On The Fly in Zancudo
Gary and his teenage son Max hopped across the pond, fly rods in hand to have a “go at it”. If you read the last report you too know the bite has been red hot with Dorados 20-30 lbs ten per boat per day, Marlin, Sailfish and Roosters. Including the great fishing by Trey and Bill who during their five days of fantasy fishing caught among many other fish, over 30 Dorado, fought 6 Blue Marlin and landed and released one each.
Well the pond Gary and Max crossed to get to the Lodge was the Big Pond as they made their way from England for a two week stay of nonstop fishing. And although Max’s mom and grandma probably knew they liked fishing, I don’t think either of them had any idea they had that same fever as yours truly and could fish from morning until sundown for two weeks straight and revel in the telling of it from diner time until pillow time. I caught up with Mom and Grandma as they anxiously awaited the boys’ return from their first day of offshore fishing. They too came on this Costa Rican vacation, I thought to just enjoy the beach and pool, but when I saw their eyes wide with anticipation, what at first seemed like patient waiting under the tiki hut at the dock, I realized they too were struck by the father and son fly fishing duo’s excitement. It had probably been the talk of the dinner table back home for many weeks leading up to this great trip.
The boat pulled up to the dock, we tied it tight and Gary tells of his first Sailfish he caught on a fly, something he had only heard about before this day. They had eight Sailfish up, lost three and released one. That was their first day and Gary said he couldn’t believe it and that he wasn’t used to fly fishing like this. I told him he would get used to it and better at. He did, as:
Over the next two weeks Gary and Max fished from boat, beach and dock, catching thirty different species. Max released his first Sail on the fly, caught his first Roosterfish and released a Snook he landed on the fly right off our own dock. They had countless releases on Dorado, a swing and a miss on a Blue Marlin and landed a big Jack Cravelle in the surf on the beach in front of the Lodge’s swimming pool. There is too much to list, but for sure Gary’s wife and mother, Max’s mom and grandma, now know of their men’s love for fishing. Whether they understand it like us diehards do , we’ll never know.
Enjoy the photos
Capt Sloan
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The season officially kicked off, or should I say peeled off as reeled screamed with jumping Dorado and deep diving Tunas.
Harry brought his group in from Oregon and Art and his fishing partner Susan(who is also his wife, lucky guy) caught the first Blue Marlin of the season a horse at an estimated 500 lbs (five hundred). Captain Elvis at the wheel. Lynn and his wife Jenne, who always seemed to be smiling, had multiples on Roosterfish. Captain Luis rang the bell two days ago with 21 big Dorado 20-30 lbers and three 40 lb class Yellow Fin Tuna to put on top.
I had the Yo-Zuri tackle team out on my first off shore trip of the new season made up of George and Frank. Just the day before they caught the complete mixed bag of inshore species: Jack Crevalle, Nurse Shark (8’), Horse-eye Jack, Roosterfish, Blue Trevally, Scorpion Grouper, Warsaw Grouper, Marquesa Snapper, Yellowtail Snapper, Pargo (Common Red Snapper), Triggerfish, Houndfish, and Bonito . We were making a full day of lots of 30 lb Dorados (Mahi-Mahi) and a 6 lb Triple Tail when we gave it one more toss of a live bait at the school of boiling Tuna. Sure enough as all the boats passed us on their way to the dock Frank tells George he thinks he is getting a bite on his live Blue Runner. George debates this with him momentarily and then agrees as the 50 SW two-speed gold International starts dumping line at wide open, thumb burning speeds. Frank, the Friendly Goliath Angler at an easy 6’ 3” headed for the chair, it was 2:30 in the afternoon and we just hooked up a very fresh, energetic big Yellow Fin Tuna, it was to make for a late return to the lodge.
The battle was unique as the fish came close to the boat 3 times in the first 20 minutes, unfortunately just out of reach of my sharp gaff. Without sounding (going deep), it lead us East then North while the big school seemed to follow us around. I was tempted to throw a popper into the passing school, but knew we had our hands full as it was. Then the fish went down, straight down peeling off line as it pleased, Frank struggled hard just to hold on. Watching the sun head for the horizon, Frank’s battle reached the first hour mark as darkness was on its way. I thought to take the chance, without much else to do, to push the drag past the strike mark which was risky as the stealthy, thin 80 lb Yo-Zuri Floro leader worried me. Not knowing where the hook set was, left it a mystery as to if the line was being chaffed by the small but very sharp Tuna’s teeth. I took the chance and pushed it forward, the rod bent over harder, bending what seemed to be all the way and the line held tight. As it seemed the fish would never come up Frank just held on like a prize fighter in the 15th round up against the ropes.
