Shifting Gears, A Return to the Bluewater 1

The gang from the Outdoor Line packs up and heads south to Costa Rica on Sunday to scout out the location of our 2011 Outdoor Line Billfish Tournament. Robbie Tobeck had an excellent trip to Los Suenos just after he retired from the NFL and I've had numerous friends and customers tell me it's "The" place in Central America for both offshore and inshore action. A 5 star resort that close to the best bluewater fishing in the world…damn straight I need to take a "scouting" trip!

Don't get me wrong, I still love salmon and steelhead, but there's just something about a fish that swims as fast as most cars drive that really fires me up. Just to make a point I ran a quick Google search on the inter-webs this morning with the following parameters and this is what I found:

Sailfish Swimming Speed: "In speed trials carried out at Long Key Fishing Camp in Florida, one sailfish was measured at 68 miles per hour (110 kilometers per hour), based on taking out 100 yards of line in three seconds (Martin 2008). This is the highest speed reliably reported in a fish. However, the fish was leaping while its speed was timed, so it does not completely represent swimming speed." Wikipedia 

Marlin Swimming Speed: "Marlins are among the swiftest fish and greatest leapers. While the sailfish are commonly regarded as the fastest swimming fish, the blue marlin offers strong competition. It is one of the few fish that can swim fast enough to eat tuna species on a regular basis. In fact, marlins can attain speeds of up to 50 MPH (80 km/h). Furthermore, when they are hooked on a line, they struggle heroically, sometimes jumping more than 40 times." www.science.jrank.org

Wahoo Swimming Speed: "Wahoo can swim up to 80 km/h (50 mph), Firestein and Walters, 1969. They are one of the fastest fish in the sea." Wikipedia

I was going to search for dorado, tuna, and roosterfish swimming speeds, but A.D.D. set in during the middle of my search and I immediately began packing my tackle and bags to head south. I've seen dorado hit the spread so fast it's a wonder they don't knock themselves out when they hammer the lures and my first roosterfish took me nearly thirty minutes to land on heavy spinning gear. It was only 12 pounds! 

They have excellent offshore gear on the 32' sportfisher we're going to be on for two days and we're throwing in some of our own gear for the half day we have scheduled for inshore species on Monday. I'm packing two heavy spinning rods for poppers and swim baits and a jigging stick with a high speed reel for dropping iron to the bottom. Bringing my own gear on these trips is a habit I have yet to break.

Back in January in Panama I deployed a 6.5" Sebile Magic Swimmer in silver one afternoon for "something different" and a much needed rest for my arms, tired and battered from days of hucking huge poppers into the surf on heavy gear. I thought I'd be safe in the back of the boat. Maybe check out some of the amazing tropical scenery, guzzle down some libations, and go thru the motions for a couple hours while the guys work their butts off with the poppers on the bow. Boy, was I wrong!

The hard plastic jointed lure was getting chased, swatted, and hammered on just about every cast. In just a couple hours I landed a roosterfish, multiple jacks, and several Cubera snapper on the crazy swimming lure while the guys with the usually-productive poppers caught nothing. On one cast a small herd of big, and I mean big roosterfish chased the lure all the way to my rod tip. So much for taking a break.

We ran back to the mother ship at dark and I left my rod with the lure attached to it on deck for the night. When I woke up the next morning the Magic Swimmer was gone. Strangely enough none of our Panamanian captains or crew knew anything about the missing lure. These guys fish out here every day and apparently they saw something they liked and, of course, I only had one of them. 

Outdoor Emporium in Seattle happened to have three of them in stock yesterday and I bought them all. This time they won't leave my sight! 

Sebile's Magic Swimmer, the best inshore lure on the planet!

In addition to the Magic Swimmer's my tackle bag will also contain an assortment of butterfly jigs, Cabo Killers, poppers, and soft plastic swim baits with jig heads. The soft swim baits are great for dorado and tuna and inshore species gobble them up. The only problem with the inshore fishes is that nine bites of out ten they cut the tail off, thus the effectiveness of the jointed hard plastic lure.

By this time next week I'll no-doubtedly have an assortment of bluewater photos for ya'all to digest and perhaps another lure will emerge as "the best lure on the planet"…or at least my planet.