Well, that sure was a successful trip.  We ended up catching 5 marlin, 42 (ish) sails and innumerable dolphin for the 6 days of fishing.  Not bad at all!

The weather was predictably great with flat seas and sunny hot days which moderated at night.  Except for the last day, that is.  It blew in the morning!  We all thought we were in the Atlantic.  By the end of the morning, things had settled back down and we started seeing fish, especially after we ran a little to get a change of scenery.  It turned out to be a great call.

One interesting note – Chowie and his understudy, Arturo, managed to both hook the same fish twice in a day!  The first time is was a Dolphin that was apparently starving and the second was a Sail that decided he couldn’t eat just one.  Both circle hooks were right next to each other in the Sail’s jaw.  It was a pretty easy release.

Hope you like the pictures, more reports coming soon as De Mako is fishing pretty steadily for the next couple months.

This is Chowie’s Ceviche recipe. He makes it on the boat on the way out and then it is ready for lunch. Yum!

Ingredients:
• one ziplock of fillet (usually Dolphin)
• One green pepper
• One medium onion
• One bunch of cilantro
• One can Ginger Ale
• Six limes

Preparation:
• Mix water and a lot of salt in a bowl
• Cut the fillets into 1/4 inch cubes
• Put the fish into the salt water
• Stir fish, allow to stay in salt water for about 5 minutes
• Drain the fish and rinse with fresh water
• Squeeze the limes into a bowl.
• Put fish (only) in lime juice, stir and
• Allow to sit while you chop vegetables
• Chop onion, pepper and cilantro very finely
• Add chopped veggies to fish and lime juice
• Add about 1/2 can of Ginger Ale. Stir.
• Add two splashes of the Luzano Salsa
• Add Tabasco if you like it hot

Put the bowl in the Freezer for 30 minutes and then refrigerator for another hour and serve.

Ending the Year on 97

We set out from the Los Suenos Marina on another beautiful Costa Rican day.  The last day of the year, and Capt. Mike jokingly said that we had to catch six marlin to get he and Chowie to 100 for the year.

Well, we didn’t quite make it but we sure gave it a try.

For most of this season there have been so many Dolphin around that it was hard to fish for anything else.  We had a similar experience shortly after we put our lines in.  After catching enough for Chowie’s mom’s New Years party that night, we just dragged teasers for a while and watched scores of 20 pound Dolphin try to rip the teasers off the boat.

We managed to leave the pack of Dolphin in our wake (finally) and made it into some really pretty blue water and started looking for those marlin.

The sailfish showed up first and we managed to catch 4 of them by the end of the day.  With only one angler, things were busy in the cockpit.

Finally we saw that BIG splash we were hoping for.  We got the hook set and we were in business with a Blue Marlin around 200 pounds.  Perfect for the 30 pound gear.  The fish put on a show, tail walking and coming 10 feet out of the water.

After the release, we didn’t have to wait long and another marlin hit.  The jumps were far out and into the Sun we we had to wait to get it to the boat before being sure it was a Striped Marlin.  We were all pretty excited now.  Mike and Chowie needed four Marlin to hit the 100 mark for the year and we had just caught two in 50 minutes.

Well, the reason you are reading this here and not watching the made for TV movie on ESPN 87 is because we did not make it.  We caught one more Striped Marlin but that was it.

What a great way to end the year.  One Blue Marlin, two Striped Marlin, four Sailfish and enough Dorado to keep Chowie’s mom happy.

Hope you had a great one too!

- Jeff Radke