Costa Rica Blue Marlin Fly Fishing School Report, July 19-23, 2015

My friend and client, Roy Cronacher joined me here in Costa Rica for our second Blue Marlin fly fishing trip aboard “Dragin Fly” in our first two seasons. Last year Roy caught and released 3 Blue Marlin on fly while as a team we caught six total Blue Marlin on 20 pound tippet.

This year Roy arrived at my condo in Los Suenos, on July 18 at 10:30 PM, ready for more red hot Blue Marlin fly fishing. We had our morning meal ashore at the Hook Up restaurant, loaded our gear aboard Dragin Fly, and at 2:30 PM met up with Captain James, his mates Marcos and Berto. We headed out to sea in beautiful calm seas, running at cruse for an hour before deploying the teasers at 4:00 PM. We trolled teasers until dark, never raised a fish, then we had dinner and went to bed at 8:00 PM. The crew continued at trolling speed, heading to our destination which was over 130 miles from the marina. 

July 20, 2015: We woke up at 4:30 AM at “Destination Blue Marlin - X #8” where after breakfast and a hot shower, redeployed our teasers. Between 5:00 and 10:00 AM, we raised 3 Blue Marlin, got no bites, and marked lots of fish but they were deep and lethargic. Captain James decided to troll over to Destination Blue Marlin - X #7 which was less than 2 hours away. 

At 12:30, I hooked, fought , and released my first Blue Marlin of the trip, a 150 pound fat Blue Marlin. During the after noon we raised 9 more fish, five  bit the fly and all five went deep and broke the class tippet. Total Score for the day, Raised 13 Blue Marlin, five bites, One Blue Marlin caught on fly on 20 pound class tippet.

July 21, 2015: After a good nights sleep: we had a great hot breakfast, coffee, and a hot shower, then started fishing at 5:30 AM. The first Blue Marlin of the day was  a red hot 250 pound beauty, Roy made a perfect cast, the big marlin came out of the water and ate that big pink and white tube fly, and the fight of the century was on. That marlin took us 3 1/2 miles through two rain storms, and never jumped. 

After one hour and 24 minutes Roy got the leader inside of the tip top of the TFO Blue Water Heavy Duty fly rod, for a legitimate release, then that big marlin took off again and pulled 300 yards of backing off of the #9700 Mako fly reel, set at 6 pounds of drag pressure. Then after a tug of war, at 2 hours and 11 minutes, after being back close to the leader four times, that fish surged and broke the 20 pound class tippet. Wow what an awesome fish and a great job fighting it buy Roy Cronacher. 

An hour later I got a nice 130 pound blue marlin to eat my cast fly, it ran 10 foot, no good hook up, and the fly fell out of that fishes mouth. By 2:30 PM we had raised a total of 8 Blue Marlin and 2 Sailfish, only two bites so far, with one Blue Marlin caught and released.

At 2:40 PM Roy cast his cam Sigler pink and white tube fly to a 300 pound Blue Marlin, which ate the fly and stayed on the surface and in the air for a full two minutes, traveling in a big circle, trying to jump into the boat, right over the corner of our transom, then took off at full speed and broke the tippet on the 29th jump. 

Between 3:00 PM and 3:30 PM Roy hooked two awesome 300 pound plus, red hot, blue marlin, one pulled the hook while the other one put on the best jumping exhibition which I have ever seen, almost jumped into the boat at 50 miles per hour, before breaking the class tippet. 

At 3:50 PM I cast to a 150 pound hot Blue marlin, which ate my fly and put on quite a show, while jumping a lot and staying on the surface, at 4:03 I caught and released my second Blue Marlin of the trip which was our second Blue Marlin of the day. 

At 5:00 PM Roy hooked another Blue which was under 200 pounds, he fought it valiantly, made no mistakes, and 24 minutes later Roy caught and released his second Blue Marlin of the day on fly, which was our third for the day and fourth for the trip, with still another whole day of fly fishing for Blue Marlin left tomorrow.  

Thusfar, during out first two days we raised 28 Blue Marlin, got 11 to bite our flies, and we each caught and released two Blue Marlin on fly for a total of four Blue Marlin caught on 20 pound class tippet, 

July 22, 2015: We awoke at 4:30 AM, had a hot cup of awesome Costa Rican coffee, some bacon and eggs with buttered toast, then put out the teasers at 5:30 AM. We raised 3 Blue Marlin before 7 AM but none would tease in to eat our flies. At 9:45 AM Roy hooked the fifth fish which we raised today, it took off at full speed and spit the hook. Then at 10:00 AM I got to cast at a big Blue Marlin, it ate my fly, and ran off 200 yards of line in 4 seconds, then jumped several times still going away at full speed. During the next four hours and fifteen minutes I fought this magnificent Blue marlin, several times I got up to the fly line, which means I was 30 feet from catching that marlin. At 2:16, that big ((350+) pound monster fish, finally came to the surface, 150 feet from the boat, and on the third jump broke the 20 pound class tippet and freed me from this epic battle, the marlin won that 4 hour 16 minute fight, I was happy it was over, maybe the toughest battle of my career? 

We trolled back to the spot where we had been fishing, and during the next 1 1/2 hours, we raised 3 more Blue Marlin, two ate the fly presented by Roy Cronacher, both of those fish were very aggressive, both broke the 20 pound class tippet. 

Remember this sport is hard, the fish win sometimes, and always get released one way or the other, every time that an angler catches a blue marlin on fly, that is like winning the super bowl of fly fishing, nothing in the world brings an angler more satisfaction than catching a 100 pound or bigger Blue Marlin on a fly and being connected by using a piece of string which will break if you and the fish put 20 pounds of pressure on it. By six o'clock  Roy had several more Blue Marlin bites, the wind picked up, we had some rain, and both marlin wound up getting off. Today we raised a total of 15 Blue Marlin, we got 6 bites on our flies, and we didn't catch any of them. That said this was maybe the most exciting day of the trip with that monster fish kicking my butt.

   

Roy Cronacher and I, fishing aboard the vessel “Dragin Fly” with Captain James Smith, along with Mates Berto and Marcos, fly fished for over 40 hours, during these last 3 days. We raised a total of 41 Blue Marlin, from which we got 17 to try and eat our flies, Roy and I caught and released 2 Blue Marlin each, for a total of four Blue Marlin caught and released, on 20 pound class tippet, on fly during this trip. Wow, I love my job, I am really tired and sore from that battle with the big marlin.

 Can't wait until I head back out there on Sunday for another “Costa Rica, Blue Marlin Fly Fishing School”!  We just arrived back at my Condo, in Los Suenos, I will download pictures and video later, we are really tired from this awesome trip, enjoy the report, more later.

Regards

Jake 

Jake Jordan
Jake Jordan's Fishing Adventures

 

fly fishing blue marlin on the Dragin Fly

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4rWIaXxSWmc&index=1&list=WL

 

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