CR Blue Marlin Fly Fishing School
July 23 through 28, 2017
July 23, 2017: Today my friend Roy Cronacher arrived her in Los
Suenos, Costa Rica, after a safe trip from his home in Jackson Hole Wyoming. We
had a great dinner at the in “Marina Village” then after I soaked in my Jacuzzi
(Hot Tub) went to bed to get rested so we are ready to catch a bunch of Blue
Marlin on fly.

July 24, 2017: After breakfast and lunch while the crew
provisioned and fueled up the vessel “Dragin Fly” we packed our stuff and
locked up the condo to head down to the marina. Captain James Smith with mates
Berto and Roberto had everything ready with the diesel engines and generator
running, the new air conditioning system had the cabin nice and cool as we
boarded at 3:00 pm and headed out to sea. After 30 minutes of running we
slowed to trolling speed and deployed our teasers. We raised a sailfish at
4:25, it faded away and we never got a shot at that sailfish. Seas are choppy 2
to 4 foot, with clouds and rain. At 6:00 it got too dark to see and we quit
fishing. We all had awesome Lasagna for dinner, discussed fly fishing strategy
and went to sleep at 8:00 PM.
July 25, 2017: Woke up to the smell of fresh brewed Costa Rican
coffee, with eggs and sausage cooking around 5:00 AM. Bert deployed our teasers
at 5:15 as we trolled toward Blue Marlin Destination-X-#9 (BM-X-9) for 2 ½ hours
and arrived at about 7:30 am. We raised our first Blue at 7:48, it did not
bite, then at 7:59 we raised a 250 pound Blue Marlin. Roy made a good cast and
that marlin cleared the water as he ate the fly, the fish took off really fast
then jumped 13 times as he raced away from the boat. On the 14th
jump as we backed up trying to stay with this fish, it chewed through the 100
pound test, bite tippet and was gone. At 8:13 we raised the third marlin of the
day; it teased in and looked at Roy’s fly then swam away with no bite. Fishing
slowed down after that, then we raised a blue marlin at 10:00, (no bite),
another at 11:01 which did not bite. At 11:50 Roy took a break and I was up, at
12:02 a blue came in hot on the long rigger, ate the teaser and jumped as he
faded away never got a cast. At 12:51 pm we raised a 200+ pound red hot Blue
Marlin on the bridge teaser, I made the cast and that hot marlin climbed all
over my pink and white Cam Sigler Fly. At 1:11 Berto retrieved the fly as we
released our first Blue Marlin of the day. At 1:22 pm Roy cast to a hot 170
pound blue marlin that ate his JJ Marlin tube fly, after a 13 minute battle
with lots of awesome jumps, Roy caught and released our second Blue Marlin of
the day. We raised a blue marlin at 2:00, another one at 2:25, and another one
(really big, maybe 400 pounds), at 2:38, they came close but would not eat the
fly. At 5:55 we raised a blue marlin that looked like it was between 300 and
400 pounds, Roy made a good cast and then that big marlin slowly came out of
the water and ate the fly. It ran out about 90 foot then went straight down.
After a couple of minutes the marlin took off at blazing speed and the 20 pound
test IGFA class tippet broke as the fish jumped way off of the bow of the boat.
At 6:15 we quit fishing and deployed our sea anchor, after a hot shower and
clean clothes we settled down in the salon to have our awesome dinner. Our
final score today was: 11 blue marlin raised of which 4 ate the fly, Roy and I
caught and released 2 Blue Marlin on fly today. At 8:00 we went to sleep.

July 26, 2017: Five AM we awoke to the smell of fresh brewed Costa
Rican coffee, frying bacon and eggs, while James and Berto retrieved the sea
anchor. At 5:15 we were trolling our teasers as we headed back to #9 which was
3 miles away, while we ate breakfast. No fished raised yet, so we put out small
cedar plug and caught enough yellow fin tuna to make sushi for lunch, then back
to marlin fly fishing at 6:30. We raised our first marlin of the day at 9:02 it did not bite, the second blue marlin
of the day came in hot, looked at the fly then swam away at 9:14 am. We raised
another blue marlin at 10:24, it never tried to bite, just swam away slowly, so
fat the marlin are very finicky, at 10:44 am another boat near us got the first
bite of the day. At 11:01 Roy Cronacher hooked our first bite today, he fought
it for 6 minutes as the big fish kept taking line and swimming deeper. After 6
minutes the 20 pound test class tippet broke and that marlin was gone. At 11:20
another blue marlin charged the flat line teaser, it came into where the fly
was presented, however that blue marlin had a full stomach and would not bite
the well placed fly. Today has had partly sunny skies with hot weather and 15
knot wind, the sea conditions are moderate chop on top of 3 foot swells 30
seconds apart, overall choppy but comfortable fishing. I hope as I write this
at 12:30 pm, just after eating some awesome sashimi yellow fin tuna, that the
marlin show up and become more aggressive. At 1:15 James decided to run over to
FAD #7, we arrived there at 2:55 pm and started fishing. One of the boats here
had raised 12 marlin here in the morning, how the fishing for us seems very
slow. It is 5:30 pm and we have not seen
any marlin since before noon, one boat caught a fish here about an hour ago,
however none for us so far. At 6:05 without raising a marlin during the last 6
½ hours we quit fishing and deployed the sea anchor. After a welcome hot
shower, along with a beef loin dinner with beans and rice with strawberry ice
cream we went to bed at 7:50 pm.

