THAT green water we’ve been talking about has cleaned up, and fishing along the central coast is back to normal, as evidenced by Dr. Terrence Steiner and his fishing buddies from St. Augustin, Florida, fishing on the Mar I out of Los Sueños Marina. On March 3 they scored 10 sailfish and one marlin release, with blue water in close.
Farther south, out of Quepos, Bill Gannon, captain of the Unique, reports the fish are a 15- to 20-mile run from the beach, with boats raising 15 to 25 sails a day.
The Flor de María last Saturday went six releases for 25 up, and Bill’s clients had three sailfish releases on flies, with 11 up the same day.
A few days before that, Bill was fishing Amil Hamdeguan and his twin sons Eric and Jeff, from Michigan. After getting a few sails to the boat, Eric had a big marlin take a ballyhoo on his light sailfish rig. After battling it for an hour, the rod snapped. While Jeff held the broken piece, Bill’s mate, Dempsey, struggled for 30 minutes hand-lining the estimated 300-pound blue marlin to the boat, where it was finally released.
WIND has been blowing hard out of the north, and boats from Tamarindo and Flamingo on the Northern Pacific coast are working more sheltered waters south of Cabo Vela, many basing at Carrillo.
Gamefisher II skipper Richard Chellimi reports they finally had a break last week, fishing Fort Lauderdale anglers Howard Jing and Doug Torn out of Carrillo. In three days they released six blue marlin and six sailfish, with four of the marlin battled to the boat by Doug.
The Second Annual Costa Rica Classic International Billfish Tournament will be held March 19-21 out of Quepos, with teams for 25 boats scheduled, according to Rob Hodel, president of Tico Travel, who is coordinating the tournament for the BEF.
The tournament is sponsored by the Boomer Esiason Foundation (BEF) to heighten awareness, education and funding efforts of cystic fibrosis research.
“Response has been amazing with anglers coming from across the United States and Central America, and we have a number of people already signing on for the 2005 event,” Hodel said.
Back to defend their titles will be Richard Lebo and Denny Derringer, both of Quepos, and most of the teams from the inaugural tournament are back as well, he added.
ALL fish will be released, and the tourney has been named by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) as a qualifying event for the sixth annual Rolex/ IGFA Offshore Championship, an international fishing competition taking place in May 2005 at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
For more info, contact Tico Travel or visit the Costa Rica Classic Web site at www.costaricaclassic.com or the BEF Web site at www.esiason.org
