Costa Rica Fly Fishing Challenge – Tuna, Rainbow Runner
Highlights from our Fly Fishing Tuna and Rainbow Runner trip
We just wrapped up an amazing Fly Fishing Tuna and Rainbow Runner trip off the coast of Costa Rica with our good buddies Jen & Charlie. Two full days of offshore action, chasing species, battling the wind, and making unforgettable memories!
We just finished a couple of days Fly Fishing with our good buddies Jen & Charlie. Day 1 aboard 31’ GOOD DAY & day 2 aboard our new boat, 23’ Regulator KNOT EASY.
We were on a species mission to help the guys add some species to their tally as part of our Fly Fishing Club (CRAFF’s) Annual Species challenge. We searched for current breaks & debris lines, logs, floating trees etc & found plenty! We fished an Offshore reef at 23 miles and another at 32 miles. We chummed at the reefs seeing what we could raise to the surface & fished sinking lines to see if we could connect with anything down deeper where we know there are species galore. We chased a Tuna school for a few hours and we spent time with the big teasers out for Sailfish & Marlin.
It was a fun couple of days, the stiff southerly wind on day 2 gave us a bit of a beating but thankfully calmed down as the day progressed.
Fish of the trip was an epic Tuna on the Fly for Charlie. At 46” long & est. around 45lbs it put Charlie to the test for almost 1.5 hours before finally breaking his 10wt Fly rod. What a battle & memory! Charlie’s new pb Tuna on the Fly.
Charlie caught another nice Tuna on the Fly, we added Rainbow Runner, Bonito, small AJ’s & We raised 1 Sailfish which unfortunately turned away from the teaser at last moment before we could get a Fly to it.
We did not see 1 Dorado which was strange as we stopped at tons of logs / debris over the two days. We cast at lots of trigger fish but no luck on the hookups & Tripletail were not to be seen unfortunately. The guys came super close to catching a stunner Snapper on the Fly which was happily eating our chum but turning away from the Fly at the last second…providing some heart stopping moments.
One of our buddies hooked a Blue Marlin right next to us and we persevered in that area with dreams of catching Jen her first Marlin on the Fly, but it was not to be this time.
A huge thanks to Jen & Charlie for a great couple of days on the water. We had some challenging fishing & weather but it’s always a great time with good vibes!
Tuna on the Fly – Key Moment of the Trip
Benn Gilmour
Owner of Jackpot Sport Fishing in Quepos
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