Captain’s Blog

It was another beautiful week for fishing on the Osa Peninsula with temperatures in the upper 80’s and clear blue skies every day. We are getting an inch or so of rain overnight which is a welcome event for all of us locals. The rain keeps the gardens green and the dust down. The inshore fishing is red hot as always with some big snappers and roosterfish coming to the boats and the offshore bite has remained steady.

The Brousard group came in from Louisiana and fished 2 boats on Sunday. Capt. Javier on the Wavejammer guided Chelsea, Kristy, Aaron and John to 2 sailfish released for 6 raised and caught 6 snapper up to 25 pounds inshore. Ms. Betty and Mr. Ron fished with Capt. Oliver on the Moondancer and put a full day in offshore and it paid off. They saw 8 sails come into the spread and hooked 6. 2 spit the hook but they landed 4 plus a big dorado for the table.

On Monday, Missy and Allen McMullen from Tampa, Florida headed offshore with Capt. Oliver and got into the big dorado 2 miles outside the Gulf. They boated one over 30 pounds and went on to catch 8 sailfish for 12 raised.

The Brousard children were back at it again on Tuesday on the Wavejammer. They raised a bunch of sailfish but were having trouble finding the hook set. They went on to release 1 before heading inshore and filling the cooler with 2 nice pargos and a handful of blue jacks. Ms. Betty and Mr. Ron had their eyes set on another sailfish and had no problem finding their groove, releasing 3 sails before 1 p.m.

Edie and Marvin Spayde fished with Capt. Javier on Wednesday and found the fish 15 miles offshore. It was slow going until 2 p.m. when the bait finally came to the surface and the sailfish were close behind. They caught 3 for 8 raised.

The Brousard boys fished on the Wavejammer again of Thursday and once again Capt. Javier showed why he is one of the best inshore captains in the Gulfo Dulce. With the offshore bite not turning on until the afternoon, Javier decided to stay inshore and fish some of the reefs and rock piles inside the Gulf. Aaron and John caught 4 nice roosterfish, 2 mackerel over 15 pounds and another couple of pargos.

On Friday Steve and John Spriggs with Robert Smith came in from Florida for a 1 day charter and did some deep drops to 400’ for grouper. Capt. Oliver put them on the meat and they boated 6 groupers to 30 pounds.

The Spaydes headed offshore again on Saturday and got into the sailfish hot and heavy. Knowing that the bite was happening late, Capt. Javier spent the morning looking for the right conditions. Once he found some nice current breaks along with good bait markings, he put out a spread of naked ballyhoo and slow trolled the area waiting for things to break. At 2 p.m. sails started to pop up above the surface and it was on. They counted over 100 fining sailfish balling bait on the surface and immediately hooked a double header. After a quick release they hooked another double. Both spit the hook, but the group went on to raise another 10 and landed another double of sailfish in 2 hours of fishing.

On Sunday the Baytes came down from Annapolis, Maryland and fished offshore with Capt. Oliver on the Moondancer. They went 3 for 4 on sailfish, all in the afternoon.

All of us here at Parrot Bay Village and want to say thanks to The Billfish Foundation for coming to Central America to help the sportfishing community try and put some laws into place that will help us curbed the blatant killing of marlin and sailfish that is happening in our waters. TBF is coming off a successful effort stopping the longline fleet from setting their gear in the waters around Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and are now bringing their resources and experience to Central America to fight the fight. Listening to our cry for help, TBF is coming to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Hoduras to implement an extensive satellite and traditional tagging program as well an economic study to estimate how much money is brought in to the local economy. We hope that with this data the Costa Rican government will put a stop to the commercial killing of billfish. Any of you that are not yet members of TBF should join. Check them out of the web at www.billfish.org. The next meeting is here at Parrot Bay Village on March 24 and I will keep you updated on the developments with TBF.

We now only have 1 boat available for the Banana Bay Billfish Tournament on March 29th and 30th. This is a qualifying event for the Rolex World Championship of Billfishing. Last year the Parrot Bay Village team placed 2nd, only 5 fish behind the winner with 49 releases in 2 days of fishing. Call us now at 1-866-551-2003 or contact us through the web at www.parrotbayvillage.com . You can also see the latest pics and videos at www.myspace.com/parrotbayvillage . See you at 8 degrees. Capt. Chad, Parrot Bay Village

The new moon is upon us at Parrot Bay Village and the billfish should be biting our hooks off, but coincidentally large schools of juvenile sardines and flyingfish have moved into the area. This is great for attracting the predators to the fishing grounds but it also fills their stomachs. We are still getting 6-8 shots at sails and 1 or 2 marlin bites a day but not the 20-25 that we were hoping for. The good news is that when the bait moves on, the billfish remain in the area and begin looking for food. We provide this in the way of Moldcraft Wide Ranges and ballyhoos rigged with 8/0 circle hooks.