Well, all the waiting and battling payed-off as it sometimes does. The fish found its way to the top, came along side the boat and 2 gaffs found its side. In the boat, into the brine fish bag, and then with a slice under the gill and at the tail to bleed it out it headed home with us. Charging home with just the slightest bit of civil twilight to make our way, I radioed on the VHF to Gregg on the Lodge’s home base VHF. With its 100 foot antenna tower he heard me loud and clear. Get the digital scale fired up and keep our dinner warm.
We hit the dock at 7pm, greeted by a large crowd under the lights, weighed our trophy catch at 120.7 lbs, took a few photos and left Paulino to do the filleting. Shirley the chef would turn it into sushi and grilled tuna steaks the following night.
What a great way to start the season.
Enjoy the photos
Capt Sloan
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November, 25 2009 Fishing Report
With December fast approaching; yesterday’s bite is the reason why I enjoy fishing so much this time of year. We had a late start due to the fact that we had some travel agents checking out the lodge. One of our boats from the previous day found a school of porpoises and was able to catch 3 tuna in the 30lb range and one dorado.
Louis was our captain we also had on board Ryan who works at the lodge as one of our bartenders and my friend Barry. We headed 20 miles due west. On our way out we came across some floating logs with birds diving. A large school of dorado were feeding. We started working the area with live bait. They had no interest what so ever in our baits so we started trolling. We hooked a double right away. I ran to the front of the boat and started throwing a popper with my spinning rod. A few seconds, hook up. It was 8:30am and we already had dinner on board. We trolled around and caught 3 more fish. Our mission was to catch tuna so we decided to leave the bite. Which was hard to do. We ran another 4 miles and came across a small school of porpoises. As we approached the most amazing spectacle of 100lb+ tuna were breaching the water they were chasing bait ahead of the porpoise school. At this time I got very excited today might be the day that I catch my first 200lb+ tuna. We stopped short and put our baits in. The tuna were down the porpoises were very skittish and would not let us get close to them. This made it very hard to hook a tuna. We worked the area for a while hoping that the tuna would come up. Unfortunately they did not. So we pulled up our lines and went out in search of another school. After a 20-minute run we came across a school of spinner porpoises. Spinners are the best for catching tuna since they are not boat shy. We started working the area every ten minutes or so the tuna would come up to feed. After a few tries with live bait Ryan start casting a Yo-Zuri popper and hooked a nice 60lb tuna. He fought it for 45 minute and had it to the surface. This was Ryan’s first tuna. We stayed with the school for another 45 minutes and decided to go back to where we caught our dorado’s ealier. We found the spot there were many bird circling and feeding. We started trolling and after 5 minutes a small marlin was in the spread he hit the lure on the corner of the boat. I grabbed the rod and pulled the hook. The Marlin started to run but after a few minutes he was off. We continued work the area and caught a sailfish and two nice sized dorado’s.
What a great day of fishing. We sill have plenty of room in December so give me a call if you are interested in coming down.
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Hi to all our past and present clients, friends and fellow fisherman. I understand due to uncertainty in many of our lives last season that some of you decided to postpone your trip to the lodge. This was very understandable.
To keep you all up to date, we were able to continue our progress in upgrading the lodge and fishing equipment. A few changes that you will notice:
•The grounds have been newly landscaped
•We have 4 newly remanufactured boats with new engines and tee-tops.
•Two new master suites and our pool has been completely renovated and landscaped.
These are all great things and we continue to pride ourselves on the most important aspect of the lodge, our great staff remains constant. If you have not been here in a while, Tito, Javier, Rafa, Ablilio, Elvis and Louis are still captains at the lodge along with Shirley and Marina doing a great job in the kitchen.
This is an exciting year for us. We just got voted best lodge in Costa Rica by Pacific Coast Sport Fishing and endorsed by Orvis. So now would be a great time to consider the lodge again and come enjoy yourself.
We had a fantastic season last year with over 30 big tuna, many days with double digit sails and had 5 grand slams as well. Below is a fishing report from last season. Enjoy and hope to see you soon.
Call me any time,
Greg
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Fishing
with Paulino
Before you
hear of today’s fishing you need to know a little history about “Paulino the
Gardener”. For those who remember the report of two months ago, Paulino handles
the landscape maintenance at the Lodge and with great skill as the gardens are
beautiful and full of fruit. He fixes anything that needs it, sometimes picks
up a freshly killed pig for a big roast, and everyday waits for the boats to
return to fillet the days catch, often 20 big Tunas or Dorados at a clip.
