Pacific sailfish grow larger than the Atlantic sails we’re familiar with in Florida. They’re also a bit more willing to pursue a teaser array.
August 21, 2024
By Jeff Weakley
Late summer is travel season for a lot of Floridians, and for those inclined to spend our PTO in search of billfish, tuna and mahi, Costa Rica is an attractive option. It’s a safe, stable country, geographically almost a mountainous version of Florida.
The country borders two seas on west and east, Pacific and Caribbean, and today has a well-established tradition of sportfishing and associated infrastructure. Spanish is the national language, but English is spoken anywhere there’s hooks in the water.
You can learn a lot down there.
A bird teaser at front of chain kicks up fish-attracting commotion at trolling speed. One thing that’s really interesting in recent years is watching how the crews deal with sharp-eyed pelagic fish in crystal clear water. Fish tend to be aggressive feeders on the upwellings, but they’re also wary. Raising fish to the baits is seldom a problem; getting them to commit takes some stealthy salesmanship.
Advertisement
The crews at Fishing Nosara, in the Guanacaste Province on the Pacific, have implemented some good tricks—many of them applicable in our home waters along the Florida coast.
Teasers are huge part of their fishery—especially bird chains, which may be customized or bought fully rigged. Craig Sutton of Fishing Nosara says one thing the guys down there do that’s a little different is, they add a hookless ballyhoo last in line. The lead bird in the typical chain is wide and skips along, setting the stage for the trailing birds which add additional fish-attracting splash and profile. The ballyhoo, fixed with rigging floss, “gives the billfish a piece of meat to chew on,” Sutton said.
Nosara, Costa Rica Teaser reels: The guys often use lever-drag reels, such as the Shimano TLD50, mounted on the hardtops, to control teasers. The adjustment of drag slippage allows line to pull if a fish grabs a teaser, so it doesn’t feel anything unusual. At the same time, there’s no rush to reel a teaser to the boat. Craig Sutton explains: “Our technique is, when a fish comes to a teaser, we retrieve it slowly, keeping it just out of their reach, fast enough that they can’t get a hold of it—the more passes they make at it, the more aggressive they are when we throw them a pitch bait.”
Advertisement
Speaking of pitch baits, they use light wire hooks, L-series Eagle Claw circle hooks in sizes 7/0 to 10/0, and they go through a ton of them. An important lesson: Replace, don’t re-use, a hook. Light wire makes for efficient hooksets, but after stress, introduces the potential for bending or fracturing.
Ballyhoo are a popular trolling and pitch bait. Keep terminal tackle to a minimum; no swivels or sinkers unless absolutely necessary. (A chin-weight might be added to a ballyhoo rig if greedy seabirds are creating trouble). The effort extends to setting outrigger halyards at an optimal angle so that leaders (100- to 130-pound-test) aren’t visible to the fish.
“We want our baits right on the surface,” Sutton explained. “Everything else needs to be out of the water, when we get those clear, cobalt conditions.”
Small members of the tuna family, bonitos chiefly, and small yellowfins, make excellent baits for pitch-baiting, slow-trolling or bump-trolling. (One choice which wouldn’t translate well for Florida fishing, as yellowfins in our waters must measure 27 inches curved fork length). Tuna tubes are the way to keep baits alive for transport. Craig Sutton has engineered some clever hacks to get the most out of pumps. Initially, he had been in discussion with Hawaiian fishermen who were using 2500 gph pumps to supply sea water to plastic tubes sized for individual containment of small tunas.
When live bait is called for, a rod is ready (tuna tubes on the transom). Sutton, with a background in high-performance automotive engines, reasoned that equivalent velocity might be extracted from smaller pumps, as long as the hydrodynamics were optimized. He uses 1500 gph pumps with no sharp bends in the tubing, which on his boats is 1-inch inner diameter supply tubing necked down to ¾-inch.
“This increases the velocity of the water hitting their gills; if we made it 1-inch the whole way, the fish wouldn’t live as long,” said Sutton. “We’ve replicated this setup on all our boats [five vessels from 23 to 32 feet]. It’s our secret weapon down here.”
The bonitos and small tunas are bridle-rigged to the hooks using loops of rigging thread sewn through the forehead, just above the eye socket.
If you’re heading down to Nosara, you’ll see stuff like this in action, not only on pelagics but also big cubera snappers that storm around on the nearshore reefs and ledges. Charter rates are attractive, with the biggest boat (32 feet) going for $950 per 8-hour day. Arrange all levels of accommodations, from studios to multi-bedroom rental homes. For more, see fishingnosara.com .
This article was featured in the July issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe .
