We just finished a six day trip to Costa Rica and were able to put together a great trip even though September is not known as the best of months in Costa Rica. What September often does see is a run of Marlin offshore from the town of Flamingo, about 150 miles NW of Los Suenos. This marlin run was our objective for the week. While things did not work out as planned, the trip really highlighted the benefits of Black & Blue over traditional chartering.

We began moving De Mako NW on Friday, fishing most of the way. We were able to catch seven sailfish out of about ten bites on the way. We made it into Flamingo Bay around nightfall the first night. The next day we fished off of Flamingo in the morning with no luck. No bites, no bait, no birds. It was a pretty ominous beginning. We ran into Flamingo Bay at lunch to pick up the rest of the members for the trip and headed back out for the afternoon. While the weather was great, the afternoon was more of the same – no signs of life at all. It was so bad that we all made a pretty quick decision when we got back to Flamingo Bay that night. With the water so empty off of Flamingo we decided to head SE in the morning and keep going until we saw signs of life. All of the anglers checked out of their hotel rooms and took a Pango out to De Mako at 6 am and we set out to the SE in the same green water. We ran quite a few miles in this unpromising water and then set out the baits as the water started to turn bluer. The fish we had caught on the way up were about half way, off the coast from the town of Correa and, sure enough, that is where we found them again. We caught three or four sails and and a 24 pound dolphin. By the end of the fishing day, we decided to run to Los Suenos and the condo to spend the night.

The next four days we fished out of Los Suenos. We continued to fish SE of the Elbow. We had a couple of double digit Sailfish days and ended up with about 32 Sailfish for the trip. The rain held off for us duing the day and we were able to fish in nice weather with the swell being significant on only one day. In addition to the Sailfish and assorted Dolphin, September is typically a good month for Yellowfin Tuna. We found this to be the case as we followed flocks of diving birds to find big schools of Tuna working in front of equally large schools of Spinner Dolphins. The Tuna would boil to the surface, eating small bait that looked like Krill and then go back down. There were several fish we saw that looked to be better than 100 pounds in the melee. We caught our share of Tuna out of these schools but we did not catch any of the big ones. I guess the big ones get big because they know what a bait or lure looks like! Even better than catching the Tuna was watching the show. Tuna jumping, Spinner dolphin chasing, birds diving….what a site.

October is maintenance month for us, De Mako is getting hauled and we have the usual bits and bobs to get done before the Costa Rica season begins in earnest. November through March is generally the best fishing and we are really looking forward to this year.
We will be back with an update when we get back to fishing.

- Capt. Mike Springer

The Wahoo continue to please. Early in the week we were having good luck on Challenger Bank trolling with dead bait for Wahoo as well as chumming on the NW side of the Bank. In the chum, there were a fair number of little Yellowfin Tuna, huge numbers of Skipjack Tuna as well as the odd Rainbow Runner and Tiger Sharks. All in all, made for a few interesting days.

We fish for Wahoo in the chum using spinning gear with a short trace of wire just above the hook. The particular fellow I am holding above hit my bait (yes, I was convinved to try a drift or two with the rod in my hand) like something very small. As I was reeling the fish in easily, someone hooked a Yellowfin just above my fish. Well, that sure woke up the Wahoo and he went around the bow in a flash. After 10 or 15 minutes fighting him from the bow deck, I figured that I must have a Wahoo that was converted in to a Tiger Shark. I put the max drag on and start to work the fish to the boat thinking I will either catch it or break it off and finish this one way or the other. Well, he was a nice surprise when he came to the gaff.

Later in the week the bite on Argus was good. I think we ended up with 15 Wahoo on Saturday. Ricky Lines and his guests did their usual great job and we had two great days out.

September-October fishing in Bermuda….nice weather, lots of action, lots of fish to eat!

I am going to be in Costa Rica this week checking on Capt. Mike and Chowie, the other half of Black & Blue Fishing. As a result, the next fishing report will be from the Pacific.

Talk to you then.

- Capt. Allen DeSilva

The Wahoo continue to cooperate, as does the weather.  We have had flat seas and beautiful sunny weather this week.  Despite the calm seas, the Wahoo were out in force, ready to gobble up chum, dead trolled bait or live bait.  Our last trip we caught 10 Wahoos and 5 Yellowfin Tunas inthe chum.  The largest was a 62 pounder caught by birthday boy James Cornes.

The live bait continues its migration to the Banks; we should see them out there in numbers we can work with in the next week or so.  For now, the show is in the chum with lots of small Tunas and medium Wahoo making things very interesting on spinning gear.

It is pretty much decided that MAKO is going to North Carolina to have a little work done this Fall.  We expect to leave sometime after October 20.  Book your trips now to get in on this fishing!

- Capt. Allen DeSilva