That’s his only connection to the fishing action. With a love for fishing as
great as ours he works for a famous fishing lodge, but is trapped on land all
day staring out at the ocean wondering how the action is out there, but never
getting in on it. Its either purgatory or hell, I am not sure.
Here
is an excerpt from that January 20, 2009 report:
“I
was on the dock last week while the boats were coming in, checking out the
catch. Meanwhile the gardener at the lodge, Paulino, takes a live bait from one
of the boats that just came in and puts it on a shimano tld 15 that’s already
rigged for sailfish. While we are talking I see a huge Snook jump out of the
water and sure enough his rod bends over and when it’s all done including him
jumping into a passing by boat, to get a better chance to land it, that just
happened to be passing by, he lands it. A 30 lb Snook caught by the gardener
off the dock! All the while the anglers watch in awe, myself included. Check out
the picture and join the crowd.”
Paulino with Me and Snook
During
his time off, you will most likely see Paulino fishing from the dock with great
passion, pointing out the 5 inch Pompano or like sized Red Snapper. So when he
caught that monster Snook we were all happy for him. But imagine if he could
have the same chance as all the anglers he sees that pass through the Lodge
each year, sport fishing for Marlin like you see on TV upon the world famous
waters of Costa Rica. This is the irony of Paulino’s purgatory as he is Costa
Rican. It was time for all this dreaming to change.
Gregg(the
Lodge’s owner) called yesterday at 3pm. All he said is: “We’re going tomorrow,
and we’re taking Paulino.” Great!
We
pulled out of the dock at 6am, it was flat calm and the sun was starting to
peak over the mountains. Sabiki bait rigs(5 small hooks strung out over 4 feet
of flouro carbon) on light tackle to catch live Blue Runners, that was the
plan. We tried “The Rock”, 40 feet of water and no other boats around. When
Gregg said “I’m on” I looked his way, his bait caster bent in half as if he had
a tuna on. Turning back to Paulino, his rod too, hunkered over, Paulino with a
smile from ear to ear. We had the Blue Runners four and five at a time. Two
passes and we had over 30 live baits, Paulino couldn’t believe the action and
that was just the bait.
We
headed to Burica to the south, the Panama boarder, looking for Tuna. Passing
Pavones, the world class surfing spot, the boat now hooked up at 4200 rpm
making 28 knots it would be a 25 minute ride.
Too good
to be true, the birds were working hard, crashing down on the bait, small
Yellow Fin Tuna pushing the bait to the top. We set out the micro bait trolling
gear to “match the hatch” seven rods in all, rigged with feathers and jet heads
no bigger than 3 inches. Passing through the schools of bait, circling,
zigzagging, changing speeds, but nothing.
Then it
happened, a wide mouthed Marlin came up on the left long rigger. A Marlin? We were
Tuna fishing only pulling a 3 inch jet head and this big monster was chasing a
lure that looked like a minnow. There was no time to doubt what was happening,
we flipped the live bait over the side(rigged on a 30 Gold Tiagra 2-speed) and
pulled the lure away from the Marlin. Clasic Bait and Switch.
With all
the trolling gear in, the live bait out there, we waited. It seemed like it
wasn’t going to happen, then the line got tight. Very Tight!
Paulino
was on. At first he had a huge smile on, the line peeling out at the Marlin’s
will. I can imaging Paulino’s rush of adrenaline and joy. But his many years of
starry eyed dreaming staring out on the ocean, trapped on land, wishing to know
what’s out there to hope one day to get in on the action, waiting on the dock
for other anglers to return, this “wishing it was me”, I cannot imagine.
The
fighting belt strapped on, two hundred yards of line between him and the fish, Paulino’s
smiles turned to determination. He fought like his life depended on it, following
the fish around the boat and trying to recover just a foot of line at a time.
This was his greatest moment, The Old Man in the Sea for real, he was so
determined. I was very worried.
Earlier I rigged the 30 Tiagra
with a small circle hook and only 50 lb test flouro leader, a stealthy light
weight rig for Tuna. This was no Marlin rig and should the bill of the Marlin
even touch the taught light-weight leader it would pop and Paulino’s dream
would end with a saddening limp line. I knew this, but kept it to myself.
At
the 31 minute mark of the battle, without having made a single jump, the fish
thirty feet down, just below the boat and out of my reach of the leader, I saw
it. The leader was wrapped once under the right peck fin, somehow now sprung
away from the dangerous bill. The water was crystal blue and we all saw the
Blue Marlin change course and head deeper. I now estimated Paulino’s chances
less than 50-50 for a clean release, for the leader being the weakest link.
Suddenly
the fish rushed out to the surface, Paulino was holding on and reeling, this
was it. The fish finally jumped, the surface became white with foam and we had
our chance. That was his final run.