Ed Waleryzack, Ed Stephenson, Bob Smith and Ken Mauer flew in from Tennessee and North Carolina and clearly made the best of the slow bite. They arrived with 12 and 14 weight fly rods and 2 suitcases full of specialty tackle. Ed Waleryzack has released close to 100 sails on the fly and his fishing partner Ed Stephenson has also posted some impressive numbers in the past. Bob and Ken are both avid freshwater fishermen but had never had the chance to hook into one of these big Pacific sailfish. On day one the two Ed’s split up to help their buddies Bob and Ken get familiar with the bait and switch system that we use here for billfish.

Ed W. and Bob fished together with Capt. Oliver and deckhand Juancho on the Moondancer and raised a double header of sailfish in the first hour. Ed had no problem finding his groove and landed his 99th sail on a fly after a 30 minute battle. Bob was at the rod next, and being an experienced freshwater flyfisherman, had no problem dropping his fly on the bullseye and released his first billfish on the fly. Ed went on to release his 100th later in the day. The pair went 3 for 5 on sailfish on day one. Not a bad ratio even for conventional tackle. Ed S. and Ken fished with Capt. Steve and deckhand Javier on the Wavejammer and saw 4 fish come into the spread but had no luck finding a hook set. On day two the Ed’s teamed up with Capt. Oliver and found a nice body of fish 20 miles from the dock.

Ed W. released two more sailfish before noon and Ed S. hooked a black marlin estimated at 300 pounds. Juancho teased the marlin from the long teaser to the short teaser, giving Ed S. an easy cast right at the transom of the boat. Ed S. was clearly outgunned and wound up breaking the fish off after a 100 yard run. Ken and Bob fished on the Wavejammer with Capt. Steve and didn’t find the sailfish that they were looking for but did find a blue marlin. Ken was at the rod and did a great job hooking and landing a blue marlin in the 150 pound class.

Congratulations Ken, you still owe us a dip in the Pacific for you first marlin!!! The goal for Ken and Bob on day three was to catch a roosterfish while at Parrot Bay Village, and Capt. Steve served up two for the rookies, both fish over 50 pounds. The duo also caught a handful of Cubera snappers and a couple of big jacks.

Capt. Oliver took the Ed’s offshore and raised 5 sails but only 1 would tease in close enough to cast a fly to. Ed W. once again showed why he is one of the best with the long rod and released the fish with no problem after a 25 minute fight. Thursday none of the boats in the fleet had much luck including our Sea-Vees.

The Wavejammer did manage to raise 1 sail, 1 marlin and boated 1 20 pound dorado and 20 yellowfin tuna in the 15-20 pound range, all caught on fly. All of the boats fishing saw many free jumping and finning sailfish in the area and this indicates that the fish are there but not actively feeding.

From time to time we do encounter this type of situation and it feels like the calm before the storm, it is only a matter of time before the fish start snapping. (It was a day after a feeding pattern like this last year that my father-in-law and I caught 39 of over 75 sailfish raised in the Banana Bay Billfish Tournament).

Our two boats headed offshore again on Friday waiting for things to pop, but it was not so. Ed W. did catch his 5th sail of the trip on fly and Ed S. landed a nice big dorado also on the fly. On the Wavejammer Ken caught his first sail on fly, giving him his second billfish on fly of the trip. His first being the blue marlin on Tuesday. Saturday the Pacific was like a sheet of glass and there was some serious tension in the air because these guys had to fly back to the States on Sunday. We all know that the fishery is going to blow up, it is just a matter of when. Well Sunday was not the day. The Moondancer raised 1 sail and a marlin while the Wavejammer raised 2 sailfish and a blue marlin but niether boat could get the hooks to stick. Thanks for leaving us with some of your lures and flies and congratulations to Ed Waleryzack on your 100th sailfish on fly and cheers as well to Ken and Bob for your first billfish on fly.

The Rakestraw group from South Carolina came down to fish with us for their 3rd season in a row and Capt. Oliver found some fish that were feeding more aggressivly. The group of 4 raised 7 sails and released 4. They also raised a big blue marlin. These guys will be fishing 4 more days with us so stay tuned for next weeks report.

Capt. Steve fished a 1 day inshore charter and released 10 roosterfish and put 2 nice Cubera snappers in the cooler for the table.

We still havesome spots available for fishing in February and March so please call us at 1-866-551-2003 or contact us through the web at www.parrotbayvillge.com. You can also see the latest pics and videos at www.myspace.com/parrotbayvillage . See you at 8 degrees. Capt. Chad, PBV