In the winter of 2008 I travelled 5497km from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to the beautiful country of Costa Rica. I went for a relaxing vacation however I promised myself as soon as I booked the trip that I would do some deepsea fishing there. After some intensive research I found that the sportfishing industry in Costa Rica is largly run by American's and quite expensive. I decided to take the risk and not book a fishing charter until I arrived in Costa Rica and checked out the locals and all the available options. I realized that in a country like that not every fishing guide is going to be able have his charter business on the world wide web. After arriving and speaking to some locals I was told of a location (Quepos) that has the best fishing at that time of year (April) when I arrived in Quepos my beach front hotel http://www.verdemar.com/ was more than happy to help me book an offshore fishing trip that met my expectations and my budget, the hotel employees were extremely helpful and concerned that I would get the right fishing guide for my money. You have several options as far as the size of boat goes and if you want luxury you can go with a yacht for the low price of a few thousand US dollars per day. As my budget is in the lower end and I was going to be chartering the entire boat to myself I chose a small 24 foot cruiser. This size of boat is just fine for up to three fisherman any more than that and you will be bumping into each other all day. As I get seasick easily I came prepared with a motion sickness patch as well as gravol. If you have never been out in the open ocean (im talking 20 miles or more offshore) I HIGHLY recommend bringing gravol with you at the very least. Seasickness is the worst feeling in the world and once your 30 miles out in the ocean there is no getting away from it. So back to the fishing story, I met my boat captain and deck hand at 6am and with very little messing around we were off and running. We cruised straight out from land for 45min to an hour and then started fishing. Sailfish feed near the surface and often in schools, a favorite technique is to surround a school of bait fish and drive them to the surface where they are helplessly trapped and the sailfish can have their fill with a minimum of effort. Because of this the way you fish for sailfish is to troll several baits out the back of the boat in the wake at a decent speed and keep the bait skipping across the top of the water or swimming just under the surface. On this trip my experienced Costa Rican fishing guides placed weights on all our baits so they stayed just barely submerged they also set out two teasers which are large colorful plastic squid lures without hooks. The idea with the teasers is to draw sailfish in with the added flash and movement. With all the rigs out behind the boat in a staggered formation it actually looks like a group of baitfish swirling on the surface which of course is the whole idea and it obviously fooled the local sailfish because within an hour of fishing we had a hit! Then another and another! Three hits in a row but nothing had gotten hooked, I held my breath and then suddenly, only 10 meters behind the boat a 130 pound sailfish leaped its full length out of the water! As it splashed back into the shimmering blue ocean I heard the line zinging off of the reel. Carlos rushed to the rod holder grabbed the rod and set the hook with three strong heaves on the rod, as he passed me the rod the sailfish jumped again, and again!! Four times the massive fish leaped in an effort to shake the hook but to no avail. As I fought with the jerking rod and tried to slow the line spinning off the reel without burning my thumb, Carlos buckled a rod holder around my waist and helped me into the fighting chair. It was a very exciting moment with alot of fast spanish and hand signals flying. After the intial thrashing the sailfish dove straight for the bottom all I could do was hold on to the rod. When he finally stopped I began the process of pumping and reeling, pumping and reeling, it was a long, slow, muscle burning battle to the surface and when we finally got the huge fish to the side of the boat he had lost almost all of his color. Carlos expertly slid the fish over the side of the boat while the captain grabbed the camera and snapped a couple pictures.
After the quick photos we slid the sailfish back into the ocean and Carlos gently pulled him back and forth to get the water flowing through the gills. It took about 15 minutes before the mighty sailfish got his strength back and when he fully recovered we watched him in awe as he swam off with his huge fin slicing through the water. I was pretty happy with the fact that I had just landed an estimated 130lb sailfish! My first one ever! As Carlos got the lines back into the water I rubbed my sore arms and massaged my stiff hands and it wasn't a second or two later when we had another one on!!! I couldn't believe my luck until I grabbed the rod and realized that I had just started the whole 45 minute process over again but this time my muscles were aching to start with!! Anyways it was an endurance test but I took it with a grin and survived and we successfully landed the second fish as well. This one was a bit smaller coming in at an estimated 110lbs. The remainder of the day was spent chatting as much as possible with my two friendly guides that didn`t speak much english and I speak almost no spanish so it was fun trying to have a conversation. As we cruised along we would periodically see a sailfish leap out of the water 400 yards away but unfortunately no more took the bait. I didn`t mind at all I was more than happy with my two fish and so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride, occasionally I dipped into the ice chest for refreshments and a sandwich. Towards the end of our day we came upon the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. Off in the distance the captain spotted something, as we headed towards it we could see alot of splashing and rolling and large fish leaping out of the water. The captain was confused at first, Can't be Tuna can it? He asked the deckhand. Carlos proceeded to climb up onto the roof of the boat and finally when we got close enough he said its dolphins! What I saw that day is absolutly unbelievable hundreds and hundreds of dolphins jumping, rolling, and slashing through the water as well as two giant sea turtles!! I snapped pictures as fast as my little underwater camera would take them and just stared in amazment. Needless to say I was a bit sad when the captain said we had to head back but it was actually the perfect end to a perfect day. I had the time of my life and can't wait to do it again sometime. If you ever get the opportunity to do some sailfish fishing please do yourself a favor and do it!!! Good Luck and Good Fishing!!
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