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| A sail trails the fly line as he leaps away. |
Sorry for the delay in posting this but here goes... On the heals of a day which saw the FRENZY release 28 and the FRENZY II release 16 on conventional, our day began with a substantial amount of discussion about which boat would release the most sails on fly. I was back on the 43 and felt pretty confident about our chances, except that I was planning on catching one on 4kg tippet. That’s 8.8 lbs and reasonably light for 100 lb fish. Nonetheless, I had Ber and Lance with me and I knew that those guys could fish. Heck I’ve seen Lance catch one while smoking a cigar. But I have learned through many years of fishing the GIFT Tournament not to bet against Rafa and Lee. Therefore I remained pretty quiet during the van ride to the marina.
After about an hour ride on a perfectly flat ocean, typical for Costa Rica this time of year, we set the teasers out and waited for the first fish to show. Pretty soon we found a current line with a lot of plastic trash in it and a humongous amount of bait. There were all kinds of little bait fish swimming around under the trash and pieces of wood. I would have jumped in and shot some video and photos but it was the one day that I left my underwater cameras at home. We even had a small shark try to eat one of the teasers. Cute little fellow.
Oddly enough we didn’t raise a sailfish amongst all that bait so we headed a few miles offshore. Lance was first up and whipped one in short order. Someone rang the beer bell and Lance had his first Imperial of the day. Next up was Ber who had a fish come screaming in only to have it bill the fly and come unhooked after a short run. That put me up and after a few minutes I cast my fly with the 4kg tippet to a sailfish only to have him do the same thing as Ber’s. Bummer.
So Lance was at it again with his cigar and landed another one without putting his stogie down. Very stylish Lance! Then Ber had another shot at one and this time really got a good hookset. Despite the leaping and reel blistering run of Ber’s fish Ber had him caught in about 7 minutes. Pretty work Ber!
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| Ber holds his fish at boatside while Mako prepares to grab the leader. |
We were on a pretty good bite so it didn’t take long for me to get another crack at one on 4kg tippet. This time I got a good hookset in the sail’s mouth and the game was on! I wasn’t sure how much pressure I could put on the fish so I backed the drag way down to maybe a pound. Captain Jose did his usual fabulous job of handling the boat and within a few minutes I had the sail at boat side. I have caught hundreds of billfish on a fly rod but this was my first one on 4kg tippet. Rather than having one of my mates bill the sailfish to pull the fly out I let it run back out about 30 or 40 yards so I could see how much pressure I could put on that light tippet. I cranked down on the drag and put as much low side pressure on the fish as I could. Frankly I was amazed at how much pressure I could put on 4kg tippet. Now on to 2 kg tippet…
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| Mako shows off a sail for my camera! |
As the hour was drawing towards our 4 o’clock quitting time we had a double header come screaming in. Lance made a perfect cast and quickly hooked his fish. I grabbed the other flyrod and promptly hooked the other. Now we had two leaping sailfish on the hook and thankfully they were headed in opposite directions. We were within a couple of hundred yards of the FRENZY II which also had a fish on. I had to cast a smile towards Lee on the FRENZY II as Lance caught his fish and mine was close at hand. Jose really knows how to handle the FRENZY in virtually any situation. I caught my fish a few moments later and with high fives all around we spooled up the turbos and headed back to Quepos, another fine day of fly fishing behind us.
There are a huge pile of fish here now so come join us as the Frenzy continues…
Jamie Walker
www.FrenzySportfishing.com
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