Coming alongside
the boat, not willingly, but now exhausted, the Marlin’s bill was facing aft.
Gloves on, I grabbed it and Paulino reached over and petted it as if it was his
cocker spaniel. He was the happiest man alive. I saw it.
I
pulled the pliers from my belt, popped out the hook from our lucky corner of
the mouth hook set and released the 180 lb Blue. What he was thing as he swam
off I wonder.
That
was it, Gregg and I now smiled wider than Paulino as we listened to him recount
moment by moment his last 48 minutes. We happily listened to his retelling as
if we hadn’t been there to see it for ourselves. As his arms continued to shake
now 20 minutes later, he told us in his most philosophic manner: “Its faster to
fillet a big Tuna at the dock than to reel a Marlin to the boat.” We all
laughed out loud.
Not
to make light of the rest of the day in my short recount, but neither to
forget, I need tell you we headed for the “High Hump”, a close-by Grouper spot.
The three of us bottom fished the next two hours catching a total mixed bag of
eighteen; Grouper, Conejo(like a Tilefish), Conger, and Snapper(Roncador and
Red).
Of
the thousands of trips I have made and the many more I hope to, this one I
won’t forget.
Enjoy the photos
Capt Sloan
Paulino,
Capt Sloan and Grouper
Paulino’s
Blue Marlin
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February 14,2009 The Zancudo Lodge Fishing Report
Got back very late last night (this morning) from a week at the Zancudo Lodge in Costa Rica -- I'm exhausted but 6 straight days of fishing did wonders for scratching my fishing itch. Fished with my Dad and brother Matt from Seattle, my Dad's friend of 50+ years Frank and his son John from Georgia, and Coastsider Joe Conte and his wife Andi.
Fishing was very good, great at times. The sails sometimes didn't bite aggressively maybe due to the full moon, but we saw amazing numbers of fish plus a surprising amount of tuna compared to past years. The details of the days kind of run together, but the first and last days stand out.
Day 1 we arrived at Zancudo sometime around 8:30am, grabbed breakfast, and headed out about 9:30 for a scheduled "half day". Got out to the grounds and had baited a couple sails when we heard about big tuna under dolphin a few miles away. We picked up the gear and ran toward them. As we got closer we could see the dolphin and some big tuna jumping.
Matt had never caught a tuna bigger than a football and I warned him that without harnesses if we hooked up on one it meant we were in for a lot of pain. When we arrived we heard one of the boats had landed a 70 pounder. We positioned ourselves in front of the dolphin and our captain Javier put a pink and yellow daisy chain in front of a big orange bird way back on a Penn 50 wide. It didn't take long and a big tuna exploded on the lure. I grabbed the rod and held on for a few seconds -- line was screaming off. Then I asked Matt if he wanted to take it, he said, "OK", I replied "You sure?" With a "yeah" I handed it over. It was clearly a very big fish and as minutes turned into a half hour, then an hour I think Matt was starting to regret his decision. He settled into the fighting chair on the bow, but without a harness and a loose gimble his arms and back were taking a beating.
Somewhere around a couple hours into the fight, our captain heard on the radio that some whales had spooked the dolphin and they were coming our way. Across the water, we could see the herd of at least a thousand dolphins was charging towards us. It was a full-on stampede with none of the jumping and acrobats we had watched earlier. The noise was amazing sounding like rumbling thunder. As they kept getting closer Javier started to get worried that if they came too close they would cut off the big tuna. He radioed a captain from another outfit and asked him to try to head off the dolphin. He ran in front and was able to split maybe a third of the herd off, but the rest were still coming. As they got within a couple hundred yards, he again ran in front and was able to split the herd to either side of us. As they passed by we saw what had panicked them -- at least a dozen false killer whales were on the chase. One of those incredible National Geographic type moments I'll never forget. The rest of the fight was just a long battle up and down over a few yards of line -- we watched the spectra-mono connection come and go several times. During the fight, we spotted a nice Dorado swimming by the boat and cast a bait to it -- seconds later I had him on the hook. I was really careful to fight it away from Matt's line knowing all too well what might happen if we crossed lines. After a nice fight I landed a nice 35+ pound bull.
More than once Matt said he couldn't go much longer, but sometime after the 3-hour mark it was finally close to the boat. Javier finally stuck him with the gaff and I got a second in, then over the rail it came. An exhausted Matt posed with his fish, we got it bled, gutted, gilled, and on ice in the kill bag, then headed for the barn.
