 wide, line whirring, I'm pulling up the right outrigger and latching it in as fast as I can. I look down and see the spool half empty! Only 450 yards left I think to myself. Mike's yelling, "Go!!! Go!!!" as I turn the boat hard right, and hit the gas full throttle. I look down and now we are to the backing on the reel, only 200 yards left! I notice on the other side of Jerry's boat, about 600 yards away, there is a huge blue marlin, tailwalking as fast as he can away from my boat. I go down on him full speed, right past Jerry (sweet victory:) ), and finally, the boat gets up to the same speed as the fish, and although we don't gain line, we finally quit losing it! Talk about a rush, this is every angler's dream! Everybody is yelling, Jerry's screaming over the radio, "faster faster, Gringo, go get him!" customer is yelling, "Reel's almost out!" the Cummins is roaring at redline and maybe (probably) a bit more, everybody doing their part to catch up with that fish!!! With about 100 yards to spare, reel smoking hot, we finally start gaining line, customer reeling as fast as he can, making up tons of distance and the fight is on! Mostly the fish wins the next couple of battles, but every once in a while, we get a little back. After a while, I start noticing one by one, the Quepos fleet all headed my way, everyone circling, jealous!
With one proud angler on the reel out back, and tons of other envious anglers in other boats snapping pictures, waiting for the next jump, we finally get the fish up to the leader and the fish is officially released. Wanting to get it in closer for the picture, Mike goes to bring it up to the side of the boat, but the 13 foot long Blue Marlin was having none of that as he slashed his head left and right, right next to the boat. The line goes limp and we all watch as he slowly goes back down into the deep crystal clear blue water. Officially released, but never surrendering, he goes back down to get ready to fight another day. What a great time, what a day!
