Blue Marlin Tagging Expedition Out of Costa Rica

We have worked on this trip in concept for almost a year and last week “the stars lined up” for our team on the most successful and amazing trip so far. When reliving the fish tagging trip, the overall success was the people that took part in the entire expedition.

We designed the study to answer the question… Are the Blue Marlin being caught well offshore in the rainy season the same body of fish that we are seeing well inshore in the December/January months? When we first began asking this question, many people agreed this was a hot point question and we should try to study this together. The first mention of this work was to Will Drost from Maverick out of Los Sueños Marina. Will had mentioned that his new 50-footer would be ready soon and that he wanted to buy a Sat Tag and go to the sea mounts to deploy it with our team and together try to answer this question with us. Within a week Will sent the funds and a tag was ordered. Once our friend and Board member, Dick Tanner, heard about this program, he immediately said I want to buy the second tag and be involved as well. All throughout the high season we anxiously awaited the time to go and were communicating heavily to set the date which was July 25, 2019.

During the Los Sueños tournament we were sharing with Miss Ashley and Eduardo Lizano the plan we were making for the upcoming season. Mr. Bill Royster and his team said we too want to be a part of this work and they also bought a tag! We were now set to deploy three Psat tags on Blue Marlin and wondered how this would be possible; would it take one day? two days? three days?… while we planned this adventure so many people (board members and sponsors) wanted to know if they could come and be a part of the study, catch these fish, and help deploy the tags as well.

The concept and model for this study has resulted in the most amazing cooperative fish-tagging study ever and we are so happy to share this story with all of you and so thankful for all who took part in making this a reality. I have always believed in having people who pay to support us enjoy the work we do with us.

So, we asked the team led by John Brownlee how can we catch three blue marlin to tag? How can we include a large group to go? How can we make this a reality and share with the world this potentially great expedition? John and the team at Maverick went to work on the idea and came up with a plan that seemed doable; but we were not sure if it would work. The guys offered us two great boats for an overnight trip to the 80-mile sea mount. We were able to invite up to twelve guests. If we covered the hard expenses of the trip, the expense of the boats and crew were on them! In response to so many interested parties, we hopped on the phone and in a few hours the boats were full and we were booking flights.

All throughout last season so many people expressed a desire to join us, however, we have never seen so much interest and commitment from so many.

When we arrived in Costa Rica the adventure began with a blast. Justin Poe from Accurate Fishing Reels was the first to arrive and he planned a surprise welcome dinner at the home of Christian Bolanos (Gray Taxidermy Area Rep to Costa Rica) for all of us. He brought a ten pound rib eye and was waiting for the first group to get in. We were joined by Mr. Stu Webber and Marlon Jacobs (CR Primo sponsor) and Alex Henry (Southernmost Apparel Sponsor) for dinner. We had a great time prepping tackle and telling stories of what we may expect from the upcoming trip. The excitement was so great as we awaited the rest of the team to get in over the next 24 hours. Stu is a five-star chef in California and had no problem doing his thing with the US beef so he became the “go to guy” for the food. The crowd buzzed with a single unanswered question………..What are the chances we can catch three healthy Blue Marlin in one day ?? We all felt this bar was set high but believed in the guys who do this every day once again. Carter Takacs (Board Member) from Marina Pez Vela was also coming and was in constant contact awaiting the trip as we planned to get offshore. We also had the commitment from Tracy Ehrenberg (Board Member and Research Center in Cabo) that she was sending Rebecca from Cabo to come take part because she believes so much in the work we are all doing.

July 24th at 4 p.m. we all came together at the Maverick Center in Los Suenos for a meet and greet and shot a video with the crew of both boats and prepped for a 9 p.m. departure offshore 80 miles. We climbed aboard our allocated boats and were rocked to sleep as we chugged 10 knots offshore all night. The mates were prepping rigs and the excitement filled the room. Our crew was Capt. Carlos Espinoza (Pollo), on boat #1 the 50 ft Sea Fly (donated by Will Drost) First mate was the infamous Jose Zuniga (Poncho) and second mate Esteban Gonzalez (Gallo). These guys are top in their game and we were pumped.

The second boat was the Geaux Fly (donated by Mitch Drost) captained by David Messen and crewed by Dempsy Avila, Eduardo Espinosa (Macho) and Christian (Chimpa).

The expedition was finally happening, and we were steaming to the unknown area where the stories have all been coming from. At 4:30 a.m. I was the first one awake and was soon followed by Pollo and Poncho to get ready. At 5 a.m. we proceeded to deploy bait rigs and awaited the sun to rise in absolutely flat calm waters nearly 100 miles from land. I assisted Poncho in the bait catching project, while he deployed the spread of lures and bait. We got to enjoy about five minutes of quiet before all hell broke loose. Poncho and I were the only two awake at the time and we had two monster Blue Marlin bites and managed to catch and release one of the two before 5:30 a.m. While screaming and yelling the entire team woke up and Alex Henry managed to catch the first blue of the day. On the Sea Fly we managed to get approximately 16 Blue Marlin bites and we caught 12 by 1 pm. We were able to tease one up and hook it on a fly and the countless stories continue from boat one. Our entire team on Sea Fly all managed to a catch Marlin: Carter Takacs had two, Rebecca had three, Alex had three, Gallo caught three and I caught four.

The Geaux Fly (boat #2) we had similar results with a Grand Slam mixed in on their boat. They caught a Blue, Sailfish and Striped Marlin in one pass and tagged them all with GFR green tags. We were able to deploy two Sat tags aboard the Sea Fly and one aboard the Geaux Fly all by 11 a.m.

These sat tags are set for a six-month duration and we will anxiously await the release of the tags and the data to come back to us. We expect some great information on a story that has not been told. We will share it with all of you as soon as it becomes available.

The fishing was epic, the people were exceptional, the crew on each boat were like no other, the boats were first class and the experience was one that I will never forget. Our entire team expressed that they all had the best fishing trip of their life and that they are ready to return. The fishermen running these boats said: “we are family Bill,” “We had the best time ever, and “We are very interested in the tagging results.” The camaraderie was as good as it gets and we are so thankful to all of you who made this work possible.

We posted a small video of our crazy four Blue Marlin bite (at once) and the video has gone viral receiving over 70,000 views in 3 days. Please follow our work and check out the great footage online or on our site.

See the video of one of the Satellite Tag Deployments above.

For more information, to upload tag info, tracking or to name your tagged fish please visit the project directly at www.grayfishtagexpeditions.org