March 25, 2002
April 27,2000 “Great time in Costa Rica Sail fish on the Fly”After the long bumpy plane ride we are finally here so I though… Ok everyone get in the bus… 3-hour hot scary bus ride we arrive to the Allegro hotel and Casino 4 star by Costa Rica standards 2 star by us standards. But Costa Rica is the 12-month home of the pacific sailfish and black sand beaches. After a day of acclamation we are ready to find a fishing guide. The hotel sends us to the Los Saionos’ Marriott that is where the sport fishing dock is located about 1 hour away. We hook up with a local guide (retired from Colorado) and off we go after the Sails in a 28’ Contender w/ twin 250 Yamahas. Red tide is in so we need to find clear water after about 2 hrs. We find some clear cobalt blue water and out go the teasers. We ran 6 lines 4 on outriggers and 2 just behind the boat in the white wash. The idea is to trick the fish to the top reel in the lines then cast a fly to the area a head of the fish let the fly go dead (like a stunned bait fish) free spool a couple seconds and set the hook. Let the games begin. The fish in the picture took 30 min. with the help of the captain backing down the boat. I used a 12-wt rod with a large arbor reel 60 lb shock tippet great fun. Don’t expect to hook in 1 day of fishing it took me 3 days in a row to hook up with a fly .We did catch some everyday on stand up gear. Oh we liked the Marriott so much we stayed there for the rest of our 10 days. Good luck see ya on the water Joe-m
