Greetings from the Pacific Northwest. We have some big news that could not wait.

Margo Doyle, the matriarch of Black & Blue Fishing Club, managed to catch and release a 55 pound King (Chinook) Salmon yesterday after a two hour and fifty minute fight.

Margo released the fish as large Kings are almost always females carrying millions of eggs back to the stream of her birth. The fight was long and the excitement at Langara Island Lodge in beautiful British Columbia was high with more than 7 boats watching Margo fight the fish after radio chatter alerted the Lodge boats of the special fight.

At a calculated 55 pounds the fish was the largest caught at the Lodge this season.

View Margo’s 55 Pounder in a larger map

In addition to taking all of the pool participants’ money, Margo has gained a place of pride on the Catch and Release wall of Langara Island Lodge.

Congratulations Margo!!!!!!

We finally were able to fish Panama when the water conditions were right. It is always tricky when there are weeks between trips to keep track of fishing conditions. Schedules being what they are, you have to find a gap in the work schedules and hope for the best.

Well, we got lucky. Four of us flew down last Wednesday, took the 20 min taxi ride to the boat from the airport, hopped on the boat and ran 60 miles to San Jose Islands. We anchored up for the night there. The islands are essentially empty but provide a great way to break up the run (I think of it as South but it is really mainly East) to the fishing grounds.

We woke up early Thursday and ran another 20 miles to fish down towards Pinas Bay. The first day we went 9 for 12 on Sails and caught a few nice Dolphin. Day Two we worked the Zane Grey Reef for a while, trolling live baits for Marlin while catching Yellowfins and Amberjacks with poppers cast from the bow. Later on in the day we moved offshore for a bunch more Sails, big Dolphin and an estimated 250 pound Blue Marlin. We had a great dinner on De Mako and had a few cocktails as day turned to night and recounted all of the stories from the day.  Not a bad day at all!

Friday (Day 3) was “The One”. It made the trip! Like the previous day, we started off live baiting the reef in hopes of a big Black Marlin and we got her! Captain Mike Springer, who has caught his share of big fish, estimated her to be 700 pounds. On a 50 pound outfit. Stand up! I fought her for close to three hours and we got a great jumping release. I sure was glad to have a trained professional along (Kenny the dentist) to take care of all those teeth I had ground down to nothing during the fight.

We moved offshore, caught a Sail quickly and then caught an estimated 500 pound Blue to complete the De Mako’s first ever slam! I won’t go on and on about the Blue because I was not the angler.

Day Four consisted of a bunch more big Sails and Dolphin and finished with the heart breaking loss (because I was the angler) of a 200lb class Yellowfin after a three hour battle with under-matched spinning tackle (looks like I am going shopping!!).  Overall, an amazing trip!

I am really glad Black and Blue had a great trip in Panama to make all of us anxious to return next year. De Mako is making the trip up to Los Suenos shortly so that the boat is in place to fish the Marlin run off Flamingo in September / October.   By December (hopefully November) the action should be heating up off of Los Suenos. I know we are all anxious to make it back to Costa Rica this winter.

So anxious, in fact, that the days are being booked faster than I would have expected. If you are a member and have not picked your days for this winter, I would suggest that you take a look at the calendar and start picking. If you have been waiting to join, we have a few more months before we close out the “Founding Member” category (they get first cut at scheduling days), so you might want to get in touch and become a member before that ends.

- Jason Doyle

We just finished a few days of fishing in Panama.  While the fishing was pretty slow, we did manage to fund enough action to keep ourselves entertained.  The trip started with a direct run east towards Zane Grey reef.  We anchored in a nearby bay just as it got dark and made a steak dinner.

In the morning we set out on our first day which is always a bit of a scouting mission as we have not been this way for a number of weeks.  The water looked much better than it had and as we trolled East towards the Columbian border (but not too close) we had a Black Marlin come up on the right teaser.  We pitched a bait to him and we were off to the races.  This fish, which was about 200 pounds, was acting more like an Atlantic Blue than a Pacific Black, digging down deep and staying there.  On the 30 pound outfits it is really hard to budge a fish when they want to do that, it is a matter of changing the angles on him and coaxing him up of his own accord.

After about 30 minutes, we got the leader but the fish was too green and jumped away from the mate.  We increased the drag at that point and put a little heat on the fish.  He did not like that much and De Mako was throwing smoke as the boat had to do quite a few maneuvers to keep the fish out of the props and out of the cockpit.

Some of the pictures came out pretty well – check out Chewie being stretched out by the fish.

We caught a sailfish later in the day and missed three others.  There were bonito everywhere!  It was actually hard to keep the baits away from them at times.  Not just on the edge, either.  They were all over.  We had a little luck with the sails, but generally it was quiet.

We ended each day trolling live bait over the reef.  You might be interested in the display of the depthfinder – now that is BAIT!  We never got a bite live baiting but it was great to be out around 5 or 6 pm.  The bait came to the surface in big bait balls, the birds were working, it was quite a site.

We trolled back towards Panama City on our last day and spent the night anchored off Las Perlas islands.  Really pretty spot (but no fish live there).  On the way to the anchorage we were able to catch a couple of nice sized dolphin around floating drbris.  There were hundreds and hundreds of little 5 pounders swarming.  You had to get lucky to have a bigger fish get to your bait first.

All in all, a great trip.  Caught some fish in a pretty location, had a great time with great company.

Look at all that bait!

- Capt, Mike Springer

The first leg of the trip was an overnight run from West Palm Beach to Key West.  Here is De Mako sitting in the marina in Key West.  It is worth noting how the docks look as we stopped along our way.

