Anglers who have fished off Baja California, Mexico, are familiar with heavy tackle, tuna tubes and the potential for trophy marlin up to grander proportions. The situation is in sharp contrast along the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Here there are roving wolf packs of ravenous sailfish, with smaller blues, blacks and striped marlin in the mix. Pacific sails are powerful adversaries and typically exceed triple-digits in weight. And while there can be large blues occasionally, most are more easily handled on 20- to 30-pound class standup tackle. The name of the game is finesse fishing.
Tournament boats normally troll plain or “naked” ballyhoo on four lines: two flat and two off the outriggers. A larger outfit with a pitch bait is at the ready in the cockpit if a bigger marlin does pop into the spread. Mates spend hours rigging lifelike dredges, or wire umbrella rigs with droppers, each with a dead ballyhoo or mullet, to mimic schools of bait. Teaser chains, often plastic squid lures rigged in a row, also cause surface commotion which attracts the billfish.
When a boat raises one sailfish, more are usually nearby. It takes trained eyes, a light touch and total crew coordination to capitalize on a pod of fish. Once one is hooked, the other anglers will be at the ready, quick to free spool back to another that appears in the wake. It’s not unusual in this scenario to hook two, three, even four sailfish at once. Getting all to the boat for successful releases requires dexterity, superb boat handling skills and team work. It’s a choreography that has been perfected as any world-class ballet, only this set is on a moving sportfisher with multiple actors and stage hands. The act often takes just minutes to unfold.
Against this backdrop, the 79 boats competing in the inaugural Bisbee’s Costa Rica Offshore out of Marina Pez Vela, are putting on a show. A total of 602 billfish were released by the fleet on Thursday, including 586 sailfish, 13 blue marlin and two blacks. The final day of competition is lined up for Friday. Pura Vida is currently atop the leaderboard for most billfish releases, with Poco Ocho, Deal Sled/Junk Male, Miss Behavin’ 72, Los Hermanos and others easily within striking distance.
For the daily leaders, Pura Vida led the charge in the sonar division with 22 sailfish and one blue on its ledger. Rum Runner was second with 23 sails, followed by Anticipation, also with 23 sailfish on time. In the non-sonar category, E&A (Capt. Jonathan Arn) made another strong showing with a baker’s dozen sails (13). Kelly Dawn, a 45 Rybovich with Capt. Will Ochse on the flying bridge, was right behind with 12 sails for the today, followed by La Golden (Capt. Javier Cruz) with 11.
“We had a great day, 18 for 25,” said David Finkelstein, owner of Miss Behavin’ a 72 Ricky Scarborough, competing out of Los Suenos. “We picked at ‘em this morning pretty good, had a lull for about an hour mid-day and then picked up a few more this afternoon. My captain, Jose Reyes, has been with me for almost 20 years through several boats, so he knows the scene. It’s certainly a team effort down here and everyone knows what to do. ” Finkelstein is a long-time participant in the Bisbee’s Mexico tournaments and he’s impressed with the latest Central American edition to the line-up.
“The Bisbees have done a fantastic job with this one,” he adds. “Everything is first class with solid fishing. It’s a fun tournament and I’m sure it will be an even bigger success going forward.”
In the daily game fish news, North Star Costa Rica topped its first-day entry in the tuna division by slapping a 187-pound yellowfin slob on the deck at the Marina Pez Vela weigh scales Thursday. Angler Alonso Alatorre’s tuna is now solidly in first place in that category. John Ramos (Zancudo Lodge Z-1) also weighed a tuna at 142.3 pounds. Robert Lyons boated an equally impressive dorado aboard Howler. Lyons’ fish tipped the scales at 60.31 pounds. Vinicius Gomes de faria also weighed a 49.4 pound dorado for daily consideration on Los Hermanos.
With this style of finesse angling, combined with the prolific fishery, there is no telling what the last day of competition will bring. Is a 650 billfish tally possible? Or even 700? In this target-rich environment anything can happen and we’ll know the final outcome about 4 p.m. local time Friday.
Photos courtesy of Sebastian Harris