Back at the dock, the tuna weighed in at 179 pounds, gutted and gilled. Don’t know what the whole weight would have been, but it was clearly a cow. A pretty darn exciting "half day"! Plus, everyone at the lodge was treated to all the fresh ahi sashimi and seared tuna steaks they wanted for the next 4 days.
Days 2 through 5 included another shot at tuna where we bagged six from 25 to over 50 pounds (3 other boats working the same school got skunked), my Dad with a 49 pound dorado, a 250+ pound blue marlin that was on for a couple jumps then threw the hook, and a close encounter with some sort of beaked whale sporting lots of scars possibly from squid tentacles. We saw big numbers of sails, baiting dozens and hooking and landing quite a few. On day 2 Matt was pretty sore from his big fight, and a sailfish and later a small tuna literally brought him to his knees -- it'll be a long time before he wants to face another big tuna.
By day 6, our final day of fishing, I think fatigue was starting to set in. We raised dozens of sails, had several pickups, but we weren't sharp. Other boats were putting up big numbers and we had only boated a few though that included a double. At the end of the day, we were baiting our final sail and had brought in all the trolling gear to head home. Then we saw birds start diving hard a few hundred yards away. We put out 2 baits and started slow trolling toward them. Sailfish were jumping all around us and we saw a couple fining on the surface. Then I saw one behind my Dad's bait and seconds later he was on. Within a minute I was on too, but after a few jumps he threw the hook. I threw out another bait and moments later had two sails charging toward it, then I was on. While my Dad brought his in I had a classic acrobatic fight. The large pack of sailfish were still working the bait ball when we left. Wish we could have stayed longer, but what a way to end the trip!
Greg has done an amazing amount of work on the Lodge plus they added 4 feet in length to most of their center consoles (work done at the Lodge), which really improved the ride and roominess (and shade!). The great personal service, laid back atmosphere, and other guests made for another great experience at Zancudo Lodge. Don't know when it will be, but I'm ready to go back!
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February 1 2009
This weeks report is all about Tom Blythe. It’s hard for it not to be.
Tom usually comes down to the lodge with his regular gang of buddies. Its been this way for 8 years now. A repeat Zancudo Lodge angler he knows the program. Up early, down to the dock and out to the blue water with his favorite captain, Capt. Javier. The blue water starts only one mile from the beach, so Tom had his lines in early. And a good thing too as the Dorado were biting. Landing his first fish right off the bat took the pressure off as his fresh fish dinner was now guaranteed.
Then it was the Sailfish that came up on the teaser. It wasn’t his first time and Capt Javier only had to say fish up once and Tom had his live Blue Runner over-the-side. The 100 lb sail grabbed it, turned its head, and Tom pushed the lever drag forward. He was on.
Twenty minutes later; the count was one Bull Dorado and one Sailfish.
Well Tom was happy, but Capt Javier was thinking big, really big. It was already 11 am and the Capt. was running out of time to pull it off, the ultimate Zancudo trip, “The Grand Slam”, Dorado, Sailfish, Tuna and a Marlin. He knew he had a chance.
As I mentioned, Tom fishes with Javier every year and brings him his annual birthday gift, polarized designer prescription sunglasses. So wearing his new shades, his eyes were wide open and he could see clear to the horizon. The birds were working, and working hard. He set out his two top Marlin lures (sorry I can’t tell you which as I promised I wouldn’t) and they chugged along in the wash. It was 1:15 when it happened, Blue Marlin on! The fish pulled hard early and took a lot of line with him. The early burst gave Tom the advantage. The fish exhausted, Tom, now coached by the best, turned on the pressure and after what may sound easy, but in no way was, the fish came along-side the boat. Leader in hand, they popped off a few photos and released the 225 lb Blue Marlin still lit up. Javier looked at his watch, there was still time, but not much. He needed a big break. He had to go to the network , squeezing the mike the whole Zancudo Lodge fleet heard him. “Necesito un Atun.” “I need a Tuna.” He tuned in the squelch listened to the silence and then the radio chirped, he got the call!
The bite was on, Tuna among a huge school of Spinner Porpoises. Still 15 miles away, the outriggers pulled in, the Capt put it to the pins, 30 knots. With no guarantee the bite would still be on but with nothing to loose they only waited, blissful anticipation.
The fish were still there, Yellowfin Tuna. And they were feeding.
It was one of those days that you dream of, what could go wrong? Nothing. Capt. Javier gave him the word, well it was more like “PUT IT IN, PUT IT IN”. Tom flipped the live Herring over the side, let it run free and he was ON!
A Yellow Fin Tuna spiraled to the boat, Capt Javier poked it with the gaff, and it was done.
The trip of a lifetime, pulled off by the Master Captain and The Angler of the Week.
Enjoy the photos
Capt Sloan
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