July 27, 2017: I woke up at 4:45 am, got cleaned up helped pull
the sea anchor, and discussed with captain James what our strategy for today
would be for today. We had drifted 10 miles from BM-X-#7 with the relatively
strong current, as we headed back to the Sea Mount, it got light and we
deployed our teasers. I got the TFO HD Fly-Rod with my Mako #9700 Fly-Reel
rigged with a RIO Leviathan 550 gr fly-line ready to cast a pink and white JJ
Tube Fly with popper, rigged with 20 pound mason hard class tippet and 100
pound bite tippet and Gamakatsu 8/0 Octopus hooks ready to feed a marlin. We
drank some wonderful Costa Rican coffee and had our sausage with Bacon omelet for
breakfast, at 6:20 AM we raised our first blue marlin of the day. The fish came
in hot, swam around the fly but would not bite. Then at 7:59 am got to cast to
the second marlin of the day, that fish faded off and never saw a fly. At 8:12
am we decided to catch our lunch, fresh yellow fin tuna for sashimi, 10 minutes
later we had half a dozen 6 pound tuna to feed us and the crew. Now at 8:25 we
are back to work trying to catch some blue marlin on fly. After no fish for a
long time, we left at 10:15 and trolled over to FAD #6 arriving at 11:50 still
no fish. At 12:15 we raised a double of blue marlin, these fish are really
weird, they stay around for a few seconds but will not commit to eating the fly
or even trying to eat the teaser. I sure hope they turn on and begin to at
least try to eat our flies? At 12 45: a 150 pound blue marlin charged in after
a teaser, Roy made a good cast and hooked that marlin, it stayed up and jumped
a lot, then 14 minutes later Roy caught our first blue marlin of the day and the third of our trip so far. At 1:15
another fish came in hot and tried to eat the fly, he missed it and was gone.
It is now 5:00 pm, the seas are flat, sunny skies, 83.5 degree water
temperature, perfect conditions, we are marking bait and marlin with our electronics,
just one hour left of fly fishing today. At 6:30 pm we pulled in the teasers
and ended Roy’s forth year at my Costa Rica Blue Marlin fly-fishing school. We
are just finished with a hot shower and the boys are grilling steaks for
dinner. Today we raised six blue marlin, got one of them to bite, and my friend
Roy Cronacher caught and released a 150 pound blue marlin on fly on 20 pound
class IGFA tippet. Our total score for this trip aboard “Dragin Fly” out of Los Suenos Costa Rica was as follows:
Raised 22 blue marlin, bites 6, caught and released 3 Blue Marlin all on 20
pound class IGFA tippet. After four trips here with me, Roy has caught 12
Pacific Blue Marlin on fly, (averaged 1 per day of fly fishing). Roy also
caught and released his Atlantic Blue Marlin on fly on 20 pound IGFA tippet
while fly fishing at my “Dominican Republic Blue and White Marlin School” while
fishing with Captain Tim Richardson, aboard the vessel Chaser. As a long time
fly-fisherman who has been chasing billfish on fly for over 40 years, it amazes
me how we can fish for 3 days, 13 hours per day, see a total of 22 Blue Marlin,
catch three Blue Marlin using full IGFA rules and 20 pound class breaking
strength tippet, and now on the way in it feels like it was slow fishing. During
my lifetime before 1991, I had fished hundreds of days with fly tackle trying
to catch a Blue Marlin on fly. I had hooked 119 in my life, and had never
caught one, and then in 1981 I caught a 90 pound Blue on fly in Venezuela. Six
years later I caught #2, now on this trip I cast to one Blue Marlin and caught
it, this was my 54th Blue Marlin on fly. I love my Job, wish you
were here. Stay tuned for more fly
fishing reports to follow shortly.
Regards
Jake
Jake Jordan's Fishing Adventures
PO Box 309
Havelock NC. 28532
Home/Office 252-444-3308
Cell/work 305-872-6060
www.jakejordan.com