The Billfish Foundation March 9-March 16
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