 The next leg was to Isle Mujeres, near Cancun.  Who did we see coming around the corner, but the old Anne Warrick…built by Sunny Briggs just before he built De Mako.  It is a small ocean!    We saw some sights.  Isle Mujeres is really ready for large scale tourism, with a HERD of tourists coming down the dock to the charter boats – the picture nearby shows the start of the stampede.  Nice place overall.  Lots to do it seemed and generally a pretty spot. 

The next stop was Roatan.  This is a really small island that belongs to Equador.  Interesting how big the commercial fishing fleet is.

The first marina we tried in Roatan.  Everything was lovely except there was no water or electricity.

This ia the fueling process at Roatan.  Honestly.

Unfortunately, it is true.  Every single person we say in San Andres was having more fun than we were.  This pair’s giggling could be heard from our speeding golf cart!

To see all the pictures, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackandbluefishing/sets/72157617648948405/

As promised, the first trip report from De Mako and the first from Panama!

After our trip from Florida around to the Canal, our first set of members came down to try out the fishing.  While the water quality certainly wasn’t great, we all had a great time and managed to catch a Black Marlin and five Sailfish.

After the members landed, they made the 30 minute trip to the boat using a driver that I have known for years.  Before long, De Mako was out of the slip and headed to overnight in the Las Perlas islands, about 60 miles from the Marina in Panama City.  The weather was ok, calm seas but cloudy.  We had a great dinner on the boat anchored in the lee of those beautiful islands.  We went to sleep anxious for what the day would bring.

I was concerned about the fishing as I had heard that an unusual amount of green water had pushed into the fishing grounds.  The first day of fishing we certainly found this green, green (maybe coffee would be a better description) water.  We looked for the blue water but did not find it that first day.  As we moored in Pinas Bay,  we were all hoping tomorrow would be better.  After a good night’s rest we set out in rainy conditions.

The water did seem a little better today and it wasn’t long until a Black Marlin came up on the short left teaser.  Jason was on the rod and decided to pitch the 30 because the fish did not look all that big to him.  Well, on the bite, we all changed our mind.  That Black looked like a rolling Tarpon as it took the pitch going away from the boat.  After about 30 minutes, Chowie released the fish – about 300 pounds.  Take a look at the photos the members took of the fish.  Pretty work on the rod and behind the camera, I would say.

The day continued with what I would describe as pretty slow action.  We ended up catching 5 of 10 Sailfish bites.  The fish were their normal selves, putting on a show on the light 30 pound tackle.

That night, the members had a cocktail and dinner at the Tropic Star Lodge.  They said that the food and atmosphere was great.  It sure is a beautiful place.  Quiet and still, with jungle all around.

The next day we steamed back to Panama City to catch the return flight.  All in all, a great start despite difficult condiitons.

We are going again soon, so stay tuned and book your flights down!

- Capt. Mike Springer

Mike, Allen and the guys made it to Panama this weekend.  We will add more detail when they get back, but they said the trip was long, and a little rougher than one would like but there were no mechanical problems and they made pretty good time.  I tried to figure out how to make a map of their trip.  

View De Mako's Trip to Panama in a larger map

The link is here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=106606152088836733603.0004682170ae3e0e6ac25&z=5 

As I said, when the guys have a chance to download their pictures, we will add those and lots of stories.

Speaking of stories, the first members are planning their Panama trips so we should have some interesting fishing reports pretty soon.

- Jeff Radke

Well, Black and Blue Fishing club, MAKO and the De Mako are just about ready to go.
First, some news about the Club – we finally have the legal and banking stuff done.  It was a bother to set it all up so formally, but in these times of economic uncertainty, we think it will pay off to have dotted the “i’s”.  You are reading this so the new website works. Many thanks to Wade at rainmakerwebdesign.com for his help on the site. Like most things, a website is about 7.2 times harder and more time consuming than I would have guessed. The effort to recruit members is going well with three Founding Members already. The captains and members have emailed the proposal to many of their friends and contacts.  We are quietly confident that it will be a success given the interest we are seeing after a week or two.

De Mako – that is the boat that will end up in the Pacific – is sitting in West Palm Beach Florida.  She had some work done to get her ready for Panama (back up generator, watermaker, satellite phone and TV, etc).  We expect that she will be ready to go shortly.  I am attending a convention of sorts this weekend as Allen DeSilva (the Club’s Bermuda captain), Mike Springer (the Club’s Pacific captain) and I descend on South Florida to meet with Jason Doyle and make sure the boat is ready for the trip.

And what a trip it is.  Florida to the Canal is a long, long way.  While Mike has plenty of experience with trips that long, most of the rest of us are more used to the 750 mile run from Bermuda to North Carolina.  I always think of crossings as being like a policeman.  You are going to be bored or scared…and you really hope it works out that you are bored. We expect De Mako will be fishing in Panama by the end of April.  I know several members have expressed an interest in trying to get down there as quickly as they can.  We are looking forward to those first fishing reports!

MAKO, the boat the Club will run in Bermuda, is probably being sanded as we speak.  Let me explain.  MAKO is being built by Sunny Briggs in North Carolina.  The new MAKO is the third boat Sunny built for Allen and me.  If you have ever watched one of these boats constructed, you know that the process is 1/2 sanding, 1/2 everything else.  Sunny, Jeff and the guys are doing a great job pushing to have her done by May 1.  She is going to be pretty!  I can’t wait to see her overboard. We will add pictures of both of the boats when we get back from the upcoming trip.
– Jeff